“This way, please,” Belinda said as she pressed a button mounted into the wall. A ding echoed and the elevator doors flew apart. She held them for me, and I stepped inside the metal container. Belinda inserted a badge hanging from her neck into a slit in the control panel and the doors closed.
“Mr. Luca is looking forward to meeting you,” Belinda said, trying to remain cheery and chatty as the elevator lurched upward, leaving my stomach on the ground floor.
“Likewise,” I said, the words barely whistling out through my tightened throat. Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect, but no matter how I tried to calm myself, something didn’t sit right. The building was taller than I’d thought, because at the twenty-fifth floor, the doors dinged as they re-opened.
A gasp leaked out of me as we
