Free Impervious (City of Eldrich Book 1) by Laura Kirwan Page A

office suite. They crossed the hall to the small copy room and smaller file room. According to Kady, the door at the back of the file room led into a larger storage area carved out of the unfinished attic. It was always kept locked, more for the safety of people who might enter than to protect anything inside. The storage area was only partially finished and surrounded by unreinforced floors and exposed stone walls. One wrong step and you’d find yourself dropping in, literally, on the mayor, whose second floor office sat below.
    Natalie, Kady told her, kept the attic key. They found her in Jamie’s office, which sat next to Meaghan’s.
    Natalie sat in Jamie’s desk chair, staring at his computer with a scowl. She muttered under her breath, reached down, and whacked the computer tower with her hand. “Work already, you evil piece of shit.”
    Kady cleared her throat. Natalie turned to look at Kady and Meaghan standing in the doorway and smiled. She was in her early thirties, with wild auburn hair, curled in ringlets, and the greenest eyes Meaghan had ever seen.
    Natalie hopped to her feet and came around the desk with her hand out. She was tall and curvy, like an ancient fertility goddess. Renaissance artists would have killed for the chance to paint her. “Hey, boss. Welcome aboard. Just knocking some sense into Jamie’s computer.”
    Meaghan shook her offered hand. Natalie’s grip was firm and her hand so warm it felt like a heating pad. Jamie hadn’t been kidding about it being casual dress around here, Meaghan thought. Like Kady, Natalie wore jeans. She also wore a lavender T-shirt with “Humboldt Hydroponics” written in dark green Gothic script punctuated with a pot leaf, a spangly knit scarf around her neck, and black engineer boots.
    Meaghan liked her right away. She never cared what her administrative staff wore, only that the work got done. Despite her wild hair and stoner T-shirt, Natalie exuded competence. According to Jamie, Natalie always got the job done, on time and with minimal drama.
    “Kady give you the tour?” Natalie asked.
    “Sure did.” Meaghan hesitated. What the hell was she doing here? At that moment, the realization of the enormity of the changes she’d undergone in the last few weeks, of how far she was from what she thought of as home, hit her like a fist. The room began to spin, gently at first, and then picked up speed, and now Kady and Natalie were easing her into a chair.
    Meaghan, her eyes screwed shut, let the room come to a stop.
    She felt Natalie’s warm hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”
    Meaghan opened her eyes. “Yeah, better.” She took a few deep breaths to steady herself and then tried to make a joke. “And I’m not even in the round office. I may need hand rails in there.”
    Natalie laughed, but it sounded forced and she looked concerned. She and Kady exchanged a meaningful glance. Again, Meaghan sensed an unspoken conversation.
    “Seriously,” Meaghan said. “I’m fine. Just got a little woozy for a sec.”
    Natalie frowned. “Does that happen often?”
    “No,” Meaghan said. “Not since high school choir. Don’t worry. I won’t be swooning all over the office. I’m fine.”
    Natalie’s frown relaxed into a smile. “Has anyone ever told you you’re exactly like your father?”
    Meaghan grinned back. “No. Not ever once in my whole life.”
    “Yeah, right,” Natalie shot back. She turned to Kady. “Would you get Meaghan a cup of . . .” She turned back to Meaghan. “Coffee? Tea?”
    “Coffee,” Meaghan told her.
    “On it,” Kady said, and headed down the hall.
    “Okay, lady,” Natalie said. “Let’s get you into your office and see if the computer guy did his job.”
    Meaghan rose with care, but the dizziness was gone. A small fountain of fear bubbled in the back of her mind. She was exactly like Matthew. What if she was getting his disease now too? Did Alzheimer’s have a genetic component?
    The fear must have shown on her