We last read Chapter 26, in which Beth and Conner’s dinner meeting (or is it a date?) continues. Their conversation turns away from dinner, and toward learning about one another. Beth has too much to drink, so Conner drives her home. After an awkward and charged moment at Beth’s front door, they say their goodbyes, with Conner warning Beth to be careful during her meeting with Xavier Wheldon the next day. Raven Tristan watches their goodbyes from down the street, vowing to break into Beth’s apartment the next day.
This is the second story, so if you want to start from the very beginning, you can jump over to book 1, and begin with the Prologue of Sapphire Angel, Superheroine. Or to start at the beginning of book 2 (this story), click over to the Prologue of Power Play.
Thanks for reading!
Even though Beth had only been a little tipsy the night before, she had stumbled out of bed feeling like she had come down with the flu. But time healed even alcohol-inflicted wounds, and by the time she reached the paved access road to the Pegasus Club, she was finally starting to feel like herself. She wanted to curse Conner for getting her drunk, perhaps in a ploy to get her to lower her inhibitions, but he hadn't taken advantage of her inebriated condition. She scrunched up her face in bewilderment. Wasn't a player like him supposed to woo her into bed if he was interested in her?
She navigated her car down the winding access road as the thickening forest blocked the sun, making it feel like night. After checking in with a guard at a gatehouse, she drove for another several minutes through the dense woods. During the drive, she spotted several cameras mounted in plain view. Wheldon took his security seriously.
When she came to a break in the woods, her jaw dropped and she took her foot off the gas pedal. Three hundred yards ahead, across a vast meadow surrounded by forest, sat a huge structure. Satellite photos had not done Wheldon's lodge justice. It reminded her of a log cabin, but ten times as big and much more grand, with sharp lines, huge windows, and a green tile roof that reflected the sunlight. The structure was two stories high, with twelve large windows across the front of the second floor. A parking circle looped in front of the building and contained three flagpoles, with flags fluttering in the breeze. A large detached garage, off to the left, matched the style of the lodge perfectly, right down to the log construction and tiled roof.
The road split in front of her, with a paved fork continuing toward the lodge, and a dirt fork in the road headed to the right. Thin wooden posts lined the road, with light fixtures atop the posts, and round globes mounted below the fixtures. More security cameras, most likely.
The dirt fork led across open ground and back into the woods, pulling her gaze to the tower she had seen in Stanley's drone photos. The tower sat just a few yards into the woods, perched atop a slope and looming above the trees, its metal surface gleaming. A chain-link fence was visible on the other side of the tower. The ground sloped up away from the tower on that side, causing even smaller trees to rise above it.
From its perch, the tower would provide an unobstructed view of the clearing, the private drive, and the lodge. A guard tower, perhaps? It was an odd structure, with a wide cylinder in the middle, and stairs winding around the cylinder to a platform on top. Beth guessed it to be between 70 and 100 feet tall, and only surpassed by the trees on the far side because it sat on lower ground.
Beth thought of the comic boys read by her late boyfriend, John. Some of those heroes possessed the power to fly, or turn invisible, or even meld with the ground to travel undetected. She didn't have those powers, unfortunately, so she wouldn't be getting closer to the tower. Not on this visit, anyway. Not as Beth Harper.
Instead, she proceeded forward toward the lodge, bypassing the fork leading to the tower. The lodge loomed larger as she got closer, until she pulled into the parking circle in front of the magnificent structure. As she brought her car to a stop, a huge man clad all in black appeared from the massive double doors on the front of the building and walked toward her. She recognized him as Wheldon's bodyguard, from her fight in the isolated building in the woods.
She grabbed her shoulder bag before opening her door and rising from the vehicle. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she straightened her black business suit jacket and pushed her hair over her ears. Along with her suit jacket she was wearing matching black pants, a turquoise shirt, and open-toed black shoes.
"Ms. Harper," the man said with a nod as he approached her. His military-style haircut and rippling muscles made him appear even more imposing in daylight. He wore an earpiece and microphone, and his face had some faint bruising.
"Hello," she replied with a smile, extending her hand. The man looked down at her hand, seemingly unsure what to do with it. He took it and shook it gently, without introducing himself.
"This way please," he said as he turned to the house.
She followed him up a short flight of steps to a small porch. He reached the double doors and swung one open for her, motioning for her to enter. She stepped into a large foyer, almost as majestic as the exterior. The floor was made of wide hardwood planks, weathered and distressed to give the place a false sense of age. The walls, just like the outside, were made from thick logs. The room was rectangular, a quarter the size of a football field, with four ceiling fans stirring the breeze from the high-peaked ceiling. A sitting room opened to her right, with tall ashtrays arranged next to plush leather chairs. The lingering odor of cigars mixed with a forest smell to add to the rustic nature of the place.
What looked to be a study sat in an open room off the foyer to her left. A large glass case stood just to the left of the study door, crowded with shiny trophies, plaques, and other indiscernible items, many of which glimmered under spotlights aimed from the ceiling above. A stairway climbed the left wall, starting just to the right of the study entrance. Shelves and rows of books filled the study, and a table of dark wood sat in the middle of the room.
"Follow me please," Wheldon's bodyguard said, crossing the foyer and starting down a wide hallway. Beth followed, realizing she hadn't appreciated just how big and muscular he was when she had fought him as Sapphire Angel.
She examined the walls as they walked past closed doors on both sides. Heads from bears, boars, and other animals were mounted high on the walls, their faces frozen in positions of ferocity. Below a deer's head, laying on the floor and against the wall, was a child's doll wearing a diaper and made of plastic. It seemed out of place in the otherwise manly interior.
Ahead, at the end of the hall, a tall window filled the full height of the wall. Bright light came through the window, made brighter by its reflection off a body of water outside. As she reached the end of the hall, Beth saw a glass door built into the tall window, appearing almost to have been carved out of the glass. A small lake shimmered beyond the glass, perhaps 100 yards across and bisected by a dock. The dock, shaped like an upside-down T, ran along the back of the lodge and extended out into the water. Three rowboats were tied to the dock, each with a small engine on the back.
The lake was deserted and the water smooth as glass. A mirror image of the lodge reflected on the surface of the water, revealing the majesty of the rear of the building. Except for the large window and door, its appearance was identical to the front of the building.
The bodyguard led her into a sitting room to the right, at the end of the hall. Xavier Wheldon sat there, a smile on his face.
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Words cannot describe how on-edge I am at this moment. Jeez.....where’s my stress ball.....?
I REALLY DON’T LIKE THIS