CHAPTER 3: The Lobby Holds Its Breath

The revolving glass entrance doors stood at the far end of the lobby.
Beyond them, in the bright driveway, a black luxury SUV waited at the curb.
No one had noticed it before.
They noticed it now.
Ava’s command seemed to move through the staff faster than sound. One receptionist straightened. A doorman looked toward the SUV. A housekeeper near the column pressed her lips together and lowered her eyes, not in fear of Benjamin, but in recognition of the name he still had not heard.
Benjamin followed their gaze and laughed once.
“Your father?” he said. “What is he, a manager?”
Ava did not answer.
She only stood with her shoulders level and her cheek burning under the chandelier light.
Benjamin raised his phone as if he might call someone more important than everyone present.
Then the driver’s side of the black SUV opened outside.
A man in a black suit stepped into view.
The lobby went still in a different way.
Not shocked now.
Prepared.