Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) Read Free Page A

fast. He was just standing there, like he had been waiting for me. It felt very odd and well into the uncomfortable range.
                  Okay…I could handle this. I had taken some self-defense classes and a year of Tae Kwon Do to boot. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I was bad ass, but I thought I could hold my own even with my small stature. I might be reading the situation wrong anyway. Maybe he’s just a harmless oaf that seems sleazy. Either way I had no choice. I’d have to let this play out as he was blocking my path.
                  “Hi Carl, I didn’t notice you there.” I was trying to sound normal but not sure he was going to buy the act since it so clearly conflicted with my earlier demeanor. He didn’t reply. He just smiled as he walked slowly closer. He was still about ten feet away when I started to dig in my purse, as if I couldn’t find my keys as he approached.
                  “Oh no….I think I left my keys inside, I always do that!” I took a quick step towards the door. A little too quickly because he picked up his pace a little anticipating my urge to flee and clearly didn‘t buy my excuse at all. I nervously pulled at the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Oh no, it must only be opening from the inside because of the late time. Taking a couple deep breaths, I got as prepared as I could for the mountain of man heading towards me.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
                  “Shit!!!!” I pounded my fist on the desk underneath the monitors. “God dam it! I knew she was going to be a problem!”
                  “They spotted her?” Michael, who had been hanging close by, came rushing back into the office.
                  “Yeah,” I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, “We’ve got trouble.” I walked the few feet to the elevator that would take me up to ground level with Michael following close at my back.
                  “Should I get the guys?” Mike asked.
                  “No. I’ll handle this. Just keep an eye out for the rest of them showing up. I’m hoping it doesn’t escalate. Remember, no fatalities.”
                  It’s going to escalate. Not tonight and not here is all I could hope. I’d been trying to steer clear of an all out war for so long that a part of me just wanted it out of pure frustration and pent up anger. I’d love to let all this churning emotion loose, give it free reign. Let all the ugliness I’d been feeling deep in my gut spew out onto whoever came in my path and stood against me, instead of swallowing it. Choking on it, day in and day out. Not here though. This place needed to stay clean. There was already too much attention coming our way. Not here, whatever it took, it was not going to happen here. Not if I could stop it. I’d swallow it back one more time, but it was getting harder and harder. One day, I was going to wake up and have reached my limit. I had a line and they kept testing it. Whoever said, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,” should walk a mile in my shoes.
                  “Mike, get Joey to check out this elevator tomorrow. We can’t have this thing going this slowly. Not when we need to go up ten floors.”
                  “I don’t know why we can’t get a staircase,” Mike said almost in a pout, which was ridiculous for a man his size. He was almost as large as me, and he still sounded like a kid half the time. He loved using the staircase for exercise. He was big into calisthenics, but the upper four-story staircase would have to suffice.
                  “You know why we can’t get a staircase, the elevator and the hatches. That‘s it.” Rehashing the same discussion, which was usually aggravating, was actually a good distraction now. It was hard not to pace or show this building anger, but