10. Stuck together in the building

10

Stuck together in the building

NICOLE LAMB

Thump.

The building had locked down.

The digital clock on Nicole’s desk read 6:01pm in glowing red letters.

Nicole’s Apple watch slipped on her wrist as she flipped over her arm, praying that the clock was wrong, and read 6:01pm on her watch, too, which meant Sidewinder’s stupid impregnable security system had locked down the building.

Nicole grabbed her purse from her desk and ran out of her office. “We have to get out!”

Behind her, Kingston’s heavier footfalls chased her. “What’s the matter?”

Nicole slapped her dangling mask over her face as she sprinted through the lab. Then, not bothering to take off her paper coveralls, she rushed through the anteroom to the stairs. She flung open the stairwell door and trotted down the stairs, hitting most of the steps but jumping the last few of each flight, and then she raced flat out for the building’s front doors.

The hallways were empty. The receptionist’s desk was empty. The whole building was empty.

She slammed against the glass doors, flailing her whole body as she yanked the door handles, but the doors did not budge.

They didn’t even rattle.

“No!” she yelled at the darned ceiling.

Kingston jogged up beside her. “What’s wrong?”

“We’re locked in!”

Kingston unzipped his Tyvek coveralls and rummaged inside his trouser pockets, finding his phone. “So we’ll call the security company to let us out.”

“They can’t get us out!” she shrieked, yanking on the immobile doors like a toddler dragging on her mother’s leg. Jeez, she needed to regain her composure, but t hey were trapped.

“Who can’t get us out?” he asked.

“The security company! Joe Flanagan made them set a timer so that no one, not even t he security company, can disable it!”

“What? Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know! Industrial spies or people wanting to be paid for overtime? How should I know?”

Kingston glanced at the ceiling, his eyes bunching with worry. “This place isn’t going to release poisonous foam or call the police to swat us, right?”

“No, it just locks down, but we can’t get out!”

“So, nothing bad is going to happen, right? We’re just stuck here for the night.”

“We’re going to be stuck in here all night!”

“Yeah, tomorrow’s Thursday,” he said. “You people work on Thursdays, don’t you?”

“Of course we work on Thursdays!”

“You never know. This is California. But those doors should unlock tomorrow morning to let everybody in, so we can leave then.”

“Yeah, but we’re stuck in here all night!”

“Is there somewhere you’re supposed to be? Doctor’s appointment or something? Hot date?”

“No. I mean, my plants will survive one night without being watered. But this building is holding us prisoner. It’s not right!”

“Then we’ll stage a sit-in. Protests always work.”

She spun around and glared at him, “Why aren’t you freaked out that we’re locked in here all night?”

Kingston shrugged and fished around inside his coveralls and then his trousers pocket for his phone. “Let me see if I can get this sorted with a phone call.” He tapped his phone screen a few times and then spoke into it. “Joe? What’s the code to turn off the security system in this building that used to be yours?”

Nicole gaped at him. “Seriously, you have Joe Flanagan in your contacts? What, is he your buddy or something?”

Kingston held up a finger while he listened, and his eyebrows lowered in a frown. “What do you mean, there’s no way to turn it off?”

Yeah, just like she told him. Maybe he’d believe it now that a man told it to him.

“Won’t the security company see us on the surveillance cameras?” He looked up, his head swiveling wildly as he stared at the corners of the lobby. “You had an eighty-million-dollar-annual company, and you didn’t put in security cameras? ”

Totally on brand for Joe Flanagan, like his buying million-dollar couches for the lobby but not offering vision care coverage on the employee insurance plan.

“There are no surveillance cameras in this whole damned building?” He paused and grabbed his hair on the top of his head like he was pulling it. “Oh, outside, watching the bushes. That’s goddamn useful. What the hell?”

Good thing Joe was Sidewinder’s former owner. Otherwise, Kingston Moore would probably be looking for another sales job.

Weird, though, that he was talking to Joe like an equal, instead of like an employee.

Kingston called across the lobby. “Nicole, is the building’s security system tied into Sidewinder’s business operations intranet?”

She shook her head. “Different companies. Different networks. Our work laptops are walled gardens. We can access the business operations and research web from them, but nothing else. We can’t even watch streaming TV on them. O nly those company laptops can access the company’s system for security. You can’t log in from a personal computer.”

Kingston went back to talking on the phone. “Your security system isn’t tied into your intranet, so your master password isn’t going to help me with the security system or get us out of here. And by the way, that’s a stupid master password. I’ll be changing that tomorrow.”

The conversation grouping of couches and coffee tables was in her way, and she paced around them while she watched him on the phone.

Kingston scowled. “What, did you cheap out again and get the no-technical-support option? What the hell were you thinking?”

At least someone had finally said that to her former boss. It had needed to be said.

Nicole waited, her hands on her hips. The Tyvek coveralls trapped her body heat inside, and she was beginning to steam like she was being baked en papillote.

Kingston’s glower deepened as he talked to her former boss, so Nicole unzipped her coveralls all the way down the inside of her left leg and started peeling them off. The last thing she needed was to develop a rancid case of B.O. when the only bathing facility in the building was the lab’s chemical safety shower that had flooded the laboratory and the entire floor below it that one time Caitlin had accidentally pulled the cord.

As she fought her way out of the papery material that was clinging to her arms and legs like wet tissues, Kingston kept glancing at her out of the corners of his eyes and then hurriedly looking back at his shoes or the opposite wall.

By the time Nicole had gotten the stupid coveralls off, the paper was half-shredded, and she had tweaked her ankle while hopping on one foot and yanking the leg over her dress slacks and navy blue leather Chelsea boots.

When she was free and looked up, Kingston was staring at her while listening to a tinny whisper-babble on his phone.

Nicole blew a random strand of hair out of her eyes and demanded, “Did you enjoy the striptease?”

He instantly looked away, closing his eyes and weaving a bit on his feet. “Joe, I’ll have to call you back.” To her, he said, “I was wondering if I should catch you if you tripped yourself and fell over. Also, that’s a good idea, I’m roasting in these coveralls.”

Nicole gathered her hair back into its customary ponytail while Kingston more elegantly pulled his coveralls off like he was removing a camel hair coat at a country club.

Yeah, she was a slob, but she was a darn fine engineer. “So, did Joe tell you exactly the same thing that I told you?”

He was folding his coveralls as if they weren’t disposable. “I was hoping the previous owner had access that employees didn’t.”

Okay, that was actually logical.

“But he didn’t,” she sighed.

“No, he didn’t. I cannot believe how cavalier he was. Sidewinder’s intellectual property is the company, especially with its super-elite marketing strategy. Anyone could have just broken into the building, walked out with the design specs, and started their own knock-off company with the exact same clubs.”

“Oh, no,” Nicole told him. “The computer system is locked down tight. Joe and I are pretty much the only ones with access to the specs because I don’t put them on the intranet here. I keep all the important data and specs on my hard drive. And Joe should have been locked out when he sold the company. Being onsite wouldn’t make any difference.”

“That’s reassuring,” he said, grumbling.

“But he did tell you we’re hopelessly locked in here, didn’t he?”

Kingston shook his head. “Yeah, but I’m not out of ideas yet.”

Nicole paced the length of the lobby back and forth while claustrophobic panic condensed into words and rattled around her brain.

At the far end, Kingston held up a wall with one hand and made phone calls. “Matilda? I need the name and home phone number of the CEO of Hammerhead Business Security Solutions. Their security system locked me in one of their customer’s buildings.”

Nicole tried to shove the nervous crazy into her feet as she paced. They were going to be locked in there all night. They were never going to get out. She was locked in this building with a guy she didn’t know who might be a serial killer for all she knew, and she couldn’t get out of the building.

This was a horror movie happening to her.

Kingston said into his phone, “Lisa Monro? This is Kingston Moore of Sidewinder Golf. Nice to meet you. Your company built and maintains the security system for our building here in Carlsbad. I need the back-door emergency override code for after the building locks down for the night and the location of the keypad.” He paused. “What do you mean there isn’t one? That’s got to be an OSHA or fire code violation.”

Nicole stayed on the other side of the lobby from him, even though he hadn’t made an untoward move in the very short time she’d known him. Being around somebody in a crowded place of business was entirely different than being isolated and locked in with them.

Kingston dialed someone else. “Arthur, my old chum? Yes, I know it’s really late there in London. I’m really sorry to call you. I am locked in a commercial building in Carlsbad, California. Is there any way you can hack the alarm system so I can leave?” Another pause as Kingston ran his fingers through his dark hair. “No, I wasn’t doing anything like that. It’s, uh, that venture capital firm we know of, Last Chance, bought Sidewinder, and I just happened to be hired by Sidewinder right before the deal went through.” Another pause as Kingston rolled against the wall, holding his dark hair in his grip like he might be pulling it out. “All right, thanks for trying.”

“No, I assume?” she asked.

“Connections aren’t helping. Let’s try— breaking us out of here!”

Nicole sucked air to yell in horror as Kingston angled his tall body and his leg shot out in a powerful side kick to the glass of the building’s front wall.

His foot bounced off.

“Don’t!” she shouted as the ricochet force of his kick knocked him backward, and he flopped to the floor.

He rolled over on his side. “Ow. That always works in the movies.”

She ran over to him because that’s what one does when someone gets knocked down. “Are you okay?”

His scowl at the people on his phone had shifted to the vacant gaze of someone stunned. “That door should be made from shatterproof glass like a car windshield. I thought it would break up into little cubes.”

Nicole squatted down beside him. “It’s bulletproof glass.”

“Why would Joe put bulletproof glass in an office building?” he gasped.

She rolled backward and sat cross-legged on the floor beside him. “He was really paranoid about industrial espionage. Are you okay? You didn’t break your leg or anything, did you?”

Kingston rolled up to sitting and glared at his leg, then gingerly probed his ankle. “Definitely didn’t break it. I went for that side kick, though,” he grumbled. “I thought I would be a hero and rescue the fair princess from the locked dungeon.”

She chuckled at him. “Okay, hero. Let’s get you up and walking around.”

“I’m fine.” He brushed off her hands and tottered to his feet.

Getting all those long bones stacked vertically must be hard. Nicole wasn’t tiny for a woman, but there was just so much more length to every part of Kingston that balancing all those long blocks on top of each other looked unlikely.

But then he was standing up, very tall above where she sat on the floor, and testing his ankle with his weight. “It’s a little gimpy, but it’s fine. My ego may have suffered a mortal blow, though.”

She grinned up at him. “Just goes to show, don’t be a hero, right?”

His eyeroll mocked himself. “Looking at all those Asgardian and Arthurian swords inspired me to stupidity.”

“Many swords and golf clubs have inspired awesome feats of dumb.”

He glared at the front wall. “You think the fire department could get through that glass?”

“No. It’s probably ax-proof, too.”

Kingston’s sharp look held worry in his blue eyes. “What if this building catches on fire? People wouldn’t be able to get out.”

Nicole shook her head and waved her hand. “If the fire alarms go off, all the doors supposedly spring open, even if it’s locked down.”

“Supposedly?”

“That’s what the manual said.”

“I am not reassured.”

“Right? Seems kind of like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.”

Kingston glanced at the ceiling. “Yeah, it does. I was going to suggest setting one of those chairs on fire to activate the fire system and call the fire department.” He gestured toward the blocky blue conversation set on the other side of the glassed-in lobby. “But I don’t think we should risk burning to death in case the manual was wrong.”

“Yep. That manual was sketchy as heck.”

“Oh, that does it. That lockdown system will be disabled tomorrow morning. This is unsafe, and no employee of muh —” Here, he coughed. “—of Sidewinder Golf should be endangered by the damned building.”

Nicole laughed at him. “The new owners are venture capitalists. They don’t care if we live or die. They might even burn down the building for the insurance money. Joe might have even had it scheduled and forgotten about it in the deal.”

He looked around the lobby like he was scanning for arsonists. “What?”

“It’s just a joke. I’m sure they won’t burn it down,” she sort-of lied. Probably not right then, anyway.

“Yeah,” Kingston said, but he was still watching. “Okay, nothing we can do about it tonight. I would offer to order supper in, but I don’t see any way the delivery person could get the food in here. There isn’t even a mail slot in the door for them to shove French fries through one at a time.”

Nicole hadn’t even thought about food. “We can just smash the glass of those vending machines and take anything we want. Really, who’s going to stop us?”

“I like the way you think. As we don’t seem to have a choice in where we are camping out tonight, it seems like we can either pound on the glass of the front wall until our fists are bloody, or we can turn it into A Night at the Museum.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean the golf clubs will come to life and attack us?”

“I mean we can eat candy for dinner and then play with golf clubs in the simulators until we get tired, and then we can crash on the couches until the stupid alarm system turns itself off tomorrow morning.”

“The downstairs break room has better candy in their machines than up in our tech room. Let’s start there, but I think there was only one Snickers bar left.”

He offered her his hand to help her up off the floor, so Nicole reached up and clasped his fingers with hers.

The palm-to-palm touch was a smooth ripple of a shock up her arm and over her skin to the back of her neck, like maybe the stupid security system had electrified the floor and their hands had completed the circuit.

As she stared up into his Mediterranean Sea-blue eyes, his gaze was perfectly level, like he hadn’t felt anything.

She was just imagining things. There couldn’t be any other explanation, right?

A trace of a smile curved Kingston’s lips. “Ready?”

“Uh-huh.”

His strength lifted her off the floor so fast that a tiny part of her brain conjectured that the wind had blown her to her feet, but Kingston helped her settle and said, “Let’s go forage for M&Ms.”

“Sure.”

And yet she was entirely discombobulated and couldn’t figure out what to do.

She was still holding Kingston Moore’s hand, his warm fingers wrapped around hers.

“You steady? You bobbled there,” he said.

“Um, yeah?”

She was still clinging to his hand because she—she— she liked it.

He frowned and tilted sideways to look at her legs. “Did your feet fall asleep while you were criss-cross-applesauce?”

“No, I’m fine.”

He straightened and regarded their hands, where she was still hanging onto him. “You’re sure?”

Her body wanted to flow toward his like he was giving off gravity waves.

But she was still clinging to his hand like a weirdo.

Nicole opened her hand like she was flicking goo off her fingers. “Thanks for the help up!”

Kingston looked at his hand like maybe she’d crushed it. “I’ll arm-wrestle you for the last Snicker bar.”

Hold his hand and strain against his strength, even if she was going to lose the arm-wrestling contest in a flash? Yes, please. “You’re on.”