Page 68 of One Eye Open (The BlackWater)

“This is going to be a very long day.” Max moaned next to her and she smirked as she poured out two coffees. Around them half of the heads of BlackWater, Black Tech, and Black Industries were congregating, mingling, networking. It was a corporate, bureaucratic clusterfuck of excitement that Maddie was struggling to get her head around. Just play it cool Maddie, she thought. Just play the game, and in eight hours it would be over.

“Extra strong.” She said passing him one.

“Think we’re gonna need it.” He said looking round at all the bodies in the room. “Guess this is the downside to running our own department eh?” He added.

“Tell me about it.” Maddie said smirking before taking a gulp of her drink. Damn she needed caffeine, she thought.

She saw Charlotte over the other side of the room, deep in conversation with some man from the State Department. She glanced round and saw Brandon making small talk with another government official.

“Wanna make a bet?” Max said.

“About what?” She asked.

“Which one of us either falls asleep or walks out first…” He said and she laughed.

“Don’t tempt me.” She replied as a man got up onto the stage and asked everyone to take their seats.

“Here we go.” She muttered as they headed over to the table annoyingly near the front where their allocated seats were.

Maddie sat listening to the presentations. One after another feeling more bored and frustrated as they went on. Sure she was a department lead and thus had to be there but she was itching to be up, to be moving, to be doing anything other than just sitting and enduring the near constant feeling of banality that such a corporate, bureaucratic meeting had.

When Jennifer got up she felt Brandon glancing at her. And Cole too. Just momentarily and she made a point of not looking at them. She wasn’t a child. She knew how to behave, how to be professional even if that woman didn’t, so she sat there, next to Max, surrounded by all the other department leads from BlackWater, taking notes as if nothing were amiss.

Jennifer finished and everyone applauded and she literally simpered, right there, right on the stage in her tight, obviously expensive, light blue dress that once again highlighted her enviable figure, knowing that all eyes were on her.

“Jesus.” Max muttered next to her and she suppressed the urge to laugh. At least Max wasn’t impressed she thought.

Jennifer got down, taking her time, and strutting to her table, with her hips swaying almost hypnotically. Then someone from Black Tech got up to follow on from where she’d left it.

And Maddie slipped back into forcing herself to focus again. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and pulled it out glancing at the caller. She looked up and motioned to Brandon who nodded for her to take it and she as quietly as she could she slipped out the room by one of the back doors.

She was so busy walking and talking she didn’t notice when the door shut behind her but when the call ended and she turned to get back in it was locked from the inside and she was essentially shut out.

In the cold.

Rolling her eyes she pocketed her phone and started walking around the building to find another entrance but a shadow crossed the window making her freeze.

She saw it in the fraction of a second but her mind registered what it was anyway.

A gun. An assault rifle.

She flattened herself against the wall and peered in.

What the fuck, she thought as she counted at least a dozen armed men right there, in the middle of the damn conference room clearly taking the entire lot of them hostage.

She pulled her phone, dialling the first person she thought of.

“Afternoon Mads, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Aidan said cheerfully.

“We have a code nine at the bloody AGM.” Maddie said quietly not wanting to give her position away if anyone was prowling for leftovers.

“What?” Aidan said back, instantly flitting to AR Lead.

“I’ve counted about a dozen armed assailants but could be more.” She stated.

“Where are you?” He asked.

“Outside. I got locked out.” She said.

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