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ChapterSixteen
Monday morning, as she strolled through the hallways at work, Journey had a little more pep in her step. The weekend had been a roller-coaster of emotions, with the shooting and several arguments with Laz, but as of last night, she felt better than she’d felt in a long time. Sure, she still had a murder case to deal with, but as long as she and Laz were on good terms, she could handle everything else.
“I don’t know, Journey. I’m having second thoughts about our agreement from earlier,” Angelo said. He and Nelson were her shadows for the day. “Laz wants us to keep you in our sights at all times.”
The mention of Laz made her think about how he had snuck back into the crash room just before daybreak. She’d heard him on the phone in the middle of the night, but she had drifted back to sleep before getting a chance to question him about the call. Whatever he’d been up to had gotten him riled up, and he was mentally distracted until they arrived home. Once there, he had showered and fell into bed from exhaustion.
“So, since we can’t keep an eye on you from the hallway, we need to come up with a plan.”
Journey sighed. This was new territory for her. She wanted to be as cooperative as possible. Especially since Laz was concerned that whoever had come after him might come for her next. Still, she couldn’t live inside of a bubble. That was impossible with the type of work she did.
“I know it’s not the ideal situation,” she said, “but my office deals with highly confidential information. Though I trust you guys completely, you can’t just be hanging around.”
“How about we make a decision after we see the layout. Then we can have a better idea of what we’re dealing with,” Nelson suggested. His raspy voice sounded almost like he was a smoker, but according to Laz, the man didn’t smoke and rarely drank.
The former US Marshal was older than most ofAtlanta’s Finest, maybe in his early forties, with mahogany skin and buzz-cut black hair with strands of gray peeking out. Slightly over six feet, with broad shoulders and a wide chest, he looked just as intimidating as the others, but he had a calm demeanor.
“What do you say?” Angelo prompted. “We see the layout and then make a decision?”
“That’s fair,” Journey agreed. “Our suite of offices is through this door.” She nodded to her left at the door beside a brass-plated sign on the adjacent wall that readDA’s Office.
Nelson pulled open the door, and Angelo went in first, then Journey. Once in another short hallway, they flanked either side of her.
“This is our break room.” She pointed to a small room to her left that had recently gone through a renovation. The glass walls made the whole area look more spacious, but the increased visibility made it a poor place to relax and get away from people.
As she gave them a quick tour, pointing out the copy room, a few offices, and then the open area that held at least fifteen cubicles.
“There are a few unoccupied cubicles, but we have about ten paralegals and legal assistants who use them,” she explained before guiding them to her office area. “My assistant Casey sits at this desk, and my office is just inside here.” She unlocked the door to the left and pushed it open.
Both men glanced inside but didn’t walk in. They stood a few feet in front of Casey’s desk, which overlooked the open space filled with cubicles.
“Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Angelo said. “One of us will hang out near Casey’s desk area, out of the way, and the other will stay near the hallway outside the staff lounge and copy room.”
“That could work since the suite isn’t as big as I thought it would be,” Nelson added. “But is there another exit?”
“There is.” Journey pointed to her right. “It’s down this aisle, and you’d make a right just past that exit sign hanging on the back wall. We can leave out that way, but no one is allowed to come in through that door.”
Both men nodded but didn’t look entirely sure about their idea as they continued to look around the open space. They took their job seriously, but Journey was sure they were taking even more precautions because it was her. She was a part of the Supreme Security family, and as Laz often said, family takes care of family.
“Now that we have a plan, we’ll let you get to work,” Angelo said, and Journey retreated into her office.
Over the next couple of hours, she lost herself in work as she prepared closing arguments for a felony case. She was hoping to finish it before the end of the day, intending to get home at a reasonable hour. Laz told her they needed to squeeze in a date night while Arielle was in Florida. And there was no way Journey would miss dinner out with her husband.
Journey was startled when there was a knock on her office door. She glanced at her watch—or her left wrist where her watch was supposed to be. That was something she still needed to talk to Laz about. She wanted it back. It was one thing to hand it off to Wiz for an update, but she had to make them understand that it wasn’t just a GPS device to her. It had been a special gift from her husband that she cherished.
“Come in,” she called out and wasn’t surprised when Prentice walked in. They were meeting with Joyce Hayes’s husband. Detectives had questioned him shortly after his wife’s murder in her office at Leverage Construction, but he’d been so out of it at the time. They were hoping they could get more information out of him this morning that might shed more light on her relationship with the CEO, who was accused of murdering her.
“Good morning,” she said and pulled out the file for that case. “I’ve come up with a few questions to—”
“Are we seriously going to pretend that Saturday afternoon didn’t happen?” Prentice asked and unbuttoned his suit jacket before sitting in one of the chairs in front of Journey’s desk.
Journey pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry. This was a crazy weekend. I got your voicemail. Thanks for checking in, and I’m sorry I had to text you instead of call you.”
“So, what happened? All your text said was that Laz was shot, but he’s going to be okay.”
She trusted Prentice explicitly, but instead of saying too much, she said, “I can’t go into great details right now, but Laz and his team, along with the cops, are checking into it. As soon as I can say more, I’ll tell you everything.”
Prentice nodded. “And the security detail?”
