Page 32 of Raze
I’ve been on my own for five years, and I got used to that freedom. There was no checking in with the group about what I was doing or why. I just did it.
He raises his eyebrows at me when I don’t immediately move inside. “Well?”
I huff and storm past him to enter the foyer. As much as letting him stalk me through the building pisses me off, I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to look around. I doubt I could get inside if I wanted to. Not unless I was willing to break the door or glass to do it. And I’m not looking to give GE easy access to this building because of me.
The main foyer is big and open, with more windows than walls. There’s the security desk right in the middle that you have to pass through before you can make it to the elevators. Since no one is here and everything is off, I walk right through.
“We’ll need to take the stairs. I assume you wish to go to the floor where the fight happened?” Aiden asks. I nod, knowing he’s probably drilling holes in the back of my head while trying to figure out what I’m expecting to find here. “That’s the Guild’s main hall on the eleventh floor.”
Ugh. Eleven floors up? Why didn’t it seem like that many when I came here to rescue them?
He opens the door to the stairwell, and I glare at the flights of stairs. My legs are still sore from Kellan splitting me in half in the woods this morning, but I’d rather stick a needle in my eye than mention that to Aiden. I huff and get started up the long trek.
Aiden doesn’t say a word as he follows behind me. All I know is that I’m panting for air when I finally see the big number eleven next to the door and Aiden’s staring calmly at me in his navy suit. Is he for real? I must have that very expression on my face when I’m lookingat him. “I take the stairs. It’s an easy way to stay in shape while still doing other things.”
“You’re not human,” I gripe.
He smirks and opens the door for me. “Yes, that is debatable. But then the same goes for you if that’s true.”
We enter the eleventh floor, and it’s massive. The entire room is at least two stories high, with a hundred feet of the ceiling arched in a dome made of panels of glass in a diamond pattern on one side. There are doors that lead out to the large courtyard. It’s like a well-manicured garden of plants and trees, with gazebos and picnic tables or areas of green grass. Maybe calling it a park would be more accurate.
The area under the half-dome is filled with long wooden tables, sofas, cushioned chairs, and even a standalone bar. Once you’re back under the rest of the building, the ceiling is vaulted with massive wooden beams. The tables continue into this room up to a large rustic bar and stools. Between doors and corkboards along the back wall, a flight of stairs leads up to a short, open second floor that sticks out over the bar.
Aiden watches my face and then looks around the room like he’s trying to see it from my eyes. I guess when something is in front of you day in and day out, it’s hard to step back and really appreciate what you’re looking at. “This is the Guild’s main hall. It’s where members can hang out, eat, or pick out jobs. The floors below are the general offices for various businesses, all worked by Guild members. Their apartments are the floors above, and of course, the Loft.”
His eyes scan over an area in the middle of the room that’s bare. Itlooks like tables used to be there, but they were probably destroyed in the fight. Aside from some blank spaces like that, no one would know anything had happened here. Aiden slides his hands into his trouser pockets and turns to me. “Now’s your chance to look for whatever it is you think you’ll find. You have”—he whips his phone from his pocket to look at it—“twenty minutes before I kick you out.”
Only twenty minutes? In a room this big?
“Nineteen minutes and thirty seconds,” he amends when I don’t move.
Fuck a duck.
I take off to the nearest wall and decide to work from the perimeter inward. I check for anything on the floor, carvings on tables, something on a wall. Anything that might trigger a memory of my year under Gordon. I’m expecting the tables to be marked up, carved, or even the rude bubble gum user sticking it under the tables, but there’s no sign of it.
There are a few marks and cuts here or there, but they don’t look like the work of someone purposefully marking it up with a knife.
What kind of people are in this Guild?
It makes my task that much easier, though, since I would clearly see anything out of the ordinary. Not only are the tables and benches long, but there are a ton of them.
A jingle tune starts up, and I look around to find Aiden sitting at one of the tables and looking at his phone. “Time’s up.”
Did he seriously set a timer for me? What am I? A child? “I’m sorry, am I taking up too much of your precious time?” I snark athim while still peering under the current table.
“You are. I have someplace I’m supposed to be.”
“Then go. I’m not keeping you here.” I look up and search around the room to better prioritize where I think a clue might be left.
Aiden scoffs and stands, sticking his phone and hand into his pocket. “I gave you twenty minutes of uninterrupted time to sniff around my Guild. If you haven’t found anything, then I doubt there was anything to begin with.” I glare at him, and he tilts his head to the side. “What did you think you’d find here? A note from Gordon?”
My body tenses on reflex, and his eyes narrow when he sees it.
He stalks over to me, and my heart pounds with every click of his shiny black shoes on the wooden floor that echoes through the grand room. I step back when he doesn’t appear to be slowing down and fall onto the bench.
Aiden grabs me by the throat and shoves me back until my head meets the table and my back arches. He leans over me until there’s no space between us, and his face is all I can see. “Ow,” I growl at him, even though it didn’t actually hurt. He’d bent me to his will by his presence more than brute force.
“I’m getting really tired of you keeping secrets from the rest of us. One of these days, they are going to get one of us killed because we don’t have all the facts. Either you’re with us, or you’re against us. There is no in-between anymore.”
