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“We’ll do that after,” Black urged. “Come on. Let’s go up.”

He paused though, and glanced around the office.

A scowl briefly touched his lips.

“If they erase anything, we’ll start over,” he said coldly. “If we have to push every human who walks through that door, we’re going to finish this, then call the cops the second we’re out the door. I’ve had it with their evasive crap. We’re taking every scrap of information we can off these pricks. I really am beginning to think this whole thing is just some lame attempt by Gorren to frame me… but we’ll let the cops sort that out. I’m going to tell Angel to pass on to the S.F.P.D. that they should be giving a hard stare to Gorren as prime suspect number one.”

I couldn’t disagree with that.

I couldn’t disagree with any of it.

In fact, I was relieved to hear him say it out loud. I was pretty damned tired of Rania Gorren, Lucian Rucker, Prometharis, and all of their bullshit, too.

15

THE HOLE IN THE FLOOR

Black’s hand lightly guided me by the small of my back as I walked in front of him to the office’s metal door. I let him do the same to the second floor staircase landing, still typing rapidly on my phone to Kiko and Alisha about backing up everything I’d sent, even as I followed the gentle nudge of his fingers.

Can I take you out to dinner after this?he murmured softly once I’d shoved the phone back in my pocket.Assuming we’re not stuck here all night, maybe we can start looking through house listings… or both… we could do both…

My breathing relaxed as he spoke to me in that murmuring voice.

It hit me then, what Black was reacting to in me, how tense I felt inside this house. There was something really wrong here, something I couldn’t put my finger on. The feeling had seeped deeper in my heart and head, the longer we stayed.

Something was wrong.

Something was really fucking wrong here.

We started to climb the carpeted stairs and I looked up. When my eyes slid down from that high, gilded ceiling, I foundBlack watching me carefully with his gorgeous, flecked-gold eyes. I smiled, hoping to reassure him.

He smiled back, and the relief on him was palpable.

I began ascending faster, until I was half-jogging, then running up the carpeted steps. I suddenly remembered that Nick said he needed us, that he neededme,in particular.

He’d found something, and he needed both of us.

Those four flights felt long, even with how fast I ran up them.

Maybe they felt longer because the ceilings were high, or maybe because myaleimiclight began flickering up ahead, and I could now feel something that made me even more uneasy. It pulled my mind entirely off Rucker’s office, and computer files we were stealing. I started thinking instead about what I’d heard in the background while we spoke to Nick.

Someone… or something… had been in the room with him.

I didn’t worry about Nick taking care of himself.

Ishouldn’tbe worried about that; Nick was physically stronger than meorBlack, likely both of us combined, so if he was in trouble that way, I doubted we could do much to help him in that respect. Anyway, the urgency I’d heard on Nick hadn’t been for himself.

He hadn’t seemed afraid at all, but more… agitated.

Upset, perhaps.

I shoved it out of my mind, realized it was futile to try and pull it apart until I could see whatever it was for myself.

The thought pushed my legs and feet even faster.

Seconds later, we reached the top floor, and Black was in front of me again.

Moreover, he had a gun in his hand, and he motioned for me to stay behind him.