Page 79 of The Twilight Theft

The way she stood there—the blowtorch firm in her unmoving hand, her eyes wide—it was clear this wasn’t what she’d expected.

“Lights!” I yelled over the music’s crescendo. “Turn the lights on!”

Jayce was already coordinating with her team, watching her phone. “Tracker’s live. Cameras up yet?”

I approached Liana in the dim light, speaking slowly. “Turn it off, Liana. We need to find out what happened.”

She stared at her sculpture, blinking at the empty spot where Tremaine Industries’ revolutionary chip should have been. “All this security…”

“Drew.” Jayce nudged my arm.

Gideon joined his wife, clicking off her blowtorch. His hard gaze fell on me. “You were supposed to protect it.”

“Drew.” Jayce’s voice was more insistent. “The cameras are still down, but—”

“What?” A subtle tick at the corner of Gideon’s eye and the way he pulled Liana close told me the successful businessman had shifted priorities. He didn’t care about the chip. He cared about his wife.

Jayce continued. “The tracker’s active, and I’ve got an overlay of the floor plan.”

“Turn the lights on and cut the music.” Liana’s voice was soft, but the lights came on immediately. She must have had someone on her own comms.

“We’ll get it back.” I nodded to both of the Tremaines and turned to Jayce. “Where is it?”

“Lower floor.” She dodged between astonished partygoers, the level of gossip and musings turning into confused questions the farther we got. No one outside the first few rings of guests seemed to know what was going on.

Although somewhere in the crowd, Vanessa would be mentally recording everything, already preparing the scandal sheet.

The closer we got to the staff door and the emergency stairwell beyond it, the faster Jayce’s steps grew. The security guard stationed at the door had his finger to his ear, nodding and speaking quietly. We should have all been on the same channel. He was working with his team independently of both the Reynolds and Bishop teams.

“Put your shoes on.” I took Jayce’s arm when she didn’t slow down and pulled her to a stop. “I know you don’t like them, but if our thief has any brains—”

“Still no sign of Wyatt or Noah.” Jayce swapped the offered shoes for her phone, slipping into them without a stutter in her step. Despite her complaints, when she wasn’t focused on the heels, she moved in them effortlessly. She pointed at the security guard, who looked at me for authorization before opening the door. “Tell your guys the chip’s gone. Check bags and pockets of anyone coming in or out.”

Staff would have turned left toward the kitchen. To the right, the emergency stairwell was supposed to have another guard stationed at it.

“Guard’s left his post at the stairwell,” said Jayce.

“He’s probably the one who went to check on Wyatt.” We reached the door to the stairs at the end of the hallway at a near run. I glanced at the phone and passed it back to her. “The thief’s headed westward, slowly. Likely trying to avoid being heard.”

Unless Noah had gotten by the team upstairs, he wasn’t the one with the dragonfly’s head. That meant he had at least one other person working with him. And if there was one, there could’ve been more. It didn’t matter what kind of reaction speeds Rav said Jayce had; I wasn’t about to let her charge headlong into the path of whoever snuck off with the chip.

I took the lead, sparing the gentlemanly routine and entering the stairwell first.

How had anyone gotten the head off without us noticing?It should have made a noise if nothing else. And the way the mob constantly murmured about what everyone was doing, wearing, and who they’d arrived with, surely someone would have noticed the sculpture being tampered with.

Unless someone had tampered with it before the event.

“Slow down,” whispered Jayce, as we reached the bottom floor. “They’ve stopped. Scarlett and Malcolm are in the elevator. The rest of the team’s still upstairs.”

I tucked in closer to her as she pressed her ear to the door. “My comms haven’t come back up. Any word on Wyatt?”

She didn’t budge, other than to flick her eyes at me. “No. Rav went to the fourth floor and couldn’t find him.”

“What does that mean?”

Jayce shrugged one shoulder and closed her eyes, leaning in to the door. “Rav’s clearing the office space with Marc. They ran into the guard who was stationed on the stairwell—he didn’t see Wyatt, either—and they sent him back to his post. Maybe Wyatt didn’t need the help as much as you thought.”

Or he’d been taken somewhere. Or someone was doing something to him.

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