Page 10 of The Key to Fear
It doesn’t get blacker thanthat.
Preston’s strong jaw twitched.“That’s Council Leader Darby, Blair.Council.Leader.Darby.” He thrust his coffee mug for emphasis.Brown droplets sloshed onto the pristine floor.“I worked hard for the title.”
Blair tightened the corners of her snarl into a broad smile.If Preston Darby had ever worked for anything, Blair wasn’t quite sure what it had been.All he had to do to attain his title was draw breath and walk around Westfall as a more handsome,clone-likeversion of his father, who had been Council Leader until his untimely death.
Preston clicked the heels of his shiny black boots and nodded over his shoulder at theglass-encasedaudience staring wide eyed at the scene unfolding outside Dr.Cath Scott’s door.The list of people who could admonish Blair was a short one, and Preston Darby was near the top.“Wouldn’t want the masses to think the Council has gonesoft.”
“Soft, you?Never.I’m sure you’re hard in every way that matters, Council Leader Darby.”
“Well, I, uh...”He cleared his throat and took a quickdrink.
Getting a reaction from Preston Darby had always been easy.So easy that it hadn’t been fun since he’d dissolved into a mushy bag of snot and tears during their final year of schooling.That last semester had shone a spotlight on Blair.The corporation had been correct when they’d chosen her for leadership training.Blair had been named the Key’s student body liaison and, in all of her correspondence with the corporation, he’d been listed as Preston Derpy.It hadn’t even been Blair’s mistake.It had been their virtual assistant’s.Blair just didn’t correct it.
The door slid open behind her and Cath’s crone assistant made a small coughing noise.“You can go in now, Ms.Scott.”
Blair nodded.The assistant’s timing had been perfect.Perhaps Blair should learn her name...“If you’ll excuse me, Council Leader, I have a meeting to—”
“I saw your broadcast,” he boomed with another surge of his mug.“It was—” He paused, tilting his head from side to side as if weighing his words.“Let’s just say you can tell it was your first time.But don’t worry, Blair.Practice makes perfect.”He took another drink, the corners of his lips curving into a grin around the mug’s black rim.
Heat painted Blair’s stomach.Derpy was upping hisgame.
Blair scanned the sets of eyes patiently peering from their glass boxes.She could practically feel gossip churning inside them.Did you hear what the Council Leader said to Ms.Scott?No one talks to her like that.And then she ran away to her mom’s office!
That couldn’t be the office chatter.Itwouldn’tbe.Blair slid her tongue across herlips.
“You’ll have to forgive me, Council Leader.I was taken aback by your gorgeous shoes.”She pressed her hand against her chest and peered inquisitively down at Preston’s petite feet.“It’s about time a designer came out with a line of heels formen.”
Nowthatwould make for some excellent officegoss.
Coffee sloshed to the tiled floor as Preston whipped around toward the bubbles of laughter erupting from the glass boxes behindhim.
Blair’s prey was wounded, but she needed Council Leader Preston Darby dead.Figuratively, of course.“They’re beautiful, Council Leader, just beautiful.”Blair squatted as much as her slim skirt allowed.“Is that atwo-inchlift?I’ll have to see if they have them in mysize.”
Preston’s face lit up stoplight red.“This is the last time you make a fool of me.”More coffee leapt from his mug as he clicked off toward the elevators.
Blair smoothed out her skirt, nodded at Cath’s assistant, and strode into her adoptive mother’s office.A chorus of laughter erupted as the door slid closed behind her.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Blair.”Cath tapped her pursed lips with her index finger, her perfectly manicured KeyCorp–rednails in stark contrast against her pale lips and whitedesk.
Blair waved away the comment.“Preston deserved it.”She fluffed her wild curls over her shoulder.“I don’t know who that short little gnome thought he was talking to.”
Cath hid her smile behind her fingertips.“He can make your life more difficult.And Denny’s.”
Blair snorted.If Preston Darby dared to mess with her brother, she’d have his tiny feet stuffed and mounted.
Cath chuckled lightly.“Short little gnome...”
Blair ran her fingers over the cracked spines of the reference books lining Cath’s bookshelves.“Didyouhappen to see my broadcast?”Blair pressed each word against the back of her teeth, forcing them out slowly, subtly, as if that one question hadn’t been the reason for her visit.“I feel like it went okay,” she continued, strangling her footsteps the same way she choked her words, with practiced ease.“I didn’t have a prompter or anything.There wasn’t time.But I guess thatisthe nature of an emergency.I ended up having to wing it.”She came to the end of the bookshelf and flicked an invisible speck of link from her fingertips before making her way to Cath’s desk.“Any thoughts?”
Blair clamped her mouth shut as anxiety clacked her teeth together.If she could reach inside herself and punish her nerves, she would.She hated the way they popped beneath her skin, the pressure building until she felt like she might explode if she didn’t vent.And her currentgo-towas Cath.Who was she kidding?Hergo-towas always Cath.It had been since Blair had turned thirteen.Since her parents—
Blair shook her head.There was no point in thinking about the past.She wasn’t there.She was here.She was now.“The whole time I was up there I was thinking about what you would have said and what I as a citizen would have wanted to hear from you, a Key representative.No one helped me.My assistant pulled me out of my meeting, gave me bullet points, and next thing I knew there was a camera in myface.”
Cath patted her desk.“Sit.Relax.”She smoothed out the crisp sleeves of her blouse.“You didfine.”
Blair slid into one of the uncomfortable chairs facing Cath’s desk.“Justfine?I suppose my inflection was a little off...Like I said, I didn’t have time to prepare.”
A soft grin creased the corners of Cath’s warm brown eyes.“You delivered the message well.It was clear and concise.”
