Tick.
But even when they burst into the apartment, she wasn’t going to be a fool and simply accept the other drives were ready. Maybe the set she’d bought were damaged to begin with.
She dropped behind her computer and hurriedly checked her work.
Behind her, Kendra was moving around in the kitchen. “I know we’re in a rush, but when you’ve got what you need, you might want to touch up your makeup. You look like you’ve seen a ghost. A little bit of armor when you face Charlene might be a good thing.”
Dammit. Pepper jammed the media sticks into her pocket and rushed into her bedroom, slipping into the bathroom to examine her face carefully for a moment.
She didn’t think she looked pale. If anything, all the rushing around had brought a flush to her cheeks, and her eyes were bright. The only thing she could think of was dragging a brush through her hair and grabbing a colored lip balm so when she told Charlene to kiss her ass, she’d do it in style.
She had both hands raised in the air when out of the corner of her eye she noticed the bathroom door swinging closed. She jerked around and grabbed for the doorknob, but it was too late. An ominous click rang through the miniscule room. “Fuck. No. Not now.”
Even with two hands on the knob and twisting as hard as she could, the door refused to budge. Frantically, Pepper placed her palms on the door and banged. “Kendra. Help, I’m trapped in this damn room again.”
Her friend’s anxious reply came a couple moments later. “Pepper? What are you doing?”
“The portal to hell closed on me. Get me out.” God. Why now?
The scrambling noises from the other side of the door weren’t very reassuring. Since they’d moved into the apartment, Pepper had gotten stuck in the bathroom two more times after that initial adventure. She’d taken to leaving the door propped open for a reason.
“It’s not moving,” Kendra moaned. “I’ll get the supe. Be back right away.”
“Wait,” Pepper called, but this time there was no answer.
She stared at the solid barrier between her and freedom for all of two seconds before twirling toward the window. Screw this. The last time it had taken nearly an hour to track down the maintenance dude, and Pepper didn’t have anywhere near that amount of time. She jerked open the window and stuck her head out, examining the fire escape.
There had to be laws against this, but she didn’t give a damn. Pepper made her way onto the rickety metal platform outside her bathroom, clutching the railing tightly as she stayed as close to the wall as possible.
She reached for her phone to tell Kendra to meet her down at the car, but the check came up empty. Her phone—
Of course. She could picture it, lying beside her computer where she’d dropped it in her frantic rush to check the flash drives.
One cautious step after the other, Pepper made her way down the fire escape, metal creaking around her. Bits of paint flaked off and left her hands covered with a light dusting of black metallic flecks.
Lowering the final section of ladder caused a loud screeching noise like a dragon calling out its dismay at intruders invading its territory. Pepper was far more worried about the final drop from the bottom of the ladder to the ground in the back alley. She took a deep breath and worked her way down until she was clinging to the bottom rung.
Why did she have to be so short?
She let go, timing it the best she could and using her knees to absorb the shock of the final five or six feet as she free fell. Momentum sent her all the way to her ass, but as she gingerly brought herself back to her feet it was to find she’d made it in one piece.
“Holy crap, maybe I should join the guys when they do recon.” She gave a fist pump then raced to the front of the building. She could use the intercom to get ahold of Kendra. Or maybe the phone at the—
Kendra’s car was gone.
Moving slowly toward the mysteriously empty space didn’t give her any more clues as to why it was empty. “Where the hell…?”
“Penny?”
Could this day get any weirder? She whirled toward the voice.
“Adam?”
Her former classmate stood to the side of the front entrance, clutching his hands awkwardly. He wore jeans and a faded green T-shirt, and his black hair had grown out since she’d last seen him, curling under his ears. He was a handsome guy, but the sight of him only made her angry.
“I need to talk to you,” Adam said, sounding distressed. “I want to explain—”
“I really don’t have time for this right now.” The panic she’d felt earlier was back, and a whole lot stronger. “I have work to do, and there isn’t anything that I want to talk to you about, you shit.”