Page 39 of No Escape

Alessa bent down closely, peering at the indentation. “I thought maybe we would push it once we put the big ring here.” Her finger ran around the large indentation. “But it doesn’t look like you can push it. Other than being a smaller version of the large ring, I don’t know what it’s here for.”

My brain exploded with the answer. “Alessa, that’s it!”

“What’s it?”

I strode over to the bull. Leaning up, I reached my hand over the large gold ring and shoved it all the way to the back left nostril of the bull. I wiggled my hand and fingers around, looking for a crevice or anything, but felt nothing.

“Hey, Romeo, what’s going on?” Gio asked. I ignored him for the moment, but the entire team instantly surrounded me, convinced I was on to something.

I shoved my hand into the bull’s right nostril. Approximately three inches back, in a slight hollow that wouldn’t be visible to anyone looking into the nose, I felt a small, round metal object. I flipped it out of the hollow and dragged it out of the bull’s nose. With a smile, I turned and presented it to Alessa.

“Your ring, madame,” I said. “Thanks to your train of thought, we found it.”

“There wasanotherring in the bull’s nose?” Stefan asked, his expression incredulous.

“There is.” I knew how competitive my brother could be, so I decided to jab at him a bit. “Thanks to Alessa, we figured it out. You’d better up your game, Stefan.”

Alessa grinned at me and then raised an eyebrow at Stefan. “Guess I won this one, babe. Don’t worry, there’ll be more puzzles for you to prove yourself.”

Stefan shook his head, but he smiled, and I could tell she’d impressed him.

“Just a minute.” Vittoria threw up her hands. “I don’t understand. There were two rings this entire time?”

“There were two rings,” I confirmed, suddenly acutely aware of the time. “The roped ring was just a distraction. Alessa, is there anything engraved on the ring? A code or some numbers, perhaps?”

She turned the ring over in her hand and peered closely at the inside of the ring. “Yes. The number 395. Let’s try it, but we have to hurry.”

We all headed to the door. Alessa inserted the ring into the small indentation, where it fit perfectly. A distinct click sounded, and the keypad lit up.

“It worked!” Alessa gasped.

I quickly typed in 395. The keypad flashed once, and the door silently swung open. There was a moment of disbelief before everyone started shouting and cheering. Alessa was mobbed as everyone filed out, jostling and slapping each other on the back. Carefully, I reached down and took the small ring from the door, the last to leave the room.

As I stepped into the hallway, I looked back over my shoulder thoughtfully. There were lessons I needed to learn from this experience if we were going to be successful for the rest of them. Besides trusting my instincts, I needed to fully trust my team, because, as they’d just shown, they were more than capable.

My mother gave me a proud pat on the shoulder as I walked past and fell into step next to Alessa. I handed her the ring. “You present it to the gamemaster. You earned it.”

As I said those words, Brando appeared in the hallway. “How very delightful. You’re all here. If you’ll provide me with the ring, I’ll trade you for this golden disc to certify that you’ve completed the challenge.”

Alessa beamed as she handed Brando the ring. He inspected it and presented her with the gold disc. “Congratulations! You’ve successfully solved your first challenge. Please accept our invitation to lunch, followed by another challenge this afternoon.”

“Please tell me the next one will be easier,” Vittoria pleaded, and everyone laughed.

Brando gave her a smile. “Oh, I assure you, they’re all easy…if you know the secret. Now, please follow me.”

Chapter Twenty

Lexi Carmichael

Mia fell into step next to me as we headed back to our rooms to clean up before lunch. I looked forward to seeing Slash and hearing about their challenge. We hadn’t been told whether the other team had succeeded or not, so I was anxious to find out.

“Lexi, I’d like to ask you something,” Mia said as we were climbing the stairs. “Do you have a minute?”

I had no desire to chat, but Mia was, by extension, becoming part of my family, so I couldn’t just brush her off. I expected she wanted to try another couple of slang expressions on me, so I stopped when we got to the top of the staircase. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Vittoria didn’t have a bachelorette party, so I’m fixin’ to give her a big surprise.”

Fixin’?Family or not, I sincerely hoped she didn’t think I was going to help plan a bachelorette party, because that wasn’t going to happen. Been there, done that, and didn’t want to ride that crazy train again…ever.

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