Page 10 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
Keeping one eye on the rest of the hallway, I pressed in close to the glass enclosure. And didn't see squat other than the flickering screens. There wasn't a neon sign with blinking arrows pointing to last night’s security footage, which was bullshit. So it was a good thing I was good at finding things.
But the glass enclosure was a problem because then someone who happened along would clearly see I didn't belong once I was inside. Oh well. That couldn't be helped. Besides, this place seemed deserted.
After a quick glance to see if the door was alarmed—it wasn’t—I opened it and slipped inside. It smelled like burnt coffee in here and month-old cheese. A long desk sat underneath the computer monitors, and waist-high cabinets stretched along three walls. Maybe the recordings were stored in there, or maybe the same tape was still recording from last night.
I opened the first cabinet to my left, but only office supplies filled it, some of which spilled out. I shoved those back in and then opened the second cabinet.What looked like neatly labeled CD cases were jammed inside on two shelves, all arranged by day from what I could tell. None of them were this week, but they were in the near past. I was getting closer…maybe.
I closed that cabinet and opened the next one.
Movement like a shadow passed beyond the glass enclosure.
Without thinking twice, I dove inside the cabinet, folding myself and my dress up tight on top of the second row of cases, and closed the door as much as I could behind me. My heart slammed a wild beat between my ears and drowned almost everything else out for several seconds. Except the loud creak of the chair in front of the computer monitor. Someone was here with me.
Panic coated my tongue with a bitter taste.
Shit.
It would be okay.
Fucking hell.
Itwasokay.
I'd been in this same position many times before—trapped. Cornered. Bent into cramped spaces. I could get out of this, but not before I found what I was after. I took as deep a breath as I dared to, letting the air collect into a ball of courage inside me, and fumbled for my tiny flashlight taped to my thigh as quiet as I could.
A sound like a cabinet opening on the opposite wall sounded. And then shut. Then another opened.
Someone was looking for something. Someone who didn't seem to know where exactly they should be looking. Someone like me.
I needed to find the video footage first and then get the fuck out.
The other cabinet closed. Another opened.
Who was in here with me?
Aiming away from the cabinet doors, I cupped my fingers around the head of the flashlight and flicked it on. A red beam glowed through my fingers, barely enough to see by, especially when what I needed to see was underneath me. The cases I lay on were made of hard plastic and packed in tight, and my angle from on top of them prevented me from seeing their spines. So I carefully thumbed the corner of one of them up and out to read the date taped to the spine with help from my cupped flashlight. Weeks ago. What if I was in the wrong cabinet?
The door to the glass enclosure opened with a loud swish of air.
"Night shift’s done, so you can go,” a male voice said. “I feel like trash from no power surge. Any word on that? I left as soon as Léas did. Fuckingweirdwhat happened last night. And what’s with the wasted dragon fire searching me out on the first floor?”
Silence, long and uncomfortable.
As quiet as I could, not daring to breathe, I checked more dates on the CD spines.
“Oh…are you near here?” the guy asked. “I haven't seen you around."
No answer. Not one that I could hear anyway.
I kept searching dates.
"You don't have a security badge," the guy said. "Did you forget it? I leave mine in the bathroom all the time."
The chair creaked. Something crashed to the floor, followed by a whiff of sugary coffee. A snap sounded, too loud, too punctuated with broken bones, then a thud.
I gasped. I know I did. My eyes watered at the horror of what was happening, what had already happened, on the other side of the cabinet door. My body locked up tight, completely frozen with terror. I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, like I was being smothered with ice. There was a murderer within feet from me. I could only imagine what they'd do if they found me hiding here. Sure, I was armed, but what had happened outside the cabinet doors was instantaneous. Faster than me grabbing for the pistol and aiming, not when I was folded up tight searching with a flashlight.
Something dragged across the floor outside toward the computer monitors.
