Page 56 of Amethyst Flame
Will, seated next to me, did one of those lame-ass yawning moves and put his arm on the back of my chair, his hand coming to my shoulder to squeeze. He whispered, “You’re looking a little green this morning.”
“Hangover,” I said between clenched teeth, shrugging him off. If I didn’t die attempting corporate theft, the anticipatory aneurysm would get me for sure.
“Big night with your boyfriend?”
“You could say that.”
Dane had drilled me and Jacob for hours on each step of the mission. And then had us walk it through, as if the rental house were BantaMatrix. The goal was simple—steal some of the new dragons—but we’d gone over every possible scenario so I’d know what to do in the event I had to improvise. Dane had assured me that this kind of spy task was as straightforward and safe as it got. Just like Palm Springs. In and out. Except I was the one going in.
I checked my watch. Two minutes.
At least Bri was fine. Swann had her. We were supposed to meet for smoothies tonight. And that creeper Alex was shaking in his shoes deep underground outside of Palm Springs.
Will leaned over again. “He’s a lucky guy. How long have you been together?”
“What?” Oh. Jacob. “Um. Five months.” That was when he’d gone from being Jackhole to a quasi-partner. I wasn’t sure what he was to me now. Not SirLancelot yet. Probably not ever.
“So it’s serious?”
“Huh?” I couldn’t think. Why did he keep bugging me right now?
Will’s eyes twinkled. “Does anyone else have a shot?”
I rocked forward in my seat. The A/C blew frigid air, but I felt sticky at my pits. “I’m going to the bathroom. Can you let me know if I miss anything important?”
“Sure,” he returned with a genial smile. “Over lunch?”
“Yeah. Lunch.” I stood and sidestepped out my row and then hurried up the aisle to the exit and pushed out.
The building wasn’t as busy as it usually was—lots of people had come to hear the guest lecturer, but not everyone.
I checked my watch on my way to the bathroom. One minute.
Stay calm,Dane had said.Don’t use your hive until it is absolutely necessary. Trust me and Jacob to do our parts.
As I approached the bathroom, I slowed—this was my first chance to abort if anything seemed off—but so far, so good. I kept going, passing the bathroom to head to the elevator.
I hit the button, and the doors immediately opened, which I hadn’t expected. But fewer people were using the elevators with the lecture going on. Which put me twenty seconds ahead. Shit.
Abort?
No. I pulled out my phone, as if I’d just gotten a notification, and pretended to be sucked into something on the screen as the doors closed again. I waited out the ten seconds, looked up, gave a mockughthat I had missed the elevator, and pressed the button again. The elevator opened—it had never left—and I was bang on time.
I got inside at exactly 10:27 a.m. I hit the button to take me to the lobby level.
And then stepped back from the doors…and had no choice but to trust Jacob to do his thing.
Dane’s voice came back to me:No moths allowed. Breathe. At this point you will have done nothing suspicious yet.
I was just going out for some fresh air. That was what I was doing. Nothing shady at all.
Jacob must’ve seen me on the elevator’s camera because five seconds later, the fire alarm went off, and my car jammed midfloor.
Jacob had laughed out loud when he found the hole in Banta’s defenses.Used to be, Banta’s security was too tight for a grade-school prank like this. Seems like they got careless after they got burned a few months ago.He smirked, but the remembered stink of melting plastic as Mom and I ran for our lives made it less funny to me. The interface with the private fire response service they’d hired as backup had given Jacob an access point and he’d remotely pulled the alarm.
The elevator’s emergency programming was supposed to kick in and drop any passengers off at the lobby level to evacuate the building. But Jacob would have cameras and computers reporting that this elevator was empty and officially out of use for the duration of the safety check, which would be at least an hour.
I itched to send my moths out. I wanted to protect myself. Needed to. I’d been sick in this elevator. Near death. My mother had held me upright as we tried to escape bad guys and fire. My moths had saved me then…and they buzzed furiously in my blood to do the same now.
