“Take a step in that direction, and you’ll lose everything.” I glance over my shoulder, clutching the knob as the door creaks shut, the urge to flee growing as the dim light of the hallway disappears from sight. I grope for the handle behind me, when all I really want to do is turn around and run. Swallowing back the saliva pooling in my mouth at the fact that he knows my name, my hand moves as though directly responding to his command. I see his massive hands first, then darkly tanned forearms with white cuffs rolled up. My antique desk chair creaks just before the dim glow of my lamp clicks on. Oh Sweet Jesus, I’m going to die and I won’t even see it coming. I fumble around, slapping the concrete wall to find the switch, but when I flip it, nothing happens. I don’t even want to think it now, but my brain conjures it anyway. Whispered about in the shadows, but never mentioned in polite company, almost as if saying his name will make him appear-and no one wants that. There’s no way I want to be in the dark with this voice.
I’ve only heard it once before, through the battered wood of the same locked door I just barged past, but it had been delivering threats I didn’t understand, not asking a question in that cool, controlled manner. “Trying to make an entrance?” The deep voice that comes out of the dark chills me to the very marrow of my bones.
Summoning the same iron will it has taken to dig this company out of the trenches, I grasp the handle, yank it open, and fling myself inside, attempting the element of surprise. My dead husband’s ghost better not be inside, or heaven help me, I’ll kill Brett again myself. I repeat that truth like a chant until my heart slows to a semi-normal pace. It’s barely hanging on, even after four generations of clinging to life making Irish whiskey in New Orleans.
My parents are 700 miles away in Florida living it up as retirees on the monthly payments I make from the dismal profits of the distillery. I freeze outside the door to my locked office and stare at the handle like it’s tainted with anthrax.
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