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I laugh. “You seriously think I’d?—”
“Kit.”
Okay, yeah. Trapping Collins in an elevator with me would have been a funny prank.IfI hadn’t been working on extra professionalism lately.
“I did not set this up,” I assure her. “Kinda flattered you think I’d be able to pull it off though.”
She huffs, muttering, “You would be,” under her breath.
“I’m sure it’s just a temporary … issue.”
Truthfully, I have no clue what the hell is going on. I ride the elevator in this office building multiple times a day and the one up to my penthouse at least twice. Neither has ever malfunctioned. If we were on a sailboat, I’d have some clue how to troubleshoot. But mechanical or electrical problems aren’t my area of expertise.
“I can’tbelievethis,” Collins states, dropping her bag to the floor. It lands with a heartythump.
I side-eye it. “What the hell do you have in there that weighs so much?”
“Drugs,” she says sweetly.
“Still trying to convince me you’re not uptight, huh?”
“Once again, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She steps closer to the panel of buttons, squinting at the symbols. “I’m going to hit the alarm button.”
“Wait a sec,” I reply, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
“Wait forwhat? We’re supposed to call for help. Maybe one of the cables snapped, and we’re about to plummet to our deaths, and every second counts?—”
“Stop talking so much,” I tell her. “We should conserve our oxygen.”
Collins blanches. “Are you serious?”
I nod somberly as I scroll through my Contacts. Tap a name and listen to it ring.
“Hello?” a man’s voice answers.
“Terry, it’s Kit Kensington. How are you?”
“Kit! Wow! I wasn’t—I’m good. You?”
“Been better,” I state, glancing at a pale, scowling Collins. Without allowing myself to think about it, I reach out and grab her hand. Her fingers stay rigid, but she doesn’t pull away. “The elevators appear to have stopped working. Electricity in here is still on, but nothing’s moving.”
“Oh shit,” Terry says. “One sec.”
There’s some garbled background noise, and then a different man’s voice comes through the line.
“Mr. Kensington? I’m Steve Damascus, head of building management. My sincere apologies. We were preparing for some scheduled maintenance and testing operations. Signage was supposed to be posted on each floor, alerting that certain units weren’t supposed to be used tonight. I can’t apologize enough for the inconvenience. Just give us a couple of minutes, and you should be on your way again. If not, please call back.”
“Great. Thank you,” I tell Steve, then hang up and glance at Collins. “Great news. We’ll live.”
She rolls her eyes, but there’s still no color in her cheeks. “Because your buddy told you so?”
“Because the head of building management told me so,” I clarify.
“And you have his number because …”
I fake a cough to buy a little time.
We’re not moving yet, so not replying is going to be fairly obvious. “I was a little … nervous about my first day here. So, I stopped by the week before, later at night, when I didn’t think anyone would be around. But I didn’t have my badge yet, so I couldn’t get up to the right floor. Terry was working the night shift, helped me out. He gave me his number in case I ever needed anything. And he handed me over to the head of building management when I called just now.”