Disbelief tightens his features. “You sure? Because you look like you’ve seen a ghost. And Ezra’s been...”
“Been what?” The question slips out before I can stop it, hungry for information.
A slow, knowing grin spreads across Jade’s face, transforming him for a moment back into the cocky kid I remember. “Holy shit, itisyou. Where the fuck did you go? He went ballistic when you disappeared. Tore apart half of Skyhaven searching for you.”
Each word is both balm and poison. Ezra searched for me. He cared enough to rage at my absence. It means I hurt him when I was only protecting us both from the inevitable collapse of my lies.
My hands tremble, and I clasp them together to hide it. “It doesn’t matter now. Tell me who put you in here. Was it the Rockfords?”
“Fuck, no.” Jade shakes his head. “I got taken—” Jade stops mid-sentence, his head whipping toward the hidden entrance. “Shit.”
I hear it, too. Footsteps in the hallway outside, the soft murmur of voices growing closer.
“They’re coming.” Panic flashes across Jade’s face. “You need to get out, or they’ll put you in here with me. Or worse.”
My eyes dart to the entrance and back to Jade. I can still slip away unnoticed if I move now. My mission here is complete. Whatever entanglements Jade has gotten himself into aren’t my concern.
But I see the raw fear beneath his bravado, and I remember how young he is. Barely twenty-one, for all his swagger and sharp edges. He’s a kid playing at being dangerous in a world of genuine monsters.
“Please,” he whispers, and the word sounds unfamiliar in his mouth. “If you know Ezra, if you care about him at all, tell him where I am.”
The footsteps grow louder, accompanied by the jingle of keys. Two people at least, maybe more.
“They’re going to sell me,” Jade says urgently. “They’ve been waiting for the gallery event to clear out the merchandise.”
My window of escape is closing with each passing second.
I stand, heading toward the door.
“Wait!” Jade reaches for me through the bars, but his fingers slip off my pant leg. “Please promise to tell Ezra!”
Ignoring his pleas, I slip through the bookcase and pull it closed with a gentle click, erasing any evidence of the secret room and the prisoner inside it.
My body moves on autopilot, shifting into the shadows beside a tall armoire as the salon door swings open. Two security guards enter, their conversation cutting off as they scan the room.
I become nothing, less than air, my breathing shallow and controlled as I slide along the wall toward the exit, the painting a solid weight on my back, anchoring me to my purpose as my mind races with unwanted complications.
“Check the artwork,” the taller guard directs. “Harcourt wants hourly confirmations tonight with all these people in the building.”
They head for the display wall, not sparing me a glance as I slip into the shadowed hallway beyond. Their flashlight beams sweep across my forgery, lingering on the anatomical ghost that took me nine months to recreate.
They don’t spot the swap. Of course, they don’t. Even experts would need specialized equipment to detect the substitution.
In another life, I might have felt triumph. Instead, all I can think about is Jade’s face, hollow with fear and exhaustion, and the words that keep circling my brain like hungry wolves.
Ezra’s been going feral.
Tore apart half of Skyhaven searching for you.
I navigate the hallway with practiced stealth, my shoes silent on the thick carpet. At the junction where the private wing meets the main house, voices drift up from the party below.
I pause at the top of the service stairs, listening for movement. Clear. Three flights down, and I’m back in the staff corridors, where hired help rush back and forth with empty boxes, packing up for the night.
I straighten my uniform and step into the current of bodies seamlessly, grabbing a box filled with foam packaging.
“Load that into the van,” a harried coordinator directs as I pass. Her eyes slide over me without seeing, just another server in identical clothing.
Invisible to everyone here.
