Between the Spirit and the Dust

Chapter Sixteen

As it turned out, The Society was a Michelin-starred restaurant frequented by the upper crust of society in Washington. Prominent politicians had spent time wining and dining their corporate donors there. I was also informed that the appropriate attire for it was black-tie. 

I was currently dressed in my oldest blue jeans, which had rips at the knees, a plain cream-colored blouse and my comfiest sneakers. Collins was wearing his usual white long-sleeved button-down and dress pants. Today, he added a shoulder holster to his ensemble.

This was the closest I’d ever been to gun and to be honest, it made me kind of sick.

Some of the agents had also tried to coax me into a bullet-proof vest but I’d refused. Gabriel St. Clair hadn’t given us any reason to believe that he was going to shoot me. And surprisingly, Collins had agreed with me.

Collins and I were inside the idling van, waiting as the FBI checked out the area surrounding the restaurant, making sure that there were no other suspicious vehicles in the area and no snipers on the neighboring rooftops. Evie had told me that top brass was talking no chances on my survival. 

Jenna, Evie and Max were in an empty apartment nearby, watching the surveillance feed of The Society as well as its outside area. 

“Ems?” said a familiar voice in my standard issue ear-piece. The ear-piece was for me to communicate with the rest of the Feds. It was also going to pick up on everything that I heard tonight. Even though they’d managed to hack into The Society’s video cameras, those feeds had no audio. 

“Yes?” I asked.

Max said, “Keep yourself safe tonight.”

“I will." 

Collins muttered disgustedly, in a voice that was just loud enough to broadcast over his ear-piece, “Great, just what I needed. Teenagers and their hormones.”

I reddened. Max hadn’t been too happy to hear that I was going to meet Gabriel but no matter how he’d tried to coax me out of it, I stood by my decision. Eventually, he’d given up on fighting me about it and let it drop.

“Alright, Collins and Emily. The area is clear and is secured,” came Shepherd’s voice over the ear-piece. “Suspect is already in the restaurant. You may enter but remember to proceed with caution.”

“Copy that,” said Collins easily 

He yanked open the van door and exited, looking ready to go in and face Gabriel. I followed more shakily, feeling the emergence of butterflies in my stomach. I’d stopped myself from thinking too much about today’s meeting because I didn’t want to scare myself off. But now that I was actually going to do it, I really wished I given more thought to what I was going to say.

Collins walked purposefully into The Society and I trailed after him. The restaurant was bathed in a warm, yellow light and there was soft jazz music playing. Strangely though, I didn’t hear any clink of cutlery or the low murmur of conversation 

A maître d’ greeted us near the door. “Good evening, welcome to The Society. I apologize but the restaurant is closed for a private function tonight. 

Did he book the entire restaurant just for tonight? As the thought occurred to both of us, Collins scowled like the display of Gabriel St. Clair’s wealth displeased me and I tried not to show how intimidated I was. Instead I said, “I’m Emily Wilkins, this is Mr. Collins. We are guests of Mr. St. Clair.”

The maître d’ maintained his bland smile even as his eyes raked me up and down for the causal way I was dressed. He barely even blinked at Collins’ shoulder holster. “Of course, please follow me.”