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Still, openings and closings were important. Crafting them was more art than science, ideas and pieces coming to her when she least expected them, which was why she started jotting them down from the very start of the case.
She wound her way down to employee parking on the lowest level and pulled into her reserved spot. She was looking forward to telling Nathan the city wasn’t spending resources on her and Leo anymore, even if it did mean sidestepping his resentment about Logan.
She slipped her phone into her bag and grabbed it off the passenger seat, then stepped out of the car, keeping her pepper spray in her hand.
She did her customary sweep of the garage, moving slowly until she was sure she was in the clear, but it didn’t take long. She was always one of the first people in the office. The garage was empty except for two cars parked near the underground elevator lobby.
She’d covered about half the distance between her car and the lobby that held the elevator when movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye. She turned just in time to see a black blur behind one of the garage’s support pillars.
A man rushed her, a ski mask covering his face.
Lifting her arm, she pressed down on the nozzle of the pepper spray and aimed at his face.
He roared, but it wasn’t enough. The ski mask on his face took most of the spray.
He slapped one giant hand over her mouth and slammed her up against the pillar. Her bag and then pepper spray went flying.
He pressed the barrel of a gun against her cheek.
She glanced around frantically, praying someone would come upon them, then changing her mind and praying no one would. She knew who had sent this man. The last thing she wanted was for him to shoot one of her coworkers for stumbling on the scene.
“Don’t scream and I won’t hurt you.” The man spoke with a thick accent. “This time. You understand?”
She tried to nod behind his hand but was barely able to move her head. He seemed to get the idea, the pressure on her mouth loosening the smallest bit.
“You make dangerous enemies with your work.” His eyes were red from the pepper spray, but he seemed unfazed. “Enemies who don’t care about you or your little boy.”
A sob caught in her throat at the mention of Emilio, but it came out in a gurgle with the man’s hand over her mouth. She wanted to shrink away from the barrel of the weapon in his hands, from the press of his meaty body, but there was nowhere to go.
“We don’t want to hurt you, but you make the choice.” His Russian accent was thick, but she understood every word. “You understand?”
She nodded behind his hand.
“Good,” he said. “You have business. We have business. They are not very different. You leave us to ours, and you will live to do more of yours. Your choice.”
He turned her around quickly so that she was facing the pillar. She felt the press of him against her back as he ran the barrel of the gun down her cheek and worried he was about to rape her, but a second later he whispered in her ear.
“You must count. Don't turn around until you reach one hundred.” She hesitated and he started counting, as if to give her an example. “One… two…”
She picked up where he left off, joining her voice to his. By the time she reached ten his voice had fallen away, the pressure of the gun no longer against the back of her head, the heat of his body absent behind her.
She got to fifty before she turned around, half expecting him to be watching, waiting to punish her for not reaching one hundred.
But he was gone, the parking garage empty.
She picked up her bag, clutched it to her chest, and ran for the elevator.
13
Logan paced Ella’s office, trying to stuff down the fury rising in his chest. He’d been at the penthouse briefing the new arrivals on Ella’s routine when he’d gotten her call. She’d sounded shockingly calm given the words coming out of her mouth, and he’d driven the few miles to her office like a bat out of hell.
The cops were still there when he’d first arrived. They’d taken Ella’s statement and said they’d review the security footage, but no one was optimistic given the fact that the guy had been wearing a mask and gloves.
“I thought you were supposed to protect her?” Nathan Fitzgerald said to Logan. The other man had been there when Logan arrived, playing the part of doting husband even though he was no longer any kind of husband to Ella.
The comment wasn’t helpful for the fire already boiling Logan’s blood, mostly because it was the very thing Logan had been saying to himself since he’d gotten Ella’s call. He’d come to Chicago to protect her and his second day on the job she’d been attacked. He wouldn’t cop to it to Nathan — he couldn’t — but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.
“I just got here,” Logan bit out. “What have you been doing for the last six months?”
