Page 86 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Scarlet, are you alright? Can you hear me?” Helena called to the older woman, whose lead lolled as her breathing becamestrained.

Yosef yanked out an oxygen tank from under the desk, his fingers desperately working through the tangle of tubes to get tothe mask.

“Hold this to her face.” He handed the mask off as he made adjustments to the tank’s meter and turned onthe air.

Almost instantly, Scarlet opened her eyes as shebreathed.

“Slowly, slowly,” Yosef said as she jerked. After a moment, Scarlet’s eyes cleared of confusion, then she reached up and slipped the strap to hold the mask on overher head.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” she cursed. “We don’t have timefor this.”

“No,” Yosef said in no uncertain terms as Scarlet reached for the brake on her wheelchair, as if she intended to roll away from her problems. “You’re not going anywhere. I’m going to call Dr. Phelps.”

“No, don’t do that!” she insisted, reaching again for the oxygen tank in order to put it in its bag on her chair, but Yosef pulled it out of her way and handed it to Helena.

“Put your foot in front of the wheel and don’t let her leave,” he said, turning angrily to go back to his desk where he had tossed his phone in his panic.

“You can’t hold me here!” she growled after him. “You’re fired. Youhear me!”

“Fine,” he shouted back, unphased by her empty threat as he unlocked his phone and tapped quickly untilit rang.

“Helena, we can’t… It’s tonight! There is still so much to do,” Scarlet said, pleading with her other subordinate where shouting had failed with the first. Yosef’s voice carried low and urgent as he talked to the doctor.

Scarlet’s head lolled again for a second before she snapped it back up. “Dammit. This isn’t how it’s going to end. I won’tallow it!”

“I’ll take care of it,” Helena assured her. “We’re almost done. I can handle the last of the details. I’ll go over right now and double check everything while you talk to the doctor and get checked out. It’ll be fine. Then you can meet me over at the ballroom.” Helena hoped she wasn’t lying, but it seemed to placate Scarlet as she turned to watch Yosef, who was dragging out the massage table while he still spoke to the doctor.

“They’ll take me away and put me in a bed, and I’ll never get out again,” Scarlet said fearfully. “I don’t want to die onmy back.”

“You won’t die on your back,” Helena said. “They’ll have to drag you off kicking and screaming.”

Scarlet looked up at her. “Damn right they will.” The thought seemed to calm her down, and she reached up to Helena’s hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Get going. I’ll stay here and comply. Just don’t let me down,my girl.”

The pain in Helena’s chest finally eased and she nodded.“I won’t.”

Yosef returned and took over guarding Scarlet as Helena moved back toher desk.

Finding her elegant kitten-heeled shoes, Helena bundled herself into her coat and adjusted her hair before gathering up everything she needed to take with her. She had someone in the office call her a cab to take her over to the venue and gave instructions to the rest of the office, three of whom were joining her on the crossing over. Before they left, Scarlet’s doctor and nursing assistant arrived, beelining to her office with grave looks that spread tension to the rest ofthe room.

“Hey, everybody. Everything is fine,” Helena said, commanding all eyes to her and hoping she was doing it the way Scarlet would have.

“Is Ms. Scarlet alright?” one of the office workers asked, glancing nervously toward her office.

“It’s a big night tonight, and the doctor is insisting on checking her vitals before giving his approval for her to go over. It’s just for insurance reasons,” Helena lied. But her lie worked and the room all nodded, shoulders dropping as they accepted that reason. “Believe me, Scarlet is furious.” That got her a few chuckles, everyone’s belief at their boss’s feistiness holding true. “Alright, so we got our jobs to do. We can’t let Scarlet down. I’m heading over now, and Yosef is helping with the checkup so any further questions or emergencies, forward tomefor now. Let’s give Scarlet a chance to get her game face on and show her what we can do.”

That rallied the troops nicely, and Helena actually felt confident as they headed on down the elevator and out to the waiting cab.

She could do this. It was all going to bealright.

The other three in the cab with her were chattering away when the first rush of calls came to her phone. To her surprise, it was an unknown number.

“Hello, is this Madame Helena?” a familiar voice asked on the other end.

“Yes, it is. Whois this?”

“It is Éliott from Tower Top Restaurant. I served you when you were here.”

“Oh, yes, I remember you. Éliott, howare you?”

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