Smoke (Smoke Series Book 1)

by Mariah Esterly

  Gertie felt her heart stop. “What?”

  “Are you running late and trying to rush out of here because someone stayed the night?”

  Gertie shook her head, the door still wide open. “No, of course not.”

  “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you did. Those two guys I saw you talking to at the bar were hot.”

  “You’re talking crazy. Come on. We’ll be late.”

  Kay, bent down slowly and picked up something from the far side of the coffee table. “Crazy? Huh? Then who does this belong to?” She crowed spinning around and hold out Vail’s bag.

  Gertie silently kicked herself. She hadn’t even thought about moving his bag into the bathroom. But outwardly she sighed, arranging her face into a look of exasperation. “What? Kay, don’t be silly. That’s mine.”

  Her friend had the bag dangling from two fingers, her nose wrinkled. “This is your smelly old bag?”

  Gertie closed the door and went into the living room to take it from her hand. “Yes, it’s mine… from when I lived in 5th, okay?”

  Kay cocked her head to the side, “you brought this bag with you when you moved?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you just buy a new one?”

  Gertie strode to the coat closet and shoved the bag in, trying not to sigh. That was Kay’s go to for when something broke or was out of fashion. Just buy a new one. “I don’t use it all the time, okay? I felt a little homesick this weekend since I didn’t get to see my parents and I pulled it out.” She went to the door over her apartment, hoping that Vail would move if he was still standing by it. “Now can we please go? We’re going to be late.”

  Kay looked crestfallen as she followed Gertie into the hall. “I thought for sure you had a man in your apartment.”

  “Well, I don’t and I didn’t.” She said abruptly, wishing for nothing more than this conversation to end.

  They made it to the elevator. And Kay glanced at her. “Oh, don’t be mad, Gertie. I just was excited for you, that’s all. I want you to be happy.”

  Gertie sighed and looped her arm through her much taller friend’s. “I know. I’m sorry if I snapped.” Vail placed his hand on the small of her back and followed her into the elevator.

  Kay peered at her face in the harsh overhead lights. “Geez, Gertie. You weren’t kidding, you must have had a rough night. You look terrible.”

  Gertie rolled her eyes. “Thanks.”

  “You could call in sick.”

  Gertie shook her head. “I’ll be fine. I might not ask for extra pages, but I’ll get through.”

  They stepped out in the foyer and made their way to the street. Kay led the way through the early morning crowd of government workers, glancing back occasionally to make sure that Gertie was following. Vail kept his hand on her, the same way he had the day before, letting her know he was still with her.

  They paused outside of the government building, where Gertie leaned against Kay and switched her shoes, just barely containing a groan as her aching muscles protested the heels.

  Usually, Kay and Gertie arrived early enough to avoid the crowds, but the area in front of the elevators was full of women in tight knee length skirts and heels and men in suit jackets and ties.

  “I’ll take the stairs.” Vail breathed into her ear. Her stomach dropped and irrational fear ripped through her. She wanted to tell him no, that he should ride the elevator with her. What if something happened? What if she was attacked again?

  There was no way he would go unnoticed with so many people in the elevator. The likelihood that anyone would attempt to harm her in such a large crowd was tiny. So, she squared her shoulders and nodded once as Kay turned around. “Did you say something?”

  She shook her head. Vail gave her arm a gentle squeeze and then was gone. They piled into the lift and rode up, stopping at nearly every floor, until they got out on the fifth level. Kay led the way through rows of desks and they dropped off their bags and coats before making their way to Mr. Lott’s office together.

  He was not alone. A man that Gertie had never seen before was sitting in one of the black chairs facing Mr. Lott’s desk. His hair was grey, but Gertie could tell it had once been black. Tiny crow’s feet spread the corners of his grey eyes. His grey suit was well fitted and obviously tailored for him. Not like Mr. Lott’s, that had clearly been purchased off the rack.

  Whoever this man was, he was certainly important.

  He hardly looked at Kay, but his eyes focused on Gertie with an intensity that made her nervous.

  Trying to hide her discomfort, she flashed him a smile and turned her attention to Mr. Lott as he looked up at them. “Ah, ladies, good morning.” They murmured good morning back. Mr. Lott held up two stacks of papers. “Cutting it a bit close today, are we?”

  “Sorry, Sir,” Kay said, taking the first stack of paper. Gertie snatched the others, and turned to leave, anxious to be done with work. And to get away from the gentleman in the grey suit.

  Mr. Lott generally tried to chit chat with them first thing in the morning, but this time he let them go, calling after them, “close the door on your way out.”

  They did as they were asked. As they returned to their desks, Gertie felt fingers that she couldn’t see brush her arm. Vail had returned to her side. The tension in her neck and shoulders eased, feeling safer with him nearby.

  She pulled her music player out of her bag and popped her earbuds in, turning the music on, but at a lower volume than she normally would. Vail’s shoulder brushed her leg as he sat on the ground and leaned against the small chest of drawers that was wedged under her desk.

  Knowing he was settled and glad he wouldn’t be standing for the next few hours, she turned her attention to the papers in front of her. Focusing on her work was relaxing. The simplicity of the movements, the mindlessness of the task allowed her to forget all that had occurred over the weekend, returned her to normalcy, if only for a few hours.

  She worked through the pages faster than normal, finishing well before Kay. Normally, she would have waited for her to finish. They would have gone to Mr. Lott’s office together to hand in their pages, and then taken lunch together before returning for more.

  This time she just wanted to leave.

  She popped her earbuds out, sent her pages to the printer and submitted them electronically. Kay glanced her direction as she stood up, straightening her black pencil skirt. “You’re done?” Her voice was incredulous.

  Gertie nodded picking up the hand-written pages. “I’m not feeling well, so I’m just going to go.”

  “Do you want to wait until I finish? I’ll leave with you.”

  Gertie shook her head, “No, that’s okay. I’ll be fine.” She felt Vail stand next to her, and as she walked through the office, he followed. At the printer, he murmured, “I’ll meet you outside.”

  She gave the tiniest of nods and strode to Mr. Lott’s closed office door. She knocked, waited and then entered when he gave the okay. The man in the grey suit was still there.

  “Ah, Miss Penn! Do come in and close the door.” Gertie did as she was asked. He motioned to the empty chair across from his desk, next to the grey haired man. “Please, have a seat.” He motioned to the newcomer. “This is Mr. Saunders. He’s from a government office in Section 1.”

  Gertie passed Mr. Lott her stack of papers, hoping he didn’t notice how her hands shook, and then sat down. “Am I in trouble?”

  Mr. Lott gave her a smile that made her shudder, but at least he wasn’t trying to touch her. The presence of the man in grey had tempered his physicality. “Oh, I don’t think so, Miss Penn. We’re just concerned.”

  Gertie twisted her fingers around each other in her lap. “Concerned? About me?”

  “Yes.” He turned his computer monitor toward her. There on the screen she saw an image of her in the bar with Vail. She went still. “How well do you know this man?”

  She didn’t want to answer. She had pretended to know him very well th
at night in an effort to get the man sitting across from her to leave her alone. But she couldn’t tell them that. Mr. Lott had made it very clear that she needed to follow his rules or face the consequences. She’d only been spared from his “rules” because of Vail. What would he do if he discovered that she hadn’t known Vail before that moment?

  They were both looking at her, silent and she knew she had to say something. “Who? Vail?” She brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “We’ve gone out a couple of times, but I don’t know him all that well. I wouldn’t even say that we were dating.”

  Mr. Saunders spoke, “you seem to be very... close with him.” His voice implied physically close.

  She shrugged, hoping her face wasn’t as red as it felt. “Is that a crime? I thought the point of going out was to meet people.”

  Mr. Saunders shifted in his chair, leaning toward her. “Ah, yes, and where did you and this man meet?”

  “I ran into him on the street in 4th when I was visiting my parents. Literally, ran into him.” The lie rolled off her tongue easy enough. “I dropped all my bags, and we got to talking while he helped me pick them up. Then he helped me carry them to the next checkpoint. He seemed nice.”

  Mr. Lott gave a fake cough. Mr. Saunders silenced him with a look, before turning his attention back to Gertie. “Here’s the thing, Miss Penn. That man that you seem so incredibly comfortable with is a known terrorist. He stands against the Chancellor and the Government.”

  Gertie hoped her face looked shocked. Hearing Vail referred to as a terrorist was certainly jarring. Though she supposed that was what he was in the eyes of the government. A terrorist. They seemed to believe her surprise.

  Mr. Lott left his chair to circle around his desk. He squatted down so that his face was level with hers and reached out to take her hands in what Gertie could only assume was meant to be a soothing manner. “I know this is a shock to you. You are such a good girl, and I know you can’t possibly be involved in any sort of terrorist activity. If you know anything about this man you need to tell Mr. Saunders.”

  She let Mr. Lott hold her hands, let him think that he was helping her, providing her comfort at such distressing news. She glanced at Mr. Saunders, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know him all that well. He wasn’t very forthcoming with information about himself. I guess now I know why.”

  Mr. Saunders leaned back in his chair, his head cocked slightly to one side as if trying to catch a conversation only he could hear. “Why do I get the impression that you are lying to me, Miss Penn?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I’m not sure? I’m not lying.”

  Mr. Lott’s fingers tightened on hers, almost painful. She resisted the urge to pull away from him.

  “What happened to your face?” Mr. Saunders sounded unconcerned.

  Her head whipped in his direction, eyes wide. “Pardon?”

  He flicked an invisible piece of lint off the sleeve of his coat. “One of the guardsmen on the checkpoint between 3rd and 4th, Liam McDonagh, said he saw you yesterday and reported that you had a bruise on your face.”

  Gertie’s stomach clenched and she glanced toward her boss. “He reported that?” Mr. Lott nodded.

  “I’m clumsy. I fell while walking home on Friday night. Did he put that in his report?”

  Mr. Saunders nodded. “He did, but he also said he didn’t believe you, and he thought that the man you were seen talking with at the bar might be the cause.”

  “Well, he wasn’t.” She said too abruptly, the lie was palpable. Silence reigned for a moment. Gertie let out a strained laugh and shrugged. “I’m just clumsy.” She looked back at Mr. Lott. “Do you have any more questions? As you mentioned I did have quite the fall this weekend, and I’m afraid I’m still feeling a little out of it.”

  He released her hands and stood towering over her with his hands on the arms of her chair, peering into her face. He reminded her of Graves, crowding her, intimidating. She hated that it worked and she shrunk away from him. “You know what?” He said in a loud whisper, his hot breath raking over her cheek. “You look like you could use a break… This close I can tell your face is swollen. Take tomorrow off and the next day too. I’m sure you and your family will agree that your health is so much more important than money.”

  Gertie swallowed hard, fighting the urge to argue. They needed that money, but saying so wouldn’t change anything. Her eyes fixed on her hands, blinking back tears. “Yes, sir.” Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. Her own weakness scraped against her, rubbed her already frayed edges until they were raw.

  He stepped away from her and Gertie bolted to her feet, heading to the door faster than she would have thought possible in her heels. She paused with her hand on the knob as Mr. Saunders said, “Oh, and Miss Penn. If you remember anything about Vail Denhelm, please let Mr. Lott know and he will get in touch with me.”

  Without turning toward him she nodded and pulled open the door. Kay gave Gertie a curious look as she grabbed her things and headed for the elevator. She didn’t bother to try to explain, or to change from her heels to her flats. She just wanted to leave.

  “Gertie!” Kay called after her, drawing the attention of the whole office. But she didn’t pause. She tried to make her walk down the row of desk to the elevator with a sense of ease, holding her head high. If Mr. Lott or Mr. Saunders were watching she didn’t want them to sense her haste, her nervousness. She didn’t glance at the curious faces that peeked out of their cubicles, staring straight ahead at the elevator doors.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when they slid open without her waiting and she stepped into the empty lift.

  Only it wasn’t empty.

  “I was worried,” came Vail’s voice from somewhere in the corner. She leaned against the wall and sighed. She knew that the blinking lights in the upper left-hand corner of the elevator meant that they were being recorded, so she didn’t answer.

  She could feel Vail’s eyes on her face as his hand wrapped around hers, squeezing. She fought the urge to lace her fingers through his. That would look unnatural to anyone who might be watching.

  He must have seen something on her face, because he murmured. “It’s okay. I have you now.”

  And Gertie tried to believe him.

  19

  Gertie

  “We should tell Atkins you aren’t going to get the pages.” Vail said, running his hands through his hair. They were sitting on the edge of the tub in Gertie’s bathroom.

  “You’re right.” If they’d sent a government official from 1st to interview her, they would be watching her closely when she did go back to work. There was no way that she would be able to print an extra copy of her spreadsheets and get away with it.

  She tapped her fingers on her thigh, silent for a moment. “Maybe there’s something else we can do? They obviously don’t know that you’re an extra, or if they do, they don’t know what your power is. Maybe we can figure out a way to use that?”

  He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, twisting his head to meet her eyes. “How?”

  “Well, we already know that you can get into the building with no problem. And I know that your ability extends to your clothes and stuff like your backpack. Would you be able to bring in a camera?”

  He considered for a minute. “Maybe if it was really small. We’d have to test it.”

  She hated the idea of Vail being in more danger than he already was. However, the sooner that Atkins and Graves got what they needed, the sooner Vail could stop following her to work. He would be safer, even if she wasn’t.

  “Okay, so then you could just take pictures of each handwritten page, and we can give that to them. As long as I still have a job, it should work.”

  He reached out and took her forearm in a comforting grip. “I’m sorry. I know your family depends on you.”

  She shrugged, pretending to be unconcerned, hoping he didn’t notice. “If I stay late on the days I do work, I should be able to mak
e at least close to what I would normally.” She sat up, smoothed her hair, pushing it over her shoulders.

  He straightened too. “Still, I’m sorry that you’re even a part of this. You should be having a normal life.”

  She gave him a wry smile. “You mean boring,” she teased.

  His face remained serious. “Boring means safe.”

  They regarded each other in silence, until Gertie whispered, “I wish you didn’t have to be invisible all the time.” Her face flamed as she realized what she’d said. Stupid mouth saying stupid things out of my stupid face.

  Vail didn’t seem to mind. “I’m not invisible now.”

  Gertie sighed and stood up. “Yes, but I can’t spend all day in the bathroom. Someone is bound to notice.”

  He left the edge of the tub as well. “I should go to the Office and tell them what happened, anyway.” Neither of them moved. Vail looked like he wanted to say more, but no words came out of his mouth.

  After a minute, he said. “In three hours go down and check your mail. I’ll meet you by the box and follow you back up.” She nodded. “Don’t leave the apartment until then, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Gertie knew she had told Vail that she wouldn’t leave the apartment, but she took advantage of his absence to run on the treadmill in the gym of her building. She couldn’t afford to pay a fine for not exercising like a good government employee.

  Also, she had a lot of nervous energy she needed to work out of her system.

  She kept an eye on the clock, making sure that when she left the gym, it would be time to meet Vail in the lobby near the mailboxes.

  The foyer was empty as she stuck her key in the lock of her mail box and twisted, pulling open the tiny door and peering inside. Not surprisingly, it was empty. No one actually received paper mail anymore.

  She felt a hand brush her arm, right before Vail said, “I thought I told you to stay in your apartment.” He sounded upset.

  She closed the door to the mailbox and strode to the elevator, jabbing at the button. It was unfair, in her opinion, that she couldn’t say anything to him until they were in her bathroom, or at least until she could turn on the radio so that it would look like she was singing along to the music.