Page 40 of The Final Gambit

After two envelopes, the fact that Toby’s abductor had sent a package this time felt like an escalation. I didn’t want to think about what I might find inside that jewelry box. The first envelope had contained the disk, the second, a picture of a beaten Toby. As far as proof went, as far as a reminder of the stakes, a reminder of who held the power here…

How long until the kidnapper starts sending pieces?

“The combination might be just a combination.” Jameson stared at the box like he could see through it—into it. “But there’s also the possibility that the numbers themselves are a clue.”

“The package was sent to the school?” Grayson’s gaze was sharp. “And it made it all the way to the headmaster’s office? Whoever sent it knows how to get around Country Day security protocols.”

That seemed like a message in and of itself: The person who’d sent this wanted me to know that they could get to me.

“It would be best,” Oren stated calmly, “if you planned to stay home from school for a few days, Avery.”

“You, too, Xan,” Nash added.

“And just let someone make us run and hide?” I looked from Oren to Nash, furious. “No. I’m not going to do that.”

“Tell you what, kid.” Nash cocked his head to the side. “We’ll spar for it. You and me. Winner makes the rules, and loser doesn’t whine about it.”

“Nash.” Libby gave him a reproachful look.

“If you don’t like that, Lib, you ain’t gonna love my thoughts aboutyoursafety.”

“Oren and Nash are right, Heiress.” Jameson’s hand found its way to mine. “It’s not worth the risk.”

I was fairly certain Jameson Hawthorne had never said those words before in his life.

“Can you all just stop arguing?” Eve demanded, her voice high and terse. “We have to open it. Right now. We have to get inside that box as quickly as humanly possible and—”

“Evie,” Grayson murmured. “We need to be careful.”

Evie?

“For once,” Jameson declared, “I agree with Gray. Caution isn’t the worst idea here.”

That wasn’t like Jameson, either.

Xander turned to Oren. “How certain are we that this box won’t explode the second we open it?”

“Very,” Oren replied.

I made myself ask the next question—thequestion—even though I didn’t want to. “Any idea what’s inside?”

“From the looks of the X-rays,” Oren replied, “a phone.”

Just a phone.Relief rolled over me slowly, like feeling coming back to a limb that had gone numb. “A phone,” I said out loud. Did that mean Toby’s captor was planning to call?

What happens if I don’t answer?

I didn’t let myself linger on that question. Instead, I turned my attention back to the boys. “You’re Hawthornes. Who knows how to crack a combination lock?”

The answer was all of them. Within ten minutes, they had the combination:fifteen, eleven, thirty-two. Once it clicked open, Oren took the box, inspected its contents, and turned the whole thing back over to me.

The inside of the box was lined with deep red velvet. A cell phone sat nestled in the fabric. I picked the phone up and turned it over, looking for anything out of the ordinary, then I turned my attention to the touch screen. I tried the same combination that had opened the box as a passcode.Fifteen. Eleven. Thirty-two.

“I’m in,” I said. I clicked through the icons on the phone one by one. The photo roll was empty. The weather app was set to local weather. There were no notes, no text messages, no locations saved in the map function. Under the clock app, I found a timer counting down.

12 HOURS, 45 MIN, 11 SEC…

I looked up at the others, feeling each tick of the timer in the pit of my stomach. Eve said what I was thinking. “What happens when it hits zero?”