Page 66 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“I don’t know,” she nearly shouted.

“Then tell me why you were with them in the middle of the night. The whole building was shut down aside from the cleaning crew, yet you walked out with them.”

Her mouth opened, then shut quickly.

“I know you went your separate ways after you left. Was the job over?”

“Job?” She finally looked up at me, her eyes pinched in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“You tell me. The power goes out in the city. This building is on a backup generator, yet it never came on. Then you walk out of this building with five men, and let’s face it, none of them are good guys. So, why were you with them?”

“I wasn’t with them,” she reiterated. “It’s just a picture. It doesn’t tell you anything!”

I leaned forward, a smirk on my face. “Actually, it tells me a lot. I can tell from these photos by your stance that you’re very uncomfortable. You’re waiting to get away from them.” I pulled out a photo that I hadn’t yet shown her. She was at the end of the block, but I could see her peeking around the corner looking at them. “And this one tells me that you wanted to make sure they left. Why?”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“Why did you need to make sure they left? Did you have someone else to report to?”

“No,” she said incredulously. “I didn’t know any of them!”

I slammed my hand down on the table, getting angrier by the second. “Then tell me what you were doing with them!”

“I was just in the building! I cleaned the third floor. That’s it,” she said, her voice shaking. “One of them got stuck in an elevator with me when the power went out.”

I watched her carefully, then pulled out the photo of her with the man that touched her. “This man?” She swallowed hard, her eyes locked on his face. “What’s so important about this man?”

“Nothing,” she said quietly. “He…he was in the elevator with me and he kept me calm. That’s all that happened.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, leaning back in my seat as I assessed her. Part of her story was true. I could see it in her eyes, but the rest of her body language screamed that she was holding back. She blinked too often, and her fingers pulled at the hem of her shirt. She bit her lip, like she was trying to hold something back. She definitely knew this man, and she was protecting him. But why?

“Who is he to you?”

“I just met him that night. I swear.”

“Why do I not believe you?”

Something washed over her at that moment. Her spine stiffened and she finally met my eyes. She was shutting down. “I don’t care what you believe or don’t believe. I don’t know that man, or any of the rest of them. I met them that night, we walked out together, and I went home.”

“Then why did you stop and stare at them?”

She faltered for just a moment, but then resigned herself to holding firm. “I want to go home.”

“Well, that’s just too damn bad. You’re involved in a domestic terror threat, and until you provide proof otherwise, you’re not going anywhere.”

I stood and walked out the door, slamming it behind me.

24

BETH

I wasstupid to follow him here, to think that he could protect me. And now he was accusing me of being part of some domestic terror threat. I paced the small room, chewing my nails as I tried to figure out what I was going to do. I briefly thought about telling them what I knew about the men, but wouldn’t that make me complicit? I had followed them around the building. I knew they were bad men, yet I didn’t do a thing about it. And when my boss wanted more information, I didn’t tell him either.

The problem was, my boss was hiding something too. Maybe it was sensitive information that he didn’t want getting out, but I couldn’t be sure. Every person I ran into seemed to want something from me, and I couldn’t figure out which was the right side to be on.

The door swung open and another man walked inside, the same man that got himself tangled in the ropes of the training center. “Ma’am,” he said, tipping his imaginary hat.

I stared at him warily. He was smiling at me, and that made me uneasy. Was he here to kill me? I stepped away from him, sure I was about to be killed. “What do you want?”

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