Page 44 of Elven Prince

“I thought this place was supposed to be open twenty-four-seven,” Lerrick murmured once they’d all followed Maxwell across the lobby.

“They are,” Tig said. “Everyone knows that.”

“Do theylookopen to you?”

“The door was unlocked. I didn’t see a sign saying they went on vacation. Did you? Hmm?”

Maxwell stopped in front of the rear door but didn’t open it yet. “No delivery trucks at the loading docks.”

“Maybe the crew just went on break or something,” Lerrick suggested.

“Yeah.” Tig snorted. “Together.”

“I don’t know, man. I’ve never worked here.”

Rebecca joined Maxwell at the door, waiting silently while he cocked his head toward the back, listening for things she admittedly couldn’t hear. But a shifter could.

A moment later, he met her gaze and shrugged.

She nodded, and when he opened the door into the back, she slipped through first.

“Kash?” she asked, stepping onto the grated metal walkways leading to grated metal stairs down to the warehouse floor. “I know you’re busy, so I won’t take up too much of your time. I just have a few questions about Archie’s delivery pickup earlier today.”

She stopped when Maxwell’s hand settled briefly on her shoulder and a zap of tingling energy raced down her arm.

Then he removed his hand, stepped up behind her, and nodded ahead at the single overhead light still on in the warehouse…

And still gently swinging back and forth from some previous disturbance.

Definitely not a crew-wide shift break, then.

She scanned the rest of the dimly lit warehouse floor. Beyond the rows of shelves and stacked pallets of new inventory, though, the place was dark, silent, and still empty.

What was going on here?

“Lerrick,” Maxwell muttered, pointing toward the end of the walkway. “Get the lights.”

Lerrick’s footsteps filled the vast room with an echoing metallic clang as he headed for the light switch.

Tig grabbed his augmented rifle hanging from a strap around his neck and lifted it at the ready in a firm, two-handed grip.

Rebecca and Maxwell headed cautiously down the stairs lit by the single glowing bulb and toward the shadows stretching and converging across the otherwise dark warehouse floor.

“Wait… Hold on,” Lerrick called from down the walkway. “I’m not seeing anything. Are we sure the lights are over here?”

“Dude.” Tig shook his head. “How else is anyone gonna see?”

“Well there isn’t any—Oh, wait. Yeah. Never mind. Here they are. I got it.”

By the time Lerrick found the correct light switch, Rebecca and Maxwell had almost reached the bottom of the stairs.

The second the lights turned on to illuminate the warehouse floor, though, and all the shadows fled under the sudden brightness, Rebecca stopped cold on the very last step. She felt Maxwell doing the same directly behind her.

The warehouse wasn’t technically empty after all.

But now it made sense why no one had greeted them or heard Rebecca calling out from up top.

“Oh shit…” Lerrick rumored from the top of the stairs.

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