Page 122 of The Prize

I swallowed hard and, after taking several deep breaths, gave a nod I was ready and watched him work the lock on the French carved door.

Terror flooded through my veins.

Everything had changed and I tried to comprehend how this once careful girl had flourished into a courageous woman. These unfolding moments were about me taking my life back. Never had anything felt so right, and there came the sense there was an invisible thread between me and my paintings leading me to them.

Tobias tapped my arm to get my attention. “Here’s the bad news—”

“Bad news?”

“On my mark, I’ll cut the power and we’ll only have sixty seconds to find the entry point to the underground network. Any more than that and the guards get suspicious—” Tobias directed his wristwatch toward the building. “Don’t dillydally your slow British arse.”

This was how Icon deactivated the power during the heists, and right now I was receiving the mother of all demonstrations on his methods. The kind of evidence a member of Huntly Pierre would crave.

All those weeks of tracking him down, and here I was breaking and entering into a building with him as an accomplice. With my heart pounding, my adrenaline surging and my breaths sharp on each inhale, I realized what I was doing.

A thought flashed into my mind and it stunned me into silence. What if Tobias took my paintings and left me in there? What if all this was merely the endgame that I’d not even considered until now?

“Jesus,” I muttered.

Don’t take your eyes off him.

“They’ll think it’s a glitch in their system.” He raised his hand and counted down. “Three, two and one.”

We burst in and I watched Tobias secure the door—

I was stunned by the beauty of the four stone tombs lying flat and upon them were carved effigies of mysterious women, each a Spanish masterpiece of sepulchral art decorating the resting place.

Tobias hurried over to the statues at the front of the chapel and moved from one to the next, exploring each as he went. We were desperate to find a mechanism that would reveal a doorway. The schematics had shown this was the entry point to the underground tunnel but not specified exactly where. This had a Knight Templar feel to it and I guessed that was the point. Some secret society where access was granted to the privileged and the doorkeepers were the Burells.

As we searched for a clue, the seconds dissolved and the strain made me feel as though oxygen was lacking. The cause was a heady mix of dread and adrenaline.

Kneeling before one of the stone burial tombs I ran my fingers along the gap between the base and the stone body of a carved woman. I made the mistake of glancing up and seeing a flash of frustration on Wilder’s face. I leaped to my feet and ran to another tomb. He quickly joined me on the opposite side of her and we both ran our fingers along the edge. My hand bashed against solid resistance and pain shot into my fingers.

Pull, mouthed Tobias.

I tugged the stone protrusion and nothing happened. At this rate we’d be running for the door and getting out of here. I tried pushing the protrusion and there came the noise of stone scraping against stone filling the chamber. The carved woman slid off her base revealing stone steps leading into darkness.

Tobias glanced at his watch. “Go.”

I sprang into the unknown and turned sharply to make sure Tobias was right behind me. As he followed me down the steps, the entryway grated above us returning to its base and casting us into blackness. Sealing us in.

Wilder flicked a light on his headset and lit the way down. Fine hairs prickled on my forearms from the drop in temperature, and I hoped there’d be a way out and we’d not become buried down here where no one would find us.

It could be a trap for Icon, came Tobias’s words to haunt each step forward.

Or the cruelest trap for me.

The only noise was our careful shuffling downward. When we finally reached the end of the stairwell we peered down a very long hallway.

His hand came down onto my shoulder. “I’ll lead.”

Tobias was eerily serene and I put this down to him acclimating to these adventures where so much was at stake. At the very end he approached a keypad with the confidence of someone who’d done this before. He removed a gadget from his rucksack and used it to scan over finger pads with a blue fluorescence revealing what numbers had been punched by someone else. He repeated the combination and the door clicked open—

Inside the room was an easel holding ourMona Lisa, her haunting eyes following us as we made our way toward her proving how authentic Tobias had crafted her. There was nothing else in here.

Tobias narrowed his gaze as he studied her. “They changed the frame.”

“Do you think Eli will try to resell her?”