Beauty, The Invisible, Episode 1

by Janean Worth

  Chapter Three

  With a shaking hand, Leo slapped the “down” arrow button on the wall and waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive, breathing deeply to calm himself. The airy, glass‑walled hallway on the top floor of Green International headquarters should have given him a feeling of ease and calm—great care had been taken by the interior designer to create just such an effect—but instead he felt caged and pent up.

  Green International’s financials were worse than he’d thought they’d be—far, far worse. He wasn’t sure even his newfound talents would be enough to help them back into a profit margin large enough to recover their recent losses.

  And, to add to this bad report, the meeting itself had been tense and awkward. There had been an air of unseen heaviness present with them in the immense board room where the meeting had taken place. It had manifested as an oppressive feeling of indistinct evil. It had been odd, to say the least, and the atmosphere had not helped Leo mitigate the board members’ concerns at all. In fact, it had almost seemed to work against his efforts.

  But worst of all, Leo himself was not feeling at the top of his game . Though he’d arisen early, had his traditional healthy breakfast, done his hour of treadmill and weights, and should have been feeling terrific, he had seen things inside the board room that had made him question his own mental well‑being. While sitting at the huge marble‑and‑glass table, he had—multiple times—caught a glimpse of a man lounging against the wall in the corner of the room.

  When he’d tried to look directly at the man, his image had always wavered and then disappeared. After the fourth time this had occurred, Leo had decided that he must be hallucinating. And when the huge, evil‑looking, red‑eyed shadows had begun to filter into the room and hover near the board members, he’d been sure of it.

  When the meeting had finally concluded, Leo had been feeling hot under the collar, sick to his stomach with nerves, and very eager to leave. Even now, as he waited for the elevator, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling of pervasive, unseen evil. In fact, it felt as if the evil had stalked him all the way from the board room to the elevator.

  He snorted aloud, scoffing at his own thoughts. That just wasn’t possible. Evil didn’t stalk people. Perhaps the kale in his green smoothie that morning had been spoiled, and it was messing with his brain chemistry in some way and causing these hallucinations and paranoid delusions.

  When the elevator arrived, Leo hurried inside, turning to press the button for the lobby before leaning against the glossy, wood‑paneled interior and closing his eyes against the headache that was beginning to pound in his head.

  As the elevator descended, he blinked several times, hoping to clear his brain fog, and once again noticed the man standing in a corner.

  “Are you real?” Leo asked, glad that he was alone in the elevator so that he could at least confront this figment of his imagination.

  The man said nothing, but his image did not fade as Leo stared directly at him this time. He stared back at Leo, his dark eyes filled with such an expression of menace that Leo was forced to look away.

  Even knowing that he was a hallucination did not prevent a chill from chasing down Leo’s spine after seeing that look in the man’s eyes. It was a murderous gaze, filled with malice and contempt. Leo couldn’t fathom why his subconscious mind, hopped up on bad bioflavonoids from spoiled kale, would conjure up such a thing.

  When the elevator doors whooshed open, Leo exited eagerly and hurried out of the building. On the bright sidewalk in front of the building, he saw his hallucination exit and join up with three other men. They all turned toward him, and Leo’s head lanced with pain as their gazes focused upon him.

  Hallucination or not, he sensed that he had better not linger. These images of men that only he appeared to be able to see carried with them the same shadow of evil that had permeated the atmosphere of the board room.

  Skin prickling in warning at his nape, Leo set off at a fast walk toward the massive parking garage where he’d parked his Hummer. It was only a block away.

  Though it was nearing eighty degrees outside, a cold sweat broke out on his skin under his favorite power suit. He’d worn the heavy suit that morning just for the meeting, but as he walked to the garage, it felt oppressive and he couldn’t wait to get out of it.

  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the three men following him had been flanked by three more men. These three were dressed a bit differently than the others, in dark hoodies and black cargo pants. All three of the newcomers had telltale bulges under their clothing, indicating to Leo that they were all armed.

  Leo turned back to the sidewalk and picked up the pace, hoping he’d be able to make it back to the parking garage before they could catch up to him.

  But, like everything lately except for financials, Leo’s luck did not hold out. As he rounded the corner, entering the lowest level of the garage, he ran right into an immovable mountain of muscle.

  Rebounding, he stumbled a few steps before regaining his balance.

  “Excuse me,” he said, starting to apologize, but the gun in the man’s hand stopped him from continuing. His words dried up in his throat. He took a step back, but the man raised the gun, leveling it at Leo’s heart.

  “Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the man said, his voice rough with violence.

  Leo raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, “Hey, it’s ok. You want money? I can give you plenty.”

  The guy smirked. “I know you can, Mr. Vance.”

  A shock of fear cut through Leo. If the man knew his name, and knew that he had money, then this indicated premeditation, not a general opportunistic mugging. And that meant that the situation was even more dangerous than Leo had first surmised.

  Leo glanced over his shoulder, barely holding back a muttered curse as he saw the three men in hoodies nearing the entrance to the garage. Oddly, the man that Leo had hallucinated earlier was still with them, keeping step with them, as if they were traveling as a group.

  Dismissing the problem with his mental state because he simply did not have time for that at the moment, Leo glanced back at the massive man in front of him, realizing that he had only a few seconds left if he had a chance at escaping whatever they had planned for him. And he now had no doubt that they were all working in tandem.

  He glanced around the parking garage. It was full of cars of every make and model, but empty of people who could serve as witnesses. To his left, a low concrete half wall divided the entrance from the parking area; to his right, the entrance road curved around to the upper level.

  Leo chose left, banking on the fact that, if the men wanted more money than he currently carried in his wallet, they’d know that they needed him alive.

  He feinted toward the man, then darted left, saying a quick prayer for success.

  “Stop!” the man shouted, but Leo paid no heed.

  He barreled toward the half wall and then, to his own surprise, managed to vault over it like a professional hurdler.

  Behind him, the muscle‑bound man cursed and fired the gun.

  The bullet pinged off of the concrete wall, ricocheting back toward the man with a dangerous whine.

  Leo ran for all he was worth, knowing that his Hummer waited just down at the end of the row of parked vehicles. He was unutterably thankful that he’d managed to find an open spot on the ground level that morning.

  As he ran, he groped in his pants pocket for his key fob, managing to push the unlock button on it even while his legs pounded against the concrete in a flat‑out run.

  The Hummer’s horn chirped as it unlocked, and to Leo, it sounded like the most beautiful sound that he’d ever heard. He could hear the pounding footfalls of the others behind him as he neared his vehicle, but he didn’t dare to look back.

  Skidding to a halt beside the massive SUV, he ripped open the driver’s door and leapt inside, slamming the door behind him and quickly hitting the automatic locks for the doors.

  Hand
shaking, he still managed to fit the key into the ignition and start the vehicle. He backed up without looking behind him, tires squealing against concrete as he gave the Hummer too much gas, and then maneuvered the large vehicle onto the exit road.

  His would‑be assailants were now in front of him, on the exit road, running toward the Hummer.

  The muscled man must have decided that it was worth the possible death of their target to prevent Leo’s escape. He raised his gun and fired, emptying the gun into the hood and windshield of the Hummer until the magazine was spent.

  The glass of the windshield bloomed with multiple starbursts, and the hood dented as the bullets pinged off of it, but neither was pierced by the gunfire.

  Leo whooped in triumph, adrenaline surging through him in powerful waves.

  He revved the engine and barreled toward the men.

  “Armored vehicle with ballistic glass!” he yelled at the muscled man as he passed, the man and his companions leaping out of the way of the speeding SUV. “I got all the extra options at no additional cost!”

  Feeling high on escape and adrenaline, Leo laughed aloud as he rocketed out of the parking garage, passing the man from the elevator as he went, now not so sure that he had been a hallucination after all. He ignored the glares of veiled menace that the man and his companions cast his way.

  Read more of RICHES, INVISIBLE 2, now available.