Page 96 of The Twilight Theft

At the door, a police officer waved us through with Emmett’s blessing and we walked silently down the patio tiers, through the arch to the waterfront, then turned up the roadway.

The chatterbox remained eerily silent.

“Do you want me to take you to a drive-through on the way?” Maybe a greasy burger would improve her mood.

We stopped at an intersection across the street from the parking garage, and Jayce pulled out her phone.

“Or I can make you something?” I was grasping at straws now—making her a snack or a meal would require picking up groceries on the way to the hotel or taking her to my place. But food was the only thing we had in common.

“Save it, Downie.” The light turned for us to cross, but she stayed in place. “I’ve got a ride coming. You can go help Craig.”

“I’m busy helping you.”

“I’m a distraction, just like you said.” She unwound her arm from my back and took a half-step away from me. “A reckless distraction who can’t follow a plan and who ruins everything she touches.”

“That recklessness saved—”

She put up a hand, hobbling another step away from me. “That’s all I needed to hear. Leave me alone.”

I closed the distance between us. “Jayce, let me take you to the hotel.”

She pushed me away. “You said you’d never force yourself on a woman.”

My stomach twisted. This was about a drive. About helping her walk. I was ensuring she took care of her knee instead of pushing through the pain and injuring it more.

“Leave me alone.” A car pulled up. She checked her phone and opened the door. “The chip is safe. I don’t need your leash anymore.”

Was that all I was to her? Someone holding her back? Had I misread everything?

She got in and slammed the door.

The car sped off, leaving me to my thoughts. Voices, police lights reflecting off the buildings, the breeze on my face—the rest of the world pressed in around me.

The parking garage stood across the street from me. Option one, go home. Crack open a bottle of wine and start my report on what had gone right and wrong tonight.

Option two, drive to the office and use the key Wyatt had given me to discover what he’d hidden in his safe. The answers might be inside.No, that should wait for the police so they have a secure chain of evidence.

Option three? I turned in the direction I’d come from. Go back and make myself useful.

The last option won easily, but only because option four—follow Jayce to her hotel, despite her protests—wasn’t an option at all.

My dress shoes clacked against the cobbled sidewalk, carrying over the hum of activity down the block.Focus on this evening, Drew. What happened? Focus on more than just this evening. What was really going on?

On our way down from the roof, Jayce had told Rav about Wyatt’s confession he’d made enemies, intimating those enemies were involved. Wyatt had laughed at that—as had I, deep inside. Of course, we’d made enemies. There were only so many people you could ask to betray everything they believed before someone figured you out.

Was Noah one of those enemies? I’d have to ask Scarlett about his role with the Fenix organization Jayce had told me about. This would have been easier if Jayce were still here.

Or not, since she didn’t want to talk to me.

I should have put Thursday behind us instead of pressing the matter.

Focus.

What if Brie was mistaken about Noah? What if it was simply someone who looked like him? What if he’d been there for the bird while Wyatt went after the chip? Was the chip theft only a distraction, so security would have their eye on Digital Twilight, ignoring the other items?

What if neither theft was tied to the threats about the chip? What if they were about Liana’s reputation and not Gideon’s?

I passed under the giant metal sculpture at the end of Mosaic’s patio and under a decorative street lamp adorned with bright pink flowers—like Jayce’s dress—and stopped at a short railing at the river’s edge. It led down some stairs to a narrow dock, where a few of the night’s attendees may have parked their boats.

---