The Monster In Us

22- a thousand KNives

"I haven't found anything about an Alma Berardi in their system," Coleman tells me Friday at lunch as I'm hiding in a small unused office at the end of a hallway in the Berardi Casino. If I don't have any Pantera work to do, I'll have lunch with Dante on the roof but when I do have Pantera business, I have to find some private place to work and tell Dante that I'm working through my lunch. Technically, not a lie.

"Have you searched the whole system?" I ask him in return.

"Practically. I'll keep looking but this is looking like a dead end," He informs me. "I know that your dad won't accept that as an answer though so you'll be stuck there until we find something if you insist on doing exactly what he orders."

"What if there's nothing to find and that this was just a rumor?" I wonder, knowing that he's right. I can't come back to my father just to tell him that we came up empty. The fact that this might just be a rumor that Alma is coming back is just not acceptable.

"Yeah, I don't know," Coleman answers. "Anything new on your end?"

"Not really. They've finished up the Arizona project as far as I know, and I haven't met any of the tech employees that they had before. They're either working on another project or Arizona isn't finished. Either way, I'm still not sure that they're going to keep me around after their tech people are back on the job at hand."

"Don't they realize how seriously talented you are though? They won't get rid of you," He assures me.

"I guess but I've been playing slightly dumb so that I can spend some time on this stuff so I guess that we'll see. There's not really anything that I can do about it now."

"What are you working on over the weekend?"

"Nothing," I say before I can stop myself. "I'm taking the weekend off."

"Do you really think that we have time for that?" He wonders incredulously. "Vera, the harder you work, the faster you'll get back home, safe and in one piece."

"I know that but I'm going away for the weekend. Not for Berardi or Pantera, I'm just getting away from it all just for the weekend," I inform him unapologetically.

"With Dante?"

"So what if it is?" I ask him.

"He's dangerous, Vera."

"So am I," I respond almost immediately.

"Alright," Coleman sighs. "You do what you want, you're an adult and you can make that decision. I've made it very clear that I don't approve of that but that's fine. Call me if things go wrong, okay?"

"Things won't go wrong," I assure him.

"Just fucking tell me that you'll call," He demands of me. "We're partners, it's my job to make sure that you're alright even if you are making stupid decisions."

"Okay," I appease him. "You will be the first person that I call if things go wrong. Thanks for worrying. My lunch is almost over so I have to go. Keep digging through the system, let me know what you find on Monday."

"Will do, Boss," Coleman confirms and then I hang up our call and close my laptop so that I can return to my desk for the rest of the day before meeting up with Dante after work to head to the lake house for the weekend. I could not be more excited to get away from here.

As I'm leaving the office, my other phone starts ringing, the one that I use as Elisa, and the caller ID shows me that it's Dante. "Hello?" I answer it.

"How busy are you right now?" He asks me.

"I'm just finishing something up," I say. "What's up?"