Inflated Ego novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Atrium

I lay in the dark for thirty-eight minutes after the door closed.

I checked, because I kept looking at my phone.

At 2:38 I got up and turned on the lamp.

Margot had forgotten her blazer.

It lay across the back of my one chair, dark navy, and the lining of its inside pocket was heavy.

I slid my hand in and found a white plastic keycard with LANGHORN TALENT in gold.

It was her spare, the one she kept for days she lost her bag.

I held it for a long moment.

The photo on my phone had been a backup plan, and here was the real thing, lying in my hand.

I thought about her shaking fingers on the buttons.

I thought about the way she had said "Work," to the empty room.

Then I thought about my contract on the stage floor, and I put on my jeans.

I took a cab I couldn't afford.

The agency's glass front was dark when I reached it, with only the security light glowing in the lobby.

The night guard sat at his desk with earbuds in, watching a ball game on his phone.

I didn't go through the lobby.

Her card opened the side door by the loading dock, with a soft green beep.

I slipped into the service corridor and stood in the dark.

The plan was simple.

Victor kept a black leather ledger in his top-floor office, the one every model in the building whispered about.

Men he had ruined, and why, and what he had on them.

If I took one clear photograph of that book, I could ruin him in public the way he had ruined me.

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