Page 61 of Sven

She and Taylor seemed to be on a mission. Alice and Cash were inspecting at a more leisurely pace, but Natalie couldn’t seem to focus on anything but the two other men in this room.

“So, where are we looking?” asked Sven like nothing was happening.

Murphy scanned them.

“I’m going to look at the crate in the corner,” Natalie said as she set off both of the guys on her heels.

This was going to be a long hour.

“There are numbers on the top. I bet they correspond with the numbers on the padlock,” said Murphy.

“Good thinking,” she said as they started trying to figure out the code.

“It’s clown,” said Sven dryly.

They looked up at him. Natalie entered the word, and sure enough, the lock popped open.

“We found a key, you guys,” Natalie announced to the room.

Within seconds, Taylor and Evie were over to see what they had found.

“It’s a key,” Natalie said, lifting it, clown shoes, and a big red nose each with a letter out of the crate.

“I bet the key opens that door,” Taylor said.

“I’ll check,” said Natalie.

Murphy stayed, examining the other contents of the crate, while Sven followed Natalie into the other room. Sure enough, the key opened the door and led into what looked like a creepy surveillance room.

Natalie went to turn around to tell everyone but ran smack-dab into Sven’s firm chest. She couldn’t help the eye roll when she looked up into his handsome eyes.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sven asked her.

“Me?!” she spat back incredulously. “I’m not the one who showed up uninvited.”

“I’m sorry to ruin your little date,” Sven said with a sneer she didn’t like one bit.

“It’s not a date. You’re being ridiculous.”

“Me? I’m being ridiculous. I told you not to date my teammate.”

“Oh, wow. Look at this,” Murphy called out, and before they knew it, the whole group was crowding into a room.

“Why don’t we split up?” said Murphy. “Natalie and I can work here, and some of you can work on the letter puzzle on the balloon board.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, being in here alone with Natalie?” Sven said to Murphy.

“What is your problem?” Murphy asked.

“What’s my problem?” Sven asked, going chest-to-chest with him.

“What the fuck is going on with you two?” asked Cash, getting in between them. “You need to knock it off.”

“Hey, I got something,” called Taylor, and they all left to see what he found.

They managed their time, figuring out puzzles as the time ticked down on the monitor. Sven and Murphy were by her side constantly.

Finally, she got away from Sven in the carnival room while she tried to solve the letter puzzle on the balloon board. She almost had it.

---