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“Of course.” She looks sad again, the same sadness she had back in the warehouse.

“Mrs. Graves, if I could let you go right now, I would. But with all the guards and the others—I don’t think it would be safe to?—”

Mrs. Graves places a gentle hand on my arm. Her touch is warm, comforting. I don’t deserve the smallest kindness from her, but she gives it anyway. “I know, dear. And I appreciate that. But don’t you worry about me.” She’s looking around with eyes that get wider and wider as she takes in the near-empty rooms, the shitty furniture, the bare walls.

When she turns back to me, I don’t like the fresh light of understanding in her eyes.

“Listen to me, Scarlett,” she says slowly. “I think…I think you need to run. Now. Get as far away from here as you can. I’ll wait here for Hadria and Lyssa, and I’ll tell them about your parents. They will save them. But if they find you here with me…”

I know what they’ll do. But I still shake my head. “I won’t leave you. Not with Ariadne still around somewhere. She’s too unpredictable—all of the trainees are. I think Grandmother worries that they might kill you without stopping to think, to ask questions. That’s why she wants me guarding you.”

“But—”

“Please,” I say quietly. “Mrs. Graves, please—just let me do this one good thing in my life. For my brother’s sake, at least.”

Adam’s face flashes before my eyes, his smile bright and carefree. He was always the strong one, the one who protected me. And look what I’ve turned his memory into.

“Alright,” Mrs. Graves says at last. “Alright, Scarlett. If that’s what you really want.”

I’m about to tell her it is when the electricity goes off, sending the room into total darkness.

CHAPTER 30

Lyssa

The high-rise, when we arrive, is just as Johnny de Luca’s sources described. I look up at the imposing structure, its dark windows like vacant eyes staring back at me. One of our men has just cut the power, and another is working on the alarm system.

We’re trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, because we don’t want the law involved. But something tells me they’ll hold off, even if they do get a call. This dark high-rise is the kind of building they tend to look away from, just as they look away from the Empire Grand hotel, and from Elysium, too.

No, I think they’re more likely to let us take each other out and then clean up the dregs. That’s their usual play. And I hope for their sake they follow the same playbook tonight.

Beside me, Hadria is a picture of cold determination, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed. She gives a curt nod when the tech guy, tapping away on a laptop, calls over, “Systems down.”

“Go,” she orders Marco, and I watch as he and his chosen men start to heave the battering ram at the door, the sound of splintering wood and the shrieking metal of twisting locks filling the air.

The door is down in moments, and Hadria and I enter the building together, just the two of us. The first floor is empty, and I don’t just mean empty of people, but empty of everything. No furniture in the lobby. No computers. Nothing at all. The air is dusty, almost stale. I nod my head toward the fire stairs and Hadria follows my lead.

The stairwell is cold and empty as we begin our ascent. Grandmother stayed on the top floor of the building where I grew up, and I bet she’ll be on the top floor of this one, too, so it’ll be a long climb. The elevators are down, of course, and wouldn’t be strategically sensible anyway. My grip tightens on my gun, adrenaline starting to sing in my veins as the familiar feeling of battle comes over me.

But today I don’t have the sense of fun that I usually get.

No. This is going to be the opposite of fun.

We hit another turning of the stairs, the door to the right solidly announcing the sixth floor with a giant “6” painted on it. I try this door, like I’ve tried them all so far, but it’s locked, as they’ve all been. We pause, ears straining for any sound. It’s dead quiet still.

The building feels more like a tomb than a hideout. I glance at Hadria, who seems to share my wariness.

We go up another flight of stairs, steady and fast and noiseless. Another and another, until we hit the tenth floor, and this time?—

This time, the handle gives under my fingers. Open, I mouth at Hadria. And then I raise a questioning eyebrow. Do we take our chances, walk into this very obvious trap? Or do we keep making our way up the stairs, a bottleneck that could end up being just as dangerous for us?

There were no good options when we looked at breaking in here. We knew that from the start. It’s a matter of taking the least-bad route.

And then the rhythmic thud of boots on concrete reaches us, coming from far above. I tense, motioning for Hadria to move back behind me. There’s no way in hell I’m letting her put herself in the line of fire.

There are a lot of them, from the sounds of it. And then there’s an open door to my right with God-knows-what waiting behind it.

I turn to Hadria, my decision made. “Go back down,” I murmur. “I’ve got this.” Her eyes narrow, but I cut off her protest before she can make it. “Go back down, Hadria. I mean it. This is my mess to clean up.”