intruders. I can’t see anything, but I can tell from the sound of his voice that he’s not by the office I’m in. I stay put anyway.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
“I told you, man, this is my father’s office. I’m not intruding, so you can’t arrest me.”
“Son, I am not going to debate this with you. I don’t know who you are, and I’m not in the habit of taking the word of people who break and enter a business at one o’clock in the morning. So turn around and put your hands behind your back. We’ll work this out after I have you secured.”
“Jerry, just do what he’s saying.”
“Shut up, Heather. He can’t tell me what to do. This is my property.”
I hear a boom and a struggle and then some swearwords. “Get off me, man!”
There’s more grunting, followed by sounds of clicking. “You have the right to remain silent . . .” The voices get fainter as the intruder is hauled off down the hallway. When I finally get brave enough to pop my head up above the desk, there’s a man standing in the hallway looking right at me. My eyes go wide. Thank God he’s wearing a police uniform, or I probably would have passed out with fear.
He winks at me, gives me a little salute, and walks away, headed for the back door. I sink back down onto the carpet, feeling like I’m going to vomit. My head is spinning and I’m covered in cold sweat.
I cannot believe that just happened. Sounds of the girl whining and her boyfriend grumbling disappear as the delinquents and the arresting officers leave the building. There are locking noises and then silence.
I wait there in that office sitting on my butt listening to my heartbeat in my ears for the longest time, surprised I’m not having a heart attack. I didn’t know my heart could even go this fast. I hold my hands out in front of me and marvel at how much they’re trembling. I look like a drug addict in bad need of a fix.
Soon enough, there’s a sound coming from the doorway. Then Lucky is there standing next to my desk, looking down at me as he holds his hands out. “Can I help you up?”
I grab his hands and use them to leverage myself onto my feet. I brush my pants off and straighten myself up as best I can. I waste a little more time smoothing my hair back into its ponytail. It’s probably hopeless, but I need these few extra seconds to calm myself down. It isn’t Lucky’s fault that this happened, but I am very tempted to take my anger out on him anyway.
“So, that was unexpected.” He gives me a half grin.
“It most certainly was.” I don’t share his sense of humor over it.
He gestures at my computer. “Are you finished here?”
I grab the seat and pull it over, sitting down on it. “Almost.” Work will calm me down and take my mind off the craziness I just suffered. Turning the monitor on, I verify that the upload of the virus is complete. “Yes. All finished.” I eject the thumb drive from the computer and pull it from the tower. Standing, I move the chair back into the spot where it was when I first arrived. “Are you finished?” I’m really proud of myself. Inside, I feel like I want to tear some doll heads off or Hulk-out on this guy, but outside I’m as cool as a cucumber. Lucky would never know from looking at my calm expression that I want to maim him.
“The only thing we have left is the actual server. How about if we go do that one together?”
I nod. “I’m just going to make a quick phone call and I’ll join you.”
Lucky nods and walks off. I step into the hallway and call Dev. He answers on the first ring.
“Are you okay?” The sounds of traffic are in the background. He’s still on his way to rescue me, I think.
I sigh heavily, so relieved to hear his voice on the other end of the line. It somehow magically makes all the crap I just went through seem like not such a big deal anymore. “I’m fine. The police showed up and hauled two kids out of here. I can’t believe I panicked like that over teenagers. You don’t need to come out here. Really, we’re fine. I overreacted.”
“Hey, don’t say that. You