I had a split second to make a decision, and I did the stupidest possible thing:
I lunged through the doors.
They shut behind me immediately.
Shit, shit, shit.
Bad call.
Really bad call.
“NO,”Maverick snarled into my mind.
“It’s too late. Poor decisions were made. Meet me in the lobby. I’m in the elevator with him, and I’ll try to stall.”
Carter’s nostrils flared with disgust that he couldn’t hide.
He had to smell what we’d just done.
I had to be right.
“I’m taking the stairs and sending the security team to meet you in case I don’t make it in time. Don’t even fucking think about dying,”Maverick snarled.
I didn’t take the threat personally. I was also going to be pissed if my stupidity got me killed.
“Nice day, huh?” I asked Carter, rocking lightly on the balls of my feet.
Was I going to confront him?
Hell no.
I hadn’t signed up for that shit.
This wasn’t a cute little murder mystery. If I was trapped alone in an elevator with a devolving, bloodthirsty turned vampire who had already tried to kill me, I wasn’t going to call him out inside the world’s slowest elevator.
I was going to avoid that topic at any cost.
Carter’s gaze was unamused. “Where’s your Alpha?”
Racing down the stairs like he was possessed, probably.
“I think he’s grabbing me some coffee,” I said.
No one ever claimed I was good at lying.
Or under pressure.
It was the middle of the afternoon, so despite the elevator’s slowness, it wasn’t going to make many stops. I had no idea if it would pause at all before it reached the bottom floor.
I counted the dings as the elevator descended.
Twenty-one.
Twenty.
Nineteen.
Eighteen.
