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“I need to get the recording device and my phone,” he said. “They’re in there.” He pointed to the office at the end of the hall.

“I thought you said you planted two recorders.”

“I did, but the one in that office is the only one I need. I don’t know if anyone is in there right now, but if there is, I’ve got a gun to deal with it. However, Idoknow there’s a loud and annoying parrot there that’ll surely give us away. I’ll have to wring its neck before it squawks.”

I looked at him in horror. “What? You’d kill a poor, defenseless parrot?”

Slash raised an eyebrow. “That parrot doesn’t like me. If it wasn’t for that parrot, we wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place.”

“Ha! Now you know how it feels.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the peapods. “I’ll give him these instead.”

Slash’s eyebrow lifted even higher. “Do my ears deceive me? Lexi Carmichael, protecting an animal?”

“Just this once,” I muttered, but he had already started moving toward the office. I followed, practically standing on his heels as he turned the knob.

It was locked. Slash cursed under his breath and turned around.

I held Manny’s lockpicks by two fingers. “Need these?” I asked.

“Damn, I love you,” he whispered, taking the lockpicks.

“I know,” I whispered back.

He picked the lock with scary efficiency, pushing me behind him as he entered the room, holding the gun out.

The room was empty except for the parrot. I immediately tossed a peapod toward the bird, and it landed on the windowsill nearby. The pod distracted the bird long enough for it to recognize the treat, hop down, and begin munching.

I glanced over my shoulder as Slash grabbed something from inside a statue on the desk, stuck it in his pocket, and then crawled under the desk.

“Hurry,” I urged him. “I don’t know how long the peapods will distract him.”

“Good, because we’re done here,” he said.

I tossed the remaining peapod at the parrot as we headed toward the door. Just as we reached it, Slash put his hand on the small of my back. “You go first,” he said. “If something happens, you don’t stop. Get out of here any way you can, understood?”

I nodded and stepped out into the hallway, followed closely by Slash. My heart thundered so loudly I was sure it could be heard throughout the entire compound. I crept down the hallway, past the locked storage room with the guard inside, and past the kitchen manager’s office. The manager was on the phone with her back facing me. Still, every word she said was magnified in my ears one hundred times over as I slipped past.

I tried not to shake, but my teeth were chattering, so I had to clamp them shut. Thank God, no one was in the kitchen, so I picked up an empty crate and started heading for the exit when Slash entered the kitchen behind me.

I tensed in case the kitchen manager came running out, but she didn’t. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued to the door with my crate. I could hear Slash’s footsteps behind me. The air felt thick with tension, but only a few more feet and we’d be in the delivery truck.

I reached for the door, but it opened first. Standing in front of me were three people in white uniforms I had never seen, and they were Chinese.

I was so startled, I froze. Before I could respond, the first person, a woman, pushed past me into the kitchen without a word. Two men followed her, paying no attention to either me or Slash. It suddenly occurred to me they were the kitchen staff arriving to start breakfast.

Ari had told us we would be invisible to them, and thankfully, he was right. I slipped out behind them, followed closely by Slash, and we headed directly to the delivery truck, where Manny and the others were slowly loading the empty crates and boxes to buy us time.

Manny caught sight of us, and the look of relief on his face said it all. He signaled to the others to get into the cab. I reached the truck and loaded my crate in the back. Manny extended a hand and pulled me up into the truck.

Slash dumped his crates in the back and hopped up. Together he and Manny rolled down the back of the truck from the inside. The engine fired up and lurched once before the truck pulled away.

We hid behind the empty crates, Slash sitting next to me, putting an arm around my shoulder. I leaned my head on his shoulder and held my breath as we paused at the gate.

I could hear Amiri call out to the guard, “We’re all set. See you Friday.”

There was a pause, and then the truck started rolling again. I closed my eyes for a moment, grateful we’d made it this far.

I turned to face Slash. His face looked bruised and swollen. I touched his cheek gently. “Are you okay?”