far. Even I couldn’t screw up this job. It’s easy money, just like Aunt Clem said it would be. And the best part is that we don’t have to share.”
I frowned.
Opal cocked an eyebrow. “That remains to be seen. But know this—if you do screw up, it’ll be for the last time. I’ll make sure of that. This is a dangerous job. Plenty of chances for . . . accidents to happen.”
She smiled then, her face soft, pretty, and pleasant, despite the shimmer of violence in her hazel eyes.
Well, well, well. It looked like Opal had the same ruthless streak her mama did. It was certainly enough to scare dear cousin Dixon, who winced again.
“And go clean up and wipe that blood off your face,” Opal snapped. “You look like a pig gorging on a trough full of tomatoes.”
Dixon nodded vehemently. “Sure, I’ll go do that. Just as soon as I take care of the jewelry.”
He clutched the case to his chest and backed away several steps before turning and scurrying down the hallway as fast as he could without actually running.
“Idiot,” Opal muttered before walking in the opposite direction.
I waited until they were both out of sight and the cameras had pivoted away before slipping around the corner and hurrying over to the door. I tried the handle, but it was secured from the inside. Frustration surged through me; it was a sturdy, high-end lock, not the sort of thing I could finesse open with a couple of elemental Ice picks. Finn could have managed it, but I wasn’t as good with locks as he was. Plus, an electronic card reader was attached to the wall to the right side of the door, something else I couldn’t easily bypass.
Well, just because I couldn’t open the door didn’t mean that I couldn’t see what was going on inside—and exactly what Clementine was making Owen do.
I hurried down the hallway, heading in the same direction as Gary, the giant who’d left for the security center. With cameras covering the entire museum, there had to be at least one that would let me see what was happening behind that door with Owen.
Despite my desperate need to make sure he was okay, I still made myself be cautious and quiet about things. Looking, listening, and creeping from one pool of darkness to the next. It was frustrating, especially since I had to keep dodging the security cameras, but I wouldn’t be able to help anyone if Clementine and her crew spotted me before I was ready for them to.
Finally, I reached the end of a hallway next to the security center. I stopped in another blind spot, drew in a breath, and peered around the corner.
Gary stood in front of a steel door with a sign that read
“Come on, come on,” he muttered, patting down the pockets on his uniform.
At first, I wondered what he was doing, but then I realized another electronic card reader was mounted on the wall beside the door. He must be looking for some sort of key card to slide through the device. He should have found it already, because his lapse was going to cost him his life.
All I had to do was figure out a way to kill the giant—on camera—and get away with it.
Yet another security camera was mounted in the hall, high up on the wall across from the door. I studied its slow movement, which was an arc pattern just like the others. I could sneak up and kill the giant while the camera was turned the other way, but there was no way I could get rid of his body before it swiveled back around.
I cocked my head to one side. Unless it
I thought about my idea for a moment, but it seemed solid enough. Besides, the giant would find his key card any second now, and I didn’t have time to think of anything else. So I tucked my knife back into its holster, laid my hand on the marble wall, and reached for my Ice magic.
A bit of cold silver light leaked out from underneath my palm; it only took a second for small crystals to spread out from underneath my palm, run up to the top of the marble wall, and snake down the hallway toward the camera. I alternated looking at the camera and at the giant, but he wasn’t an elemental, so he didn’t sense me using my magic.
I waited until the camera was turned away from the giant before I pushed even more of my power outward. A second later, an inch of elemental Ice encased the camera, freezing it in its tracks, so to speak.
As soon as the camera was Iced over, I grabbed my knife and headed for the giant. I let the cold, black rage rise in me once more, even as I crept up behind him, my bare feet as soft and quiet as silk skimming across the marble floor, since I was still carrying my heels in my other hand. The giant had a gun in a holster on his leather belt, along with his own fists and whatever other weapons he might have.
It really wasn’t fair—to him.
“Where is the stupid thing?” he muttered, still digging in his pockets.
He was so distracted that he didn’t hear the faint rustle of my skirt or see my shadow sliding up the wall next to him like a murky movie monster about to gobble him up. I stopped about five feet behind him. Then I stood there and waited—just waited for the right moment.
“Finally! There it is—”
I dropped my shoes on the floor.
The giant whirled around at the sharp
I stepped up and buried my knife in his throat before he could utter another word.
As I ripped the weapon out of his windpipe, blood gushed through the air, spraying onto the gray floor and walls and soaking into my scarlet dress. The giant gurgled and clawed at the fatal wound, frantically pressing the plastic card against his neck as if the small rectangle could keep all the important fluid inside his body. Card or not, there wasn’t enough pressure in the world for that.
His hand slipped off his bloody neck, and the card dropped from his fingers and clattered onto the floor. The giant staggered back and hit the wall. His legs buckled, and he slowly slid down the marble until he came to rest on the floor, like a puppet whose strings had been severed. The sightless glaze of death already coated his dark eyes.
I paused, looking left and right, but I didn’t see anyone, and no heavy footsteps thumped in this direction. I padded over to the door and pressed my ear against it, but I didn’t hear any movement on the other side. The metal was too thick for that. Good. That meant that whoever was inside the security center probably hadn’t heard us either.
Too bad I had no idea how many more of Clementine’s men might be inside. One, two, a dozen. I had no way of knowing, but it was a chance I had to take. I needed to make sure Owen was okay, and I needed to see exactly what Clementine was making him do that was so important. Both of those things would help me plan my next move.
I dropped to a knee beside the dead giant and started patting him down—another calculated risk, but I was hoping that it would be at least a couple of minutes before someone decided to investigate why the frozen camera wasn’t working. There were at least fifty giants in the museum, and I needed some more weapons to kill them with.
But there wasn’t much to find. He didn’t have any ID on him, and the only thing of real value or interest was the leather utility belt he wore. In addition to the gun I’d noticed earlier, the belt also contained an extra clip of ammo, a metal baton, a small bottle of pepper spray, and, most important, a walkie-talkie. The device was turned on, but currently no squawks or cracks of static echoed from the black plastic.
I unbuckled the belt and tugged it out from underneath the giant’s body. I stood and cinched it around my waist, looping it as tight as it would go. Even then, it sagged and rode low on my hips. Good enough.
Then I did something that would have made Finn wince with agony and shriek with despair: I chopped up my dress.
Using my bloody knife, I sliced off the bottom half of the skirt, so that the fabric ended just above my knees. I also made several more slits in the skirt, making it easier for me to reach through them and get to the second knife I had strapped to my thigh. Finn would no doubt bitch and moan when he saw what a hack job I’d done on the beautiful gown, but the long skirt just wasn’t practical for fighting. Besides, the giant’s blood had already ruined it, and I imagined I’d get the garment quite a bit more messy before the night was through. More like before the next two minutes were up.
