Page 67 of Victoria's Discovery

Despite the adrenaline making everything feel heart-poundingly dangerous and more than a little scary, the first ten minutes were uneventful. Catty just strolled about, going down one hallway after another, her pace that of someone with a destination in mind but not in any real hurry to get there. Yet, despite her seemingly aimless wandering, she somehow managed to avoid crossing paths with anyone.

That was… pretty damned unbelievable.

With as many people living in the complex as there were, it was almost impossible to go more than two steps without encountering someone else. Victoria didn’t know how she was doing it, but it was definitely intentional which just reinforced that she was up to no good.

Another ten minutes or so passed before Victoria noticed their surroundings were beginning to look alarmingly familiar.

Catty was heading towards the off-limits section of the building.

That was where the gun fabricator, the building’s security control room, the arena reformer, the communications room, and the armory were all located. Not to mention a few other restricted rooms that even Victoria hadn’t been in.

Okay, this is bad.

Catty knowing where that section was located was a problem. A big, alarming problem since no one outside Aria, her mates, Generals, and the Gaelli were supposed to know where they were.

Her plan to just follow and observe was about to die a quick death if Catty didn’t change her course. She’d have no choice but to intervene. The probability Catty would actually find a way in to any of those rooms wasn’t exceedingly high. So far as Victoria knew, they were all locked with constantly rotating codes.

But hanging back and hoping for the best wasn’t an option.

If the womandidmanage to break in, Victoria didn’t feel particularly confident she could stop her before she sabotaged something or even hold her off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Mostly because, unless the luck fairy was feeling unusually generous and sent some her way in the nick of time, no reinforcements would be arriving. She’d won the fight against Bree, but Catty didn’t strike her as someone who would go down easily.

The only thing she could think to do was to make her presence known, play it off like it was happenstance, and hope Catty didn’t get suspicious so she could promptly run to Aria and tell her what happened.

This wasn’t quite the hard evidence she was hoping for, but the fact that Catty knew where the restricted section was located should be enough for Aria to believe her that the woman was sketchy as hell.

Heart hammering, hands shaking, Victoria drew in a bracing breath and started to step out from behind cover of the wall when the sound of voices from up ahead reached her.

Oh hell, please let that be good guys and not more co-conspirators.

To her intense relief, instead of sticking around to say hello to whomever was up there, Catty immediately spun on her heel and ran. Unfortunately, she ran directly back toward where Victoria was hiding.

Shitfuck!

Ducking back and plastering herself against the wall, Victoria held her breath, hoping against hope the woman wouldn’t notice her standing there in her mad dash to flee.

Despite being absolutely positive the gig was about to be up, Catty ran right past her without looking in her direction.

Phew. Damn, but this sneaking around shit is rough on the nerves!

Peeking around the wall, she spotted Catty’s white hair disappearing around a bend up ahead and pushed off to follow before she lost sight of her completely.

“What are you doing here?”

Victoria choked on a scream at the deep voice whispering in her ear and whipped around to find purple eyes sparkling down at her in amusement.

“Holy fuck, Vi’kail! You just scared ten years off my life!” she heaved, turning back to make sure Catty hadn’t heard and pressing her hand to her chest to keep her heart from pounding its way free.

At his strangled sound, she glanced back to find him staring down at her in horror, his usually rich green skin a ghastly shade of pea soup.

“Shit, no, sorry. It’s just a saying, I promise.”

The breath whooshed out of him before a narrow-eyed look of intense ire promptly replaced his relief.

“Those crikking sayings are going to be the death of me.”

Wincing, she patted his arm apologetically but spun around and started off again, throwing a whispered, “Gotta go!” over her shoulder.

When his overly loud, thumping footsteps followed her, she paused long enough to give him wide ‘shut up’ eyes. “Shh! You’re louder than a damn elephant!”

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