Page 223 of Rock Chick

I blinked at him and stared.

I was in the surveillance room and had fallen asleep in my chair.

Ally and I had made the wrong decision. Thewaywrong decision.

The surveillance room might seem cool, but spend more than fifteen minutes in it and it was boring as hell. I wasn’t into that kind of thing, but after thirty minutes of staring at pretty much nothing happening on the monitors, I was praying for some poke-the-nanny action just for a little excitement.

“Let’s go,” Vance said.

I looked around. I had no idea what time it was, but I figured it was late. Monty was gone and Ally and I were alone in the room. Ally was staring at Vance. Even in all my years of knowing her, I noticed she was staring at Vance with a new look, one I’d never seen before. It was an oh-my-God-that-guy-is-hot mixed with an oh-my-God-what-the-fuck-is-going-on look.

My eyes turned to Vance and he was not in a flirting, grinning, hot guy mood. He was in a serious, badass, hot guy mood.

“Where’s Lee?” I asked.

“Out,” Vance replied and that was all I was going to get, and the way he said it made me decide not to go for more.

I stood, and as I did Vance got tense. His body turned so he was facing the closed door as well as standing in front of me, and his hand went to a gun holstered at his belt.

We heard a violent thud on the wall outside the door and a muted exclamation of pain.

My mouth dropped open and I stared at the door.

Ally came up beside me and she stared at the door.

Vance listened (also staring at the door).

After a while, there was silence. Vance relaxed and nodded to us.

He left the room.

We followed.

The place was darkened but not dark. The light on Dawn’s desk was burning and the overhead lights were on but muted. The office seemed somehow sinister. There was not a good vibe in the air.

We ran into Brody in the parking garage.

“Hey!” he yelled, trotting up to us, all excited and happy, and definitely not feeling the sinister vibe. “Guess what? Monty called and he’s letting me do the surveillance room.” Brody lifted a plastic bag filled with cheese puffs and energy drinks. “All night. I’m, like, one of the guys!”

“Righteous, Brody,” Ally said quietly, definitely attuned to the sinister vibe.

“You guys want to do the shift with me? It’ll be cool. We’ll order pizza.”

“No,” Vance said, and Brody’s eyes swung to him.

“No?” Brody asked.

“No. No pizza and no visitors. The office is no longer safe,” Vance replied.

Brody got pale.

Ally took in breath.

I forgot to breathe.

What on earth did that mean?

Vance kept speaking. “You lock down the surveillance room once you enter it. Watch the screens, field the calls and that’s it. You don’t open the door unless you get the code.”

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