Page 116 of The Glittering Edge

By the time Penny is sitting in her car, she’s beaming. She probably looks unhinged, but that’s fine. Because that feltgood. Jump-off-the-highest-diving-board good.

The hardest thing about anxiety is that it hides who you are. You have opinions and ideas, but they’re locked up like wild horses behind a gate. Whatever you might contribute to the world, good or bad or funny or pointless, it’s hidden from everyone but you.

But what happened a few moments ago felt like coming out of hiding.

As she drives out of the parking lot, hands shaking on the steering wheel, Penny tries to bring her focus back to the task at hand. Curse. Barrions. Blackmail.

In the distance, Barrion Heating & Cooling appears between buildings.

Maybe she’s feeling invincible after having stood up for herself, because Penny turns the Prius onto a street that leads directly to the Barrions’ company. The leftover bravery from her pseudo-confrontation won’t last long, and she needs all the momentum she can get.

If she wants to find out more about what happened between Giovanni and Charles—if the company truly was on the brink of collapse—the answers have to be here. If Penny lies a little, maybe she can find them.

Penny

BARRION HEATING & COOLING’S HEADQUARTERS IS ONE HUGE BUILDING,sleek and white, like a modernist interpretation of a cloud. It’s out of place next to the agriculture and the open sky, but it would stand out even more if the Barrions had put it closer to town, near the weathered brick buildings of downtown Idlewood or the sad, yellowed facade of the Walmart. Out here, the company stands on its own.

It looks noble. Unnerving, too.

Heart racing, Penny turns into the driveway. The security guard stops her, and Penny rolls down the window, trying to smile.

“Hi!” Penny says. “I have an appointment!”

Too much excitement.

“With…?” the guard says, and she only sounds twenty percent suspicious.

“I’m an intern with theIndianapolis Daily,” Penny says. “I’m here to talk to the CFO about a piece we’re doing on Barrion Heating and Cooling. It’s for the business section? I scheduled the interview a few weeks ago.”

Too many details. Penny isnotgood at toning it down.

The guard checks her computer. “Don’t see nothin’ about that, but the CFO’s assistant isn’t great about updating her schedule.”

And then, miraculously, the guard opens the gate.

Sheopens the gate.

“Park in section E,” the guard says. “One of the visitor spots.”

Penny forces herself to drive through at a measured pace, even waving and giving an easy thank-you to the guard. When the gate is far behind her, Penny lets out a half scream, half laugh.

She did it. She actually got in.

After she parks among the rusted trucks and occasional Mercedes, Penny makes her way to what she hopes is the front entrance. There’s no clear signage, but people are filtering in and out of a set of automatic doors, some talking on cell phones and others in small groups, heads bowed, eyes tired. None of them notice Penny.

Apparently these adults don’t follow Dylan on social media.

The inside of the company looks exactly like the outside. The front desk is the same color and shape as the building itself, except it has an engraving on the front:

BARRION HEATING & COOLING: THE ELLIE CAMPUS

Unease crawls under Penny’s skin.

Everything about the building and the lobby is cold. This is the empire Corey is going to inherit one day. No wonder his shoulders sagged as he talked about it. Most people would say he’s lucky, but there are so many people working here, so much history to keep in mind, so much money on the line—in other words, there’s a lot at risk. And that burden will be Corey’s responsibility.

Penny walks to the front desk. Before she can say anything, the receptionist looks up from his computer.

“Penny?” he says.

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