Page 82 of The Eagle's Vault

“You may be right, Daniel. It’s a complicated beast.” Enzo nudged Isaac. “What do you think, Isaac? Is your sister’s expertise what we’ve been missing? Between her and Dr. Weber, we’re going to see the eagle tonight, aren’t we?”

“I told you in the van,” hissed Isaac. “I can do this. You don’t need her.”

Enzo hummed aloud. “Honestly, I would’ve preferred Declan here. His team’s become a thorn in our side. It would have given me a great deal of pleasure to leave his corpse inside the vault.”

Oh, shit.Panic burst inside me.

We weren’t getting out of here alive tonight.

Delay. The longer I could delay, the higher the chance Declan and Jayce would find us. Declan would come for me. No matter what I said to him, he’d rescue me. That connection I’d felt when our lips met wasn’t mere attraction; it was trust. The team would rescue all of us. We just had to stay alive long enough.

Please don’t have postponed. Please come soon, Declan.

“What’s the big fuss about her?” Pavel’s words broke into my thoughts. “The safe she made for Edoardo didn’t seem like anything special.”

I felt a prick of defensiveness, but before I could retort, Enzo smacked Pavel and laughed. “She had to simplify her design. You know, something her dear brother could install.”

“I could have opened it, if that’s what we were really doing,” said Pavel.

The hell he could have.

“This whole ruse,” he continued, “was a waste of my skills.”

What was the ruse? Not actually trying to break into my safe? I slowed my breathing, so it wouldn’t interfere with the conversation behind me.

“You should have let me get the notebook.”

“It would have been a stupid risk,” said Enzo. “And you still couldn’t open this vault.”

“And you think the game with Edoardo was smarter?”

One of them smacked the other.

“What?” Pavel must have been the one hit. “Taking his wife and pretending to break into the safes? We should have brought explosives down—”

Another smack.

No wonder the drilled holes in my safe looked like little more than vandalism. They wanted Isaac or Ben—the installers—here. But why?

Unless I really was the target?

It didn’t make any sense. I added history-inspired ideas to my designs, but my research was into metal foams, not stone doors. Surely, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of safe technicians who were better suited to this than me.

And Declan. They’d staged two break-ins. One to bring Isaac, Ben, or me here. Another to bring Declan here.

Reynoldswasin Fenix’s crosshairs. That much was clear.

But why Isaac and me?

Fenix. Of course. Declan had said someone at Barton had made a copy of the manuscript case for them. Whoever was behind that must have been behind Enzo and Pavel messing with my safe, so Isaac and I would come.

Who was it? The contracts went through Dad. It wouldn’t have been him.

Unless it was Ann? Was she trying to get rid of us? Was she really an evil stepmother?

A burst of air flew out of me. What irony. Isaac warned me not to go out alone. But he was in just as much danger as I was.

Pavel shoved me again. “What’s the matter with you?”

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