Lily smiled down at Adam pleasantly, her clear eyes sizing him up much as he was doing, her. She feinted like she was going for the mug again, but then reversed her course suddenly. The bottle of whiskey firmly encircled by her eager hand coupled with the casual glance of her eyes made Adam realize once again that he was pantsless. Awkwardly, he moved to cross his legs under the desk, rather than pursue her openly.
“To Adam.” She raised the bottle in a mock salute, before draining a swallow of the warm liquor expertly. Suddenly, as if the burning liquid had brought some phantom rhythm to her, she swayed in that weird motion of hers.
Adam, a false smile on his lips, returned the salute, sipping down a finger’s breadth from the mug. He watched, silently studying Lily as she juggled the bottle in her hands along with a pack of cigarettes and black plastic lighter. She exhaled two columns of smoke from her nostrils, the cloud framing a fierce grin. It reminded Adam suddenly of a dragon.
“Feel free.” Adam told her, leaning back in his chair. He had to up the ante in the pissing match. He kicked his bare legs up on the desk and rested his socked feet on the gleaming wood. Just then the door opened again, this time without any warning.
Alisha stopped short, her eyes darting between Lily and Adam.
“Adam,” She greeted him with her customary cheer, recovering rapidly from her initial shock. “I’m sorry for interrupting.”
Adam dropped his legs to the floor with a loud thump. He could feel the blush returning to his face.
“I was pleased to hear that you were here early. Emily neglected to mention that you were occupied.” This Alisha stated with a real emotion for once, even if it was only an undercurrent of sadism that had crept into her words. Adam’s thighs burned with his cheeks. “Francis isn’t reachable this morning, and it looks like you might have the day off.”
Lily released another cloud of smoke. This was directed with her lips, entering the air between Alisha and Adam. Alisha steadfastly ignored Lily, whom Adam recalled she hadn't greeted upon entry. Sensing his eyes upon her, Lily raised the bottle to her lips. She took a loud swallow, then ostentatiously shivered. This she followed with a loud sigh as she returned to her swaying. Through it all, Alisha kept her gaze fixed on Adam.
“I thought you might take the day to get acquainted with your new office.” Alisha continued as though she hadn’t been interrupted at all. “Congratulations, by the way. Or perhaps you could take some time to attend to the details regarding your missing wife.”
The sentence hit Adam like a slap in the face. He struggled to regain composure in the face of of two potential enemies, commanding his surging anger into calm. Frantically, his mind struggled to find some way to excuse himself, to get the upper hand.
“Thank you, Alisha.” The words came out of Adam’s mouth with more grit than he wanted. She turned to leave in her excessively sunny way. “Alisha?” Adam continued, his words finally taking on the smoothness he so desperately needed. “Could you have Emily brought in? Those pants,” he nodded to the slacks currently crumpled in a heap on the floor where he had dropped them, “have a coffee stain that will need to be taken care of. And I'll need something in the meantime.”
Alisha stared daggers at him, as Lily’s giggle cut through the air. Adam suddenly regretted his move. Alisha’s eyes blazed fiercely above her expression in a ludicrous parody of a smile. The image burned itself into Adam’s unnerved mind.
“Of course.” It was the only thing Alisha said as she retreated from the office, fuming that she was simultaneously unable to hold Adam’s near nakedness against him and sent off on a servile errand on his behalf.
Adam shook the haunting image of her departure from his mind as his attention returned to the woman remaining in his office. Lily was wrapped in a cloud of still smoke, but from what Adam could make out she seemed almost as pleased as he was with the way the conversation turned out. The wheels were spinning in his head again. Maybe if Lily thought Adam could be of use taking down Alisha, she would be less inclined to hold Adam’s takeover of her office against her.
“Bum one?” Adam asked, gesturing with a glance to the pack of cigarettes clutched between the fingers holding the bottle of whiskey. This plan might stall Lily long enough for Adam to manipulate Alisha into pursuing her. If he could play Francis' reigning queen against the falling star, he could sweep both aside all the more easily.
Lily produced a cigarette from the pack with the same confident grace as she had obtained her own. She passed it to Adam and tossed the plastic lighter onto the desk in one fell swoop. Adam lit the cigarette, taking a triumphant inhale.
“Fuck that bitch.” Adam called out with a nod to the door Alisha had vanished through. A stream of warm cigarette smoke carried his words. Lily flashed a smile as eerie as her tuneless dance.
♖♖♖
“What kind of an operation are you running over there?” Gillman’s voice sounded through the phone speaker. Francis scowled down at the phone, as if the non-verbal threat could be seen on the other side of the conversation.
“My people are the most dependable, highly-qualified you can find,” Francis spat down at the gray plastic phone. “They do what they need to do to get things done. I’m sorry if you don’t like playing hardball, Gillman, but that’s the way business works.” Francis paused to take a breath.
“He bullied my receptionist, Frank, and that–” At the sound of the hated nickname, Francis interrupted with new vim.
“So you’ve said. You hired her to be your gatekeeper. How many times has a pissed off salesman bitten her head off? Don’t take issue with me because you can’t hire the right people to do the job.” Francis crossed his arms with definitive certainty.
“She answers phones!” Gillman was sputtering, Francis noted smugly. “She’s not a marine for chrissakes.” He hissed the last word, drawing it out. Francis shrugged at the phone.
“I… Just…” Gillman started, a measure of angry confusion present in his voice.
“What, Gill?” Francis inflected with false cheer. It always helped to keep a cool head. Not only had rational thought powered much of his rise to the top of the Tower; it had the added advantage of infuriating those it was used against. The angrier and more irrational the opponent, the easier to topple.
“Make him apologize!” Gillman thundered into the phone. The stress in his voice was so apparent that it was a wonder the plastic didn’t break under the strain. Francis poked the bear a second time.
“Oh! ...Oh, this is unbelievable. You’re fucking her!” It was insincere. Francis had known for several months now that Gillman had fallen into the classic blunder of powerful men. The signs were easy for a man like Francis to recognize. Now was the perfect time to prod at that wound.
“I– What–? How... No... No.” Gillman repeated again, more firmly. “Of course not. I just gave you the benefit of the doubt. I couldn’t believe you were running that kind of a circus over there.” Gillman audibly drew in a shaker breath. “Have your man apologize. I mean it.” The way he whined grated against Francis' nerves, threatening to overwhelm the sense of calm he prided himself on.
“Adam’s a grown man Gill. If he means to apologize I’m sure he will.” Francis stepped closer to the desk. He was about to hang up on the irritating little problem when Gillman’s voice rang out again.
“You would make him if I backed away on the auction.” Gillman stated it as a fact, but it hung in the air like a question.
Francis paused, his body trembling slightly against a force of desire so great it almost buckled his knees. He gave himself a deliberate count of three before answering.
“Is that what you’re offering?” He drawled, slowly and deliberately. Francis wouldn’t allow himself to be cajoled by the likes of Gillman. There was a faint gulp on the other end. Francis sneered at the thought of the frog-faced man sweating.
“You would!” The meek voice was triumphant, in its own trembling way. “So be a decent human being for once and pre
tend like you have something to gain.”
Francis hung up with a smirk of satisfaction. He had already seen to distracting Adam for the time being, but now he wondered if he could direct Adam’s wrath and profit at the same time. First, however, he had to take care of a rather troublesome meddler. He pressed a button on the phone in front of him.
“Get Varro on the line.” Francis ordered before waiting for a response.
Chapter Twenty
“Okay, okay, okay–” Adam stumbled, catching himself on the edge of the desk. “So there is this priest right? I mean, not a priest. A head monk guy.”
“Abbotsh!” Lily slurred with a lazy twirl. Adam forgot how the joke was supposed to start.
The day had passed in a complete blur. Together they had finished the gift from Esmeralda and ordered Bartholomew to bring them up another bottle. By that time, Adam had already been feeling more than a little giddy, and the two of them had made faces at each other behind the bellhop’s back when he arrived. Adam had giggled uncharacteristically when Lily had given a charming impression of Bartholomew’s perpetual scowl. Whether or not the bellhop had noticed or cared was lost on Adam’s besodden mind. They had passed the time with Slendervale gossip, discussions of movies they had seen, and had now finally progressed to a series of jokes.
Adam had been quite pleased with himself when he was able to learn from the unsuspecting Lily that his official title was Executive Account Manager, the account he managed being Francis’. From what he gathered, he was officially somewhere between Alisha and Francis. Unofficially, his job was something in between economic hitman and procurer. Technically Lily held the same position, but she didn’t seem to be particularly concerned about Adam taking over. She had firmly told Adam that she intended to do as she’d always done: whatever she pleased.
Their second bottle of whiskey was now down to its last few inches; a testament to the powers of both drinkers. The two had ordered up room service for lunch, a practice that was apparently common in the Tower. All thoughts of dinner were left by the wayside in favor of the mental scramble for something to share.
“Right. So there’s this Abbot, right?” Adam lurched back into his joke. “As he is in charge of all the monks and stuff, well, he’s gotta give them the final test. The call of chastity. He lines them all up in the yard, right? And says they have to tie a silver bell to the end of their pricks.”
Suddenly the lights above him went dark. Lily let out a long, otherworldly giggle. Adam stared into the dimly lit darkness, frowning. He scrambled to put together an idea of what had happened.
“Where was I?” Adam asked, very badly needing use of the bathroom.
“Chastity.” Lily whispered. Her voice was heavy, and Adam felt her move closer across the dark office.
“No,” he frowned, backing up. “I’m forgetting something. But I don’t know what it is.” He stared up at the ceiling, trying to will himself to remember.
“Forget about it.” Adam’s gaze followed the voice downward. Lily was there, so close that when he lowered his head their noses almost touched.
Adam stumbled backward, the desk meeting with the backs of his thighs. There was nowhere to run. “Lights,” Adam mumbled. He twisted around Lily, coughing slightly. She gave him enough room to circle around her, and he half-jogged, half-stumbled to the doorway. He groped about blindly in the darkness, feeling with the tips of his fingers. Finally, halfway down the wall he found it, the hard plastic of the light switch. Adam flipped the switch with a sigh of relief.
The light flashed in his eyes, momentarily blinding him. In the afterburn he saw Lily not two feet from him. Her face was deathly pale, and locks of her hair were writhing in the air. Adam waved his outstretched hand in front of him, trying to keep the apparition at bay.
He blinked rapidly, sight and sanity restored to him. Lily stood motionless over by the desk, watching him with sad eyes. Adam started to go to her before recalling the vision he had seen. It sent a shiver all the way down to the base of his spine. He thought of how close she had been earlier, the feel of her breath against his skin. No, Adam doubted he was strong enough. He would stay well enough away.
“Bathroom,” Adam called back to her, opening the wooden door near the switch. He didn’t wait for a response as he stepped through into the darkness beyond.
The offices were eerie this time of night. Even the busybody late-goers had left, leaving the normally frantic atmosphere quiet and waiting. Adam made his way through the hall by the light from his office, but it wasn’t long before even this faded away to darkness. The faint outlines of the cubicle walls around him were barely visible in the light from the emergency exit signs.
As a teen, Adam had frequently sought solace in darkness. Late night walks around his hometown had fueled his soul. When the streets were dark and everyone was in bed, Adam had taken comfort in the thought that the busy well-to-do denizens might own the day, but he alone was there to witness the beauty of night.
He would wind his way around the houses, the closed shops, and the carefully sculpted nature, dreaming about his future successes. In his dreams success came immediately with the acknowledgement of some secret, inner genius. He laid plans for the types of businesses he would run, dreamed up rivals for himself that had half his competence and none of his charm. Mostly he sought refuge from the stern and disapproving gaze of his mother. The blanket of oppression she had draped over their household had permeated the furthest reaches, even his own bedroom. But outside, in the dark and abandoned night, Adam had felt free.
The darkness that permeated the fourth floor of the Tower was not the freeing, rebellious darkness of his youth. Adam didn’t feel free to roam and to dream. Adam didn’t feel alone. The darkness breathed with him, watched him. He found himself nearly colliding with a wall of glass separating some sort of supervisory office. He hadn’t yet been able to get his bearings.
Footsteps sounded dully on the carpet in the distance. They were soft, quick, and carried unknown menace. Adam leaned his back against the glass for some sort of protection.
“Hello?” He called out in the darkness as softly as he could. Despite his best efforts, the sound echoed so jarringly as to set his teeth on edge.
The darkness made no response and no movement in the dim red light. His stomach sank as he left the comfort of the cold glass against his back in search of the restroom. He took a jagged path forward, paranoia whispering terrible suspicious into his ear. He cut through the sections of cubicles spread out in a hexagonal style. A dull clunk sounded from somewhere behind him, and Adam nearly jumped.
Rapidly and quietly as he could, Adam slid out one of the rolling chairs from the desk it sat in front of. Adam crawled into the recess and pulled the office chair back toward him as silently as he could. There he waited with bated breath for the source of the disturbance to emerge. The sound of his blood was disturbingly loud against the silence of the office around him. Adam strained his ears for any sign of his lurking fear above the sound of the irregular surges of blood.
He took one trembling breath to steady himself, then another. The strain of holding a crouch had begun to set into the backs of his knees and along his shins. Adam had no idea how much time had passed with him huddled there, hidden beneath the desk. After what seemed like an eternity, he rolled the chair away from him slowly. When this prompted no howling terror, Adam shuffled blindly out of his hiding spot.
The still air parted as he resumed his zig-zag course through the fourth floor. At first he strove to be even more cautious that before, bending forward at the waist and knees so that he was invisible behind the high walls intended to give workers some semblance of privacy. After several rows of walking in this uncomfortably position, Adam straightened out, much to the relief of his overtaxed knees.
Just as Adam intersected with a walkway that would bring him away from the accursed cubicles, something gripped his shoulder. Adam yelped as sharp talons dug into the tender flesh near the nape of his neck. H
e wrenched himself free and scuttled in a drunken panic away from the presence. The world around him danced in terrible blackness, the office rocking in place as though it were poised on the back of some impossibly large serpent.
“Adam?” A voice called out uncertainty.
“Susan?” Adam gasped in relief, whirling around to find her. The darkness coalesced into a silhouette floating toward him. Adam stared slack-jawed, certain his hold on sanity was broken. As the figure moved closer, it spoke to him again.
“...Lily. Adam, are you alright? It’s Lily.” The words were thick and uncertain. Adam backed up a single step, barely able to make out the form of her great head of frizzy hair in the dim red light that surrounded them. The thought of the writhing snake-like locks beat the inside of his skull with a warning.
“Why?” Adam asked, twisting his torso so he stood perpendicular to her. “What are you doing?” Lily snorted.
“Had to pee. Didn’t see you, I thought you got lost.” Adam could see the outline of her hair wag back and forth as though surveying the hungry shadows. “Came looking for you. These are the analysts’ cubicles.” Adam couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she was gesturing to the area he had emerged from. “Why didn’t you use the bathroom by your office?”
Adam didn’t know how to respond, he had blown right past the bathroom he had been using all day. He was glad she was there and that he didn't have to face the gloom alone, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel more vulnerable, standing and talking out in the open.
“Got lost.” He called out to her, still keeping his body in a fighting stance. The muscle in one of his calves twitched with his words, unused to the recent strain. He tensed it again, prompting a spasm of pain as Lily drew closer.
“Come on.” She called, grasping drunkenly for his hand in the gloom. Adam hesitated. A voice within him reminded him sternly that he shouldn’t trust her. He couldn’t recall why, but remembered he was expecting some form of threat from her. The darkness around him seemed to grow more menacing as he waited. The dim light that was reflecting around Lily was almost all he could see. He took her hand like a child afraid to be alone in the dark.
Heritage (The Slendervale Series Book 2) Page 15