Laid Bare by Anna Stone

Author:Anna Stone [Stone, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 8

Blair’s pulse hammered in her ears. She clung to Madison’s hand as the elevator dropped.

But it didn’t plunge to the ground. Instead, it continued in a steady, controlled descent.

“The elevator,” Blair said. “It must be fixed.”

“We’re finally getting out of here.” The relief was clear in Madison’s voice.

Blair looked at the display above the elevator door. It was counting down the floors. Soon they would reach ground level. Her stomach stirred. She was relieved, although probably not as relieved as Madison. But at the same time, she felt the faintest tug of disappointment. Once they were out of here, she and Madison would go their separate ways.

Blair pushed the feeling aside and stood up on shaky legs. All that mattered was that they were moments from freedom.

The elevator reached the ground floor and stopped with a shudder. Blair held her breath. The seconds stretched out, until finally, the doors slid open.

Blair shielded her eyes, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights of the lobby.

“Go on,” Madison said. “After you.”

Blair stepped out of the elevator, Madison at her heels. As her vision adjusted to the light, she saw that the lobby was filled with people. EMTs. Firefighters. Security.

A dark-haired woman pushed through the gathered crowd and hurried toward them, her face warped with concern. She pulled Madison into a hug. “Are you okay? This must have been awful for you.”

“I’m fine, Yvonne,” Madison replied.

Once again, Blair’s research was paying off. The dark-haired woman was Yvonne Maxwell, the second in command at Mistress Media.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” An EMT stood before them. “We need to take a look at you. Just to make sure you’re okay.” He gestured toward a bench to the side where another EMT was setting up her gear.

Blair and Madison sat down on the bench. Yvonne hovered by Madison, fussing over her until one of the EMTs told her to give them some space. Someone wrapped Blair in a blanket and handed her a bottle of water. But Blair wasn’t cold or thirsty. Being suddenly surrounded by people was overwhelming.

As the EMT took Blair’s blood pressure, a man in a suit walked over to them, an apologetic expression on his face. “Ms. Sloane, I’m from building management. I’d like to extend an apology to you both. I’m sorry this happened.”

“What exactly did happen?” Madison asked firmly. “How did we end up stuck in there? Why did it take so long to get us out?”

“It took some time for anyone to figure out what was going on. Maintenance got the emergency call from the elevator, but when they answered, they couldn’t hear anything.”

“We couldn’t hear anything either,” Madison said.

“We figured there was a problem with the intercom, but we assumed someone was in there, we just couldn’t speak to you. We were working on the problem from the beginning. It was an electrical malfunction. Rest assured, you were never in any danger.”

Beside them, Yvonne scoffed. “Never in any danger? They were trapped for hours!”

The man shot Yvonne an irritated look. “As I told you earlier, they were perfectly safe the entire time.

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