Page 88 of The Eagle's Vault

“Jayce, are you hidden?” Scarlett was far calmer than me. Then again, that was her superpower.

A text alert flashed on my forearm.Like a chameleon.

“Show us.” I started moving again, more carefully, eyes on my phone.

The instant the video notification came through, I switched to watch Jayce’s feed. It started dark, then gradually lit up as she moved it past the edge of a wall. She must have been around a corner from them. A large chamber opened up, two brilliant work lights pointing at something off-screen.

The vault.

There stood Leigh, arms tight to her body, holding something. The notebook? She was still wearing the light T-shirt she’d worn to my hotel room—she must have been so cold down here—and her hair was a mess.

Brie said, “Who’s who?”

“Leigh’s in the middle,” I said, unable to say more. Her shoulders were down again, like every time she got near Isaac. I picked up my pace. I needed to get to her.

“Tabarnak,” Rav growled over the line. “I’m parking the car and coming in.”

“Shit,” said Malcolm. Everyone was watching Jayce’s video. “That’s Noah’s thug, isn’t it?”

Scarlett’s affirmative sent a wave of dread coiling around my stomach. “And the injured man, it’s Daniel Weber. Giovanni’s man.”

Giovanni had accused Weber of betraying him—revealing the notebook’s location to the kidnappers. And the kidnappers were there.

Oh, god. “They took Leigh.”

Emmett added, “Daniel Weber. That’s the name of the guy the clowns had with me in Venice. They called him their historian.”

“Did they beat him, too?” Scarlett’s voice was thick. Emmett’s ordeal had taken its toll on her.

“Yeah,” came his simple reply.

“Doesn’t sound like he betrayed Giovanni.” Did my words matter at this moment?

“Brie? Will?” snapped Scarlett. “Can you get more info on the map? Find them a way to the other exit. I don’t like this. I want egress points now.”

I drew closer to Jayce’s hiding spot, enough that the work lights shone around the next corner. I took the opportunity to riffle through my pack, a slim sack filled with the tools of my trade. Rav was on his way in, but it would take him too long to reach us if something happened.

We needed traps or ways to slow them down if we had to run.

I wasn’t leaving Leigh down here with Fenix. She wasn’t working with them. They’d kidnapped her. They must have. And she was scared.I’m coming, baby. Just hold on.

My fingers skimmed over spools of wire, and I eyed the walls of the catacombs. Damn it, there wasn’t anything to tie it off on. Carabiners were an option, but hammering them into the stone would travel through the catacombs like a dinner bell. “I should’ve brought some smoke bombs or something.”

Scarlett said, “What are you talking about?”

“I could have thrown them in there, grabbed her and ran,” I grumbled, still mentally kicking myself for my lack of foresight. Screw the vault. Protecting Leigh was my job, and here I was, failing at that, too.

“Keep your head on straight.” Scarlett knew me too damn well. “Wait for Rav.”

“What you got in that pack of yours?” Will asked.

I zipped up my pack and straightened, speaking just above a whisper since I was so close. Although there was obviously a generator running in the chamber. “Drill and bits. Wire, carabiners, rope, my endoscope, and extra gloves.”

Another message from Jayce popped up on my phone.Thugs have guns.

Fuck.

Will’s silence was not a good sign.

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