Page 102 of The Suit

“Lady, get out. I’m causing a traffic jam. You wanna sit in here, I’ll start the clock again and find somewhere else to stop.”

I threw him a dirty look and got out behind Grannery who was waiting for me with more patience than the cab driver had. I looked up; the enormous steel building was practically touching the sky. I remembered the first day I walked in, vowing that one day I really would be high up enough where I could touch it. That day never came, even though my office was on the sixtieth floor.

Maybe I was lucky that I’d never made it to partner, because if I had…

“Ready?” Grannery snapped me out of my daydream.

I managed to swallow before my throat closed up completely. “Yeah.”

“I’ll see you by the Bean in forty-five minutes.”

“Okay.” I didn’t look back at her as I strode purposefully toward the building, in exactly the way old Beulah would have done, phone in hand scrolling through emails so no one tried to talk to her.

Except now I didn’t want to look at my emails. I only wanted to hear from Rafe, hear his voice. I typed out another text message to him and pressed send, which made it eleven in a row, unanswered.

Maybe he’d blocked me.

I followed his with an update text to Kit, the only person I knew who’d actually care about what I was doing. The elevator ride was too short, the ding of my floor coming too quickly.

I stepped out; the floor seemed too quiet for a Thursday afternoon, at least I think it did, though couldn’t be sure as DEFCON FIVE levels of paranoia had set in. I wasn’t even that certain I was walking properly down the corridor.

Did my steps look suspicious?

Did I usually swing my arms when I walked?

Did I walk with my head up?

Where the fuck was my office? I froze, only for the panic to lessen a fraction when I realized I was standing outside of it.

“Hi, Beulah, I thought you were still in New York. Blake’s still in New York, I just spoke to him. Is he supposed to be here?”

I jumped and may have screamed slightly, turning round to find Mackenzie Peters, Blake’s assistant, standing right behind me.

“Jesus, creep much?” I snapped, then felt guilty but stopped myself from apologizing because old Beulah would never be so polite, or human.

“Right, sorry. I just wasn’t expecting you.”

“It’s fine, I just came to pick up some…” Shit why didn’t I have a story about picking something up. Fuck, Beulah. Think! “I needed to come back for my apartment and dropped in for an hour to take a call. Please make sure I’m not disturbed.”

I didn’t wait for her to respond and stepped into my office, closing the door behind me, almost sliding down to the floor while my nerves recuperated, not that I had any time for them to do so. According to my watch I needed to be back out with Grannery in twenty-four minutes.

This had better work.

When Diggs had returned with my laptop, he’d been accompanied by one Agent Parker from the FBI tech lab who’d then given me a crash course on the minimal amount of data I needed to secure in order for them to get a warrant, and how to do it. The how part basically entailed me giving them access to the firm’s system. All I needed to do was attach my laptop to the internal network, then Parker would do the rest through a program he’d set up on my desktop.

I scrambled up to standing, then rounded my desk and did as I’d been instructed, sticking the USB drive into the port. Almost immediately the little mouse arrow zoomed across the screen and Parker took control. The screen changed to something I’d never seen before, and I watched as he pulled up the files I didn’t have access to; the urge to vomit getting stronger with each one he opened. Thank fuck my office walls weren’t glass or I’d have been spotted immediately as a traitor, given I was now sweating profusely.

In less time than I had expected, a little message box popped onto the screen, and I waited as a message typed out telling me he was done, and I could go.

I’d never left anywhere quicker. Not last week when I’d run from the office to hide, not even on Monday from the baseball where all I wanted was to put distance between Rafe and me so I could think with a clear head. It seemed I’d spent most of the last few weeks running from him, and now all I wanted was to run to him.

I made it to the Bean as fast as my heels would carry me, spying Grannery on a bench nearby with a coffee cup in her hand.

“Here.” I thrust the USB at her, as I gasped for breath.

She took it and dropped it in her coffee cup, as instructed, then hit speed-dial on her cell. “Diggs? You got what you needed? Yes, good… yes. We’re heading back to New York tonight; you can contact Beulah through me.” She dropped her cell back into her bag when she was done, then peered up at me over her glasses, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Come on, that was the most fun I’ve had in years. We both deserve a drink, then we’ll head back to New York.”

Though I was desperate to get out of this city and return to New York, I had unfinished business in Chicago. Namely the packing up of my apartment - including my shoe collection - and handing it over to a realtor to sell. I would have done it without visiting one last time, but there were some items in there I couldn’t replace – my old law books, Muscot’s gavel, and all of Jackson’s old storybooks to name a few. I also wanted to drop into the children’s hospital.

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