Page 51 of A Man of Wealth

“Any idea what happened?” the man asks into a microphone on his uniform.

“No. Could just be a power glitch. I’m having the system checked now.”

“Ten-four,” he says as he walks right past the aisle where we are and continues on toward the river.

I feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as we cautiously make our way past these containers to a more open area filled with refrigerated containers. Even if we find a container with the proper markings, we’ll have to get inside and look for boxes containing the vials. My heart sinks at the near impossibility of finding what we’re looking for amongst all of these containers.

“Now what?” I ask as I look up at the containers that are stacked two stories high.

“We start here and work our way back,” Conner states as he looks up and down the row.

We continue walking, row after row, pausing with each little sound. We pass one more guard and continue. The minutes turn into an hour and then another.

When we reach the last row, Conner slams a fist into his thigh in frustration. “Damn it!” he whisper-yells.

He pulls his phone out. “It’s not here,” he mutters.

“I don’t know. It’s just not here. Yeah, we’ll make our way back over there.” He hangs up and looks at me. But an idea has me grabbing his arm.

“What?” he asks.

“Does your dad transport anything else that’s valuable, like really valuable?”

“I guess.”

“No, like precious gems or stuff like that?” I ask.

“Shit, I don’t know, Vivienne. I have no clue what he transports nowadays.”

I nudge him and point to a building. There’s a guard standing out in front of it.

“If I had something that I didn’t want anyone to find, I’d keep it well protected, wouldn’t you?”

“That’s my dad’s office. I mean, in the rare times he actually is here,” Conner grumbles.

“Sounds like a good place for illegal drugs.”

“He’s not going to keep them in there.”

“Why not? You just said he’s never here. He has it protected. For what purpose? Something has to be there,” I point out as I motion again to the building.

“Well, even so, if I take out that guard…there’ll be hell to pay.”

I freeze. “What do you mean, take out the guard? Would you actually kill him?” My eyes widen and Conner steps us back against a row of barrels boarding the containers.

“If killing that man over there meant protecting you, I absolutely would do it without any reservations.”

“Awww…chivalry isn’t dead after all,” I say, my voice laced with sarcasm. “No need to murder a man. I have an idea.”

“No,” Conner states.

“No? You don’t even know what the idea is.”

“No. Just the answer is no.”

“Too bad. We need in there. Once I distract the guard, get in there and see if there’s anything we need. I’ll meet you back at the car,” I say as I run over to the fence closest to us that runs along the back of the building where the guard is standing. I scale it quickly, doing my best to not get caught by the barbed wire. Lucky for me, we had both fences and barbed wire on the horse farm growing up, so I’m capable of climbing over it without cutting the shit out of myself. I start running and then fall and cry out in pretend pain.

And like a fucking charm, the guard sprints to the side of the building and sees me.

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