The giant went to the camera I had skillfully disengaged with my new cat burglar prowess and tech-wit.
“And somebody unplugged the camera.” More static and indecipherable talk. “Yeah. Yup. I’ll sweep the perimeter.”
Oh, that sounded fancy. I would be stealing that—sweep the perimeter.
Benny Jr. must be on to me. Maybe I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought in this last-minute strategy to change my life. An urge to quit this all had me almost stepping forward and giving myself up. I’d been caught.
But then I thought of Jane Smith.
I recalled how my boss had forgotten about me and how my best friend was moving on in his life. (Not that it was Deckard’s job to keep track of me.) Or how my parents rarely checked in with me. All the tiny little microaggressions of a town I’d grown up in.
I wouldn’t be a ghost in my own life.
I stepped back into the darkness. I re-engaged stealth mode as I crept silently on creaking floors to the back hallway with the bathrooms. If he was looking for an intruder, I’d just lay low until he got bored and left. Hopefully, whoever was here would have the decency to assume that the women’s room was off-limits.
And if anybody did go in there? Well, I’d just have to attack him and hide the body.
Just kidding, just kidding. I’d figure out a way to get him out of my hair.
Speaking of …
I had a plan to stick to. And phase one of that plan involved a haircut. Aside from the colorful outfits nobody noticed, I often wore my long chestnut hair in fancy braids or twists. It flowed down to my lower back at this point when not done up. And what was the most dramatic thing a lady experiencing a life change could do?
Give herself bangs.
Yes, that was right—a haircut up here at the top of the mountain. If I was going to change everybody’s perception of me, I had to start with the physical traits.
I set down my overnight bag and nodded at my reflection in the mirror. My brown eyes gleamed with excitement. I pulled out the small black kit from my bag, spread out a towel around my shoulders, and pulled out my tools.
Big moves started with big actions.
I snapped the scissors twice to test the metal tongs just pulled from the utensils’ drawer.
I’d seen a video where a girl cut her own bangs, so I was fairly certain I could figure it out. I sectioned my hair in half vertically, the opposite of pigtails, so that my long hair stuck straight out of the top of my head. I bobbled my head back and forth so the ponytail spilled like a fountain around me.
“Here we go.” I let out a breath and brought the scissors to my head. “New Year, New Bee: Act One.”
Chapter 4
Owen
My hopesthat this would be a quick in-and-out job were dashed before I even got up the mountain.
Azi, the operator at the base, shot me a weary look before opening the doors.
“Benny Jr. called me. Pissed I had to come in but sucks worse for you, Soupy,” he said, slightly slurry and bleary-eyed. A red flag that he’d been called in from whatever festivities he’d been partaking in.
Soupy was another charming take on my nickname. Any sympathy I had for him being hauled into this shit show went out the window. And anyway, he wasn’t the one who had to be hauled up the side of a mountain in a growing storm in an oversized tin can held on by a string.
My face must have done something scary because he shrank back. I couldn’t help it. It was an ingrained defense mechanism. The twentysomething went to the panel, avoiding my gaze.
“Radio on?” I asked, looking down at him.
“Yeah. As soon as it’s cleared, I’ll bring you back down. Don’t take too long. I don’t like the look of this storm.”
Another red flag. I sighed out my flared nostrils.
“I-I told Benny I wasn’t sure this was a good call, but you know how he is.” Azi scratched at the back of his neck.
