AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No prob, bud. See you in the morning. Don’t start making those donuts without me!”
My overly loud bark of fake laughter echoed through the empty stairwell, making me sound like a deranged villain. “Wouldn’t dream of it! See you tomorrow.”
Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I jogged down the stairs, desperate to escape this place as soon as possible. About halfway down, I realised I could hear faint voices from below, and I perked up at the idea of coming across a maintenance worker or janitor who could let me into the office.
It wasn’t until I reached the ground floor that I actually saw someone. Several someones, in fact. A group of three women dressed in leather skirts and denim jackets covered in patches were making their way down the short, bare corridor at the bottom of the staircase, seemingly toward an unmarked door at the end.
They hadn’t noticed me, but their presence was so out of place that I stopped dead and stared at them. Then two more people appeared through the door to the front lobby. A guy with a mohawk and multiple facial piercings, and another guy with a long, braided beard and a Viking-style haircut with shaved sides.
They both gave me odd looks, but didn’t stop or say anything. Just walked in the same direction as the women, who’d since vanished through that unmarked door.
Um… what? Was there a secret punk book club held in the basement of the building after office hours? Now that I was paying attention, I realised I could hear the faint, muffled thump of music playing beneath my feet. Maybe not a book club then. Just a regular club? Held in the basement of a corporate building?
Or maybe an… illegal rave? I’d never been to a rave. But I was nearing forty, I was wearing a shirt and tie, and these people were kind of intimidating, so I wasn’t so sure I’d be a welcome rave-crasher.
Deciding I didn’t really want to know what was going on, I just wanted to get the fuck home, I made my way into the front lobby and stopped dead at the line of punk-goth-emo people snaking out into the parking lot through the door.
No, wait, they weren’t all punk or goth or emo. There was a woman in a very pretty yellow sundress with neatly coiled dreadlocks piled up on her head, and an elderly lady with a blue rinse, her hand tucked into the elbow of a giant man with a shaved head and a big smile on her sweet, wrinkled face.
There were also a bunch of guys in sharp suits, but I didn’t recognise any of them, so I didn’t think they worked in the building. I could feel my face turning red as several people eyeballed me, but before I could do anything, a deep, gruff voice came from my right.
“Hey, woah.” A huge hand waved in front of my face, making me jump.
The old lady cackled. Okay, maybe she wasn’t so fucking sweet then.
Turning, I blinked up at the behemoth frowning down at me. He was wearing an impeccably fitted suit, which should have been impossible given the amount of bulging muscles all over his giant body. His brown eyes were suspicious as he looked me over.
“Where did you come from?”
“Wh-what?” I spluttered. “I just—”
“No unauthorised access,” he said sternly. “You don’t have an invite, you don’t get in.”
I immediately held up my hands, my face on fire from being chastised in front of a bunch of strangers. Over a rave I didn’t even want to go to. God, I probably looked like a depressed old man in the midst of a midlife crisis, trying to regain his lost years by mingling with the alternative youth.
“Look, I don’t want to… I just want to get my—”
“Oh, there you are.”
We both turned at the new voice coming from the doorway behind me. A tall, lean guy with bright pink hair pulled back into a knot, pale skin and eerily bright blue eyes was staring at me as if he knew me.
“I heard some people saying they spotted you up here. You’re a little early.” He flicked a glance at the mountain main beside me and held up the clipboard in his hand. “He’s for Holt, Ludo.”
“Ah.” Ludo chuckled, giving me another once-over. “Makes sense now. Nice attention to detail,” he added to me with a somewhat lascivious smirk.
“Um.” I looked between the two of them. “I don’t—I’m not—”
“Come on.” The pink-haired guy jerked his chin. “Holt won’t be happy if we hold the line up.”
Who the fuck was Holt? Why did this guy think I was “for” him? Was this a Mafia thing? All the ‘employees’ seemed to be dressed in sharp suits. Oh god, was this one of those things where billionaires got together and hunted the ‘ultimate prey?’ Was I going to be chased through the basement by a smartly dressed businessman with night-vision goggles and a crossbow?
When I didn’t move, the pink-haired guy huffed and grabbed my arm. Despite being so tall and slender, he was freakishly strong. Within seconds, he’d pulled me back through the door and was dragging me down the corridor.
“What the fuck? I just want my keys,” I protested in panic. “I left them in the office.”
All the guy did was chuckle. “In character already. He’ll appreciate that.”
“No, seriously.” I tried to squirm free of his ironclad grip, my pulse rabbiting as we approached that unmarked door.
