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The air tasted liked metal. I had an ill feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was every minute of midnight in The City.
The pain was strong in my thigh again. I took a Norco from a little pill case and crushed the bitter pill in my mouth.
I sat in Selina Franks’ red Ford Mustang. She was a sight. Black stretch pants. Black DKNY hoodie. Her blond hair stuffed in a black beanie.
We were parked a few blocks from the city capital. It was Sunday night so the capitol's been a ghost town all day. We locked the doors and made our way.
The night was quiet. A soft wind blew the leaves across the cement streets. They made loud scratching sounds as they surfed from gutter to gutter. Selina knew the rotation of the guards. There was no alarm on right now because the cleaning crew was at work.
We entered the Capitol through the service entrance. Selina led me to the 5th floor. The floor was a wide open space of cubicles, and see-thru glass offices that reminded me of the prison cell’s from “OZ”.
Th mayors Office was all the way in the back. It had an outer office where Selina and Lisa work. Then a beautiful inner office of dark mahogany. Complete with cream drapes on the window.
I sat down in the Mayors $4000 Eames leather office chair. Must be nice I thought. Selina leaned over me from behind. Logging me on to the Mayors Mac Computer.
I saw a pull out drawer underneath the desktop. I pulled it. But it was locked. I looked at the pen holder and other desk accessories for the key to no avail.
She smelled like heaven. A tress of her blonde hair fell from her hat and brushed my cheek. I searched recent files on the desktop. Not sure what I was looking for. Just anything that might involve the Gold brothers.
I came across a file marked Dragon Land Trust. For some reason, the name stuck out to me. Just as I was opening the file. We heard voices approaching the door of the outer office.
Quick where can we hide I asked. Scanning the room for another exit. The outer door was opened. We only had seconds. Selina grabbed me by the arm and led me to a coat closet.
We closed the door behind us just as the voices entered the inner office. The coat closet was cramped musty. I could barely make out the voices on the other side of it.
It was two men. One was Mayor Luke Henry. The other voice was too low for me to make out. The Mayor sounded very concerned as he did most of the talking.
His speech was pointed and rapid. Like a machine gun. He sounded as if he was frantically trying to explain something away.
The other man was closer to the closet but his voice was soft, calm almost whispering. As if he knew someone was listening.
I got that taste of metal in my mouth. It always happens when I feel like something amiss. I was so lost in eavesdropping. I didn't notice just how tiny the closet was. I didn't know just how close Selina was to me.
I Hadn’t noticed her arms around me. I hadn’t noticed her eyes on mine. Almost glowing in the dark space. Her perfume wrapped me in a haze. I forgot where we were. What we were doing. Why we were doing it.
She raised her lips. I lowered my chin. We met in the middle. Her lips were soft and sweet like fruit.
Sinful kiwis. She bit my lip. I tasted blood. I bit her back. Our bottom lips massaged each others tongue.
My skin caught fire as she placed her hand on the nape of my neck. She pushed my head into hers. Our kiss intensified from the pressure.
We were lost in that moment. Unaware of our surroundings. I was shocked back to reality when she let out a soft moan. Before I could hush her.
The Mayor's voice turned up to 11. His last words were. No! We can fix this. Don't you know who I work for?
The other man answered his question with two almost silent shots. Twip, Twip went the bullets. Thud! Went the Mayor's dead body to the floor.
All the passion that filled the little closet a moment before was gone. It was replaced by paralyzing tension. Beads of sweat. Shoulders tensed. Our hearts pounding like the bass subs at an underground rave.
The man approached the closet door. I heard his hand grip the knob. My body stiffened. As if liquid steel ran through my veins.
Suddenly. The blood-curdling scream of a woman pierced the night. Selina clutched me tighter. I push her away gently and sprang from the closet.
The light was still off in the inner office. But the door was opened and mellow yellow light poured from the outer room. The shape of a small round woman with a vacuum was silhouetted in the door frame. The man spun around to face me. I was already swinging a left cross.