Duke suppressed his panic and called an elevator with his staff ID. “Xannon?”
Xannon was still on the line. “Yessir?”
“Watch all the elevator lobbies. Tell me when someone exits, and which floor.”
“I’m watching all the lobbies now.”
“Good.” Duke clenched his fists, his phone creaking as the elevator numbers ticked slowly up until they reached him.
Xannon gasped.
“What is it?” Duke’s gut squeezed.
“They’re here.”
“On the ground floor?”
“Yes,” Xannon squeaked. “Is thatWanda?”
“Who has her?” Duke demanded, stepping in when an elevator finally reached him. He jammed his finger against the ground floor button, so hard that the metal dented.
“Kylie.”
“Fuck!” How had she gotten into the building?
How the Hell had she gottento Duke’s floor?
Not many people had access to that floor, for good reason. Nat was one of those people.
And where the fuck was he?
Duke’s bad feeling swelled until it suffocated him. “Distract her.”
“Okay,” Xannon whispered. More loudly, “Hey! Hi, Kylie!”
He was carefully not mentioning the elephant—raccoon cub—in the room.
“What?” Kylie snapped. “Why did the lights flash red?”
“Oh, um, the front doors jammed shut,” Xannon said apologetically. “No, stop! You can’t just kick down the doors!”
Duke’s ancestors had spelled those doors so they were break-proof. Except—
“If I kick them hard enough, they’ll open,” Kylie said.
Duke panicked. Those doors weren’t just spelled to resist violent forces; they were also spelled to keep out attackers.
If Kylie kicked the doors hard enough, they would blast her aside.
Along with Wanda.
“Don’t,” Duke said urgently, jamming his finger against the ground floor button even though it wouldn’t make the elevator move faster. Why the fuck was it moving so slow?
There was a pause. Then Kylie asked in a dangerously sweet voice, “Are you on a call with Mr. Brimstone?”
“I, um.” Xannon sounded panicked. “I was asking him about the weather!”
“Lie,” Kylie said flatly. She sounded closer now.
