The Fall Up

“There’s no guest here by that name. Please don’t make this difficult,” Agent J bit out.

My anticipation quickly swung to anger as disappointment settled like acid in my stomach. Stepping forward, I seethed, “She gave me the address. I’m not leaving without seeing her.”

“Get. Out.” He snapped a finger to the parking lot and leveled me with a menacing glare.

I didn’t budge. Fuck this asshole if he thinks he’s keeping me from her. “Find. Levee.”

“I won’t ask you to leave again,” Agent K declared as J slipped around behind me.

“Fuck you.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Levee’s number.

She answered on the first ring, and if my head hadn’t been about to explode, I would have given her shit about it.

“Are you here yet?” she asked.

“Yes, and no. Security is kicking me out.”

“What?” she shrieked so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

“Goodbye, sir,” Agent J growled, shoving me toward the doors.

I stood my ground as rage boiled in my veins. I poked a hard finger into his brick wall of a chest. “Don’t fucking touch me again.”

“Sam, what the hell is going on? Let me talk to them.”

Gritting my teeth, I lifted the phone. “Levee wants to talk to you.”

They glanced at each other in unspoken agreement.

Neither took the phone.

One did take my arm though—and twisted it behind my back. The other held the door open while he shoved me out of it. My phone skidded across the concrete as I stumbled forward, barely staying on my feet as the door shut and locked behind me.

What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened?

The muscle in my jaw twitched as I fought to regain some sort of composure that didn’t have me shattering that fucking glass door and killing two men. Then I heard Levee’s voice coming from my phone on the ground.

“Sam!”

Snatching it up, I was only able to grit out, “I’m going to jail. It may be for a long fucking time.” I stomped toward the door and banged on the glass, but the MIB had already walked away.

“What? Sam, stop and tell me what’s going on!”

“I just got fucking thrown out for trying to come visit you!” I shouted. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, fully aware that this wasn’t her fault. “I’m sorry,” I quickly apologized.

“Just calm down, okay? Let me go talk to them, and I’ll call you back. Don’t. Leave.”

“Funny. That’s not what they said as they tossed me on the street,” I snapped then sighed. “Sorry. Again.”

“It’s okay. You want me to have them fired?” she asked in jest, and if I could have slowed the adrenaline pumping through my system, I probably would have smiled.

I raked a hand through my hair and huffed, “That would be fan-fucking-tastic.”

“Consider it done. Now, chill out and I’ll see you in a minute.”

Chill out.

Yeah, that wasn’t at all what I wanted to do, but with the promise of seeing her in a minute still ringing in my ears, I managed to pack it down.

I stomped around the side of the building to my rental car.

Then I waited.

And waited.

And fucking waited some more.

For over an hour, I sat in the car, staring at the entrance of the building. My phone wasn’t ringing, and Levee’s had started going straight to her voicemail. I was already tired from having traveled all night, and as the adrenaline drained from my body, I was suddenly exhausted.

Grabbing my phone, I shot out a quick text letting Levee know that I was going to grab some coffee but wouldn’t be far.

She didn’t respond.





“Who did this?” I screamed like the diva I prided myself in never becoming. But, then again, no one had ever meddled in my personal life before.

“Calm down, Miss Williams.” Doctor Post and someone, whose name I’d promptly forgotten but had been introduced as the center’s head administrator, were sitting in a small conference room, attempting to defuse me.

Aly Martinez's books