Page 103 of Atlas
I went back to work. As soon as I’d answered the last ten emails in my inbox, I would go back to Atlas’ place, buy a take-out pizza for us, and sit all night on the couch, updating my contacts with my new phone number.
I had gotten through four emails when the door buzzer sounded. At this time of night, our entrance doors to the office building were locked. Thinking it might be a late delivery, I picked up the phone and pressed the button to speak to the person outside. “Hello.”
“Jolene?” a female voice asked.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“It’s Velna. I need to talk to you.”
My pulse picked up, and I felt my throat tightening. Velna shouldn’t be here. She lived in California. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you. It’s important.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes. Can I come in? It will only take a minute.”
“Hang on a second.” Putting down the phone, I walked to the window and looked down to the entrance of the building. Only one small figure stood in the rain outside. Lifting the blinds, I looked left and right to make sure no one else was around before I walked back to my desk and buzzed Velna in. She had warned me before, and I felt that I owed it to her to at least listen.
I met her in the waiting room and didn’t feel like taking her further into the building, but she looked frozen and was holding her hands under her armpits.
“How did you get here?”
“I walked. I didn’t realize how far it was. I tried calling, but you didn’t pick up.”
“Do you want a cup of coffee?” I nodded toward the self-service machine in the corner. “It’s not the best coffee, but it might heat you a bit.”
She nodded and thanked me when I made her a cup and handed it to her.
“Why don’t we sit down?” I pointed to the sofa in the waiting room. “What did you want to tell me?”
“It’s about Niklavs. I’m so sorry, Jolene. I made a mistake.”
I sat stiffly on the sofa with my hands in my lap. “What mistake?”
“Niklavs called me from jail. He knew I had warned you, and he was furious about it. I felt so bad for him. Last time he was in prison, it almost killed him. He was in trouble with the guards so many times just for defending himself.” She looked away. “Everyone wants to fight a boxer, and Niklavs has a temper, so it’s easy for the other inmates to rile him up.” She sat on the edge of the sofa, looking down at the coffee in her hands.
“Velna, I have to ask you something.”
She raised her gaze to look at me.
“I know that you work for a phone company. Did you give Niklavs my new phone number and address? Is that how he found out?”
She bit her lip. “No.”
“The damage is done. You can tell me. I know you work for Verizon. I’m just trying to understand.”
“No, you don’t understand what it’s like.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t have a choice. He begged me to help him. We’ve been through so much together, and I thought that if I did this for him, things would be different and he would be grateful.”
“So, you gave him my new contact information.”
She gave a single nod. “Yes. And that wasn’t my only mistake. It’s the other one that I came to talk to you about.”
I swallowed and tried to ease my pounding heart. “What did you do?”
