Kelos followed the cougar shifter, nearly running into the back of him when he stopped suddenly. “What is it?” Kelos glanced up and saw the camera. “What do we do?”
“There’s no way to go around it.” O’Malley glanced up at the camera which was positioned in a corner of the corridor. The angle of the lens meant it could monitor the corridor from both directions. Which gave them a slight advantage. If they pressed their backs against the wall, they could get close enough to tamper with it.
“I’ll deal with it.” Kelos stuck his hand in his pocket and drew out a gold coin. With a careful aim he threw it at the camera. It bounced off the edge of the casing and clattered to the floor.
“Let me try.” O’Malley held out his hand for a coin but Kelos shook his head.
“I’ve got this.” Taking another coin, he squinted, took aim and threw the coin. Hard. The impact of the coin made the camera turn toward the wall. “There.”
“Okay, let’s go before they notice and reposition it.” O’Malley ducked his head down and ran along the corridor. “This way.” He turned right and headed along the next corridor toward the main stairwell.
“Which floor is the office on?” Kelos asked as he retrieved his coins from the floor. No self-respecting dragon would leave any single piece of his treasure behind.
“Next one down.” O’Malley pointed down as they ran along the corridor. “We have to get to the corner office situated on the west side of the building. The file is hidden in the ceiling.”
Kelos nodded and followed O’Malley, his focus switching between the immediate area and the other people in the building. So far, they had not raised anyone’s suspicions, it seemed as though the door onto the roof wasn’t alarmed, and no one was coming up the stairs to fix the camera. Kelos hoped their luck would hold.
Without speaking, they quietly opened the door leading to the stairwell and ran down. Even the light-footed cougar shifter’s steps seemed to echo loudly down the stairwell and Kelos was thankful they only had one flight of stairs to navigate before they entered the corridor to the next floor.
“Cameras?” Kelos asked, scanning the ceiling for any sign of a watching eye.
“None that I can see.” They ran swiftly along the corridor, turning left at the end. “That’s the one.”
Kelos sprinted forward, the two shifters racing along the corridor toward the corner office. The ski mask made his face hot and itchy, but he kept it in place as they reached the office and tried the door.
“Unlocked.” Kelos carefully opened the door using his sleeve so that he didn’t leave any fingerprints. Not that anyone would ever trace the prints back to him. Kelos had managed to stay out of trouble all his long life. He had no intention of that changing now.
“Okay. Joanna said it was in a ceiling vent.” O’Malley stepped inside the dark office and Kelos followed, hating the sense of being trapped in the room. Although, if anyone approached, he could jump out of the window and shift mid-air.
And not be seen? His dragon had a point.
The two men tilted their heads and scanned the room for a ceiling vent, Kelos keeping his senses alert for anyone approaching while he looked for the vent.
“Here,” O’Malley hissed and pointed to the ceiling.
“I was expecting it to be bigger.” Kelos joined him staring at the small air vent set into the ceiling tiles.
“Size isn’t everything.” O’Malley grinned and pointed to the ceiling. “Give me a boost.”
Kelos leaned down and cupped his hands together, bracing to take the weight of the cougar shifter. O’Malley placed his foot lightly between Kelos’s hands and sprang upwards, his hands catching hold of the vent.
With a grunt, Kelos kept O’Malley in the air, his head tilted back to watch as the cougar shifter ran his fingers around the edge of the metal vent. With a flick of his wrists, O’Malley levered the vent down and tucked it under his arm as he slid his hands inside the hole in the ceiling and felt around.
“Got it.” With a satisfied smile, O’Malley swapped the metal vent for the file, tucking the evidence under his arm while replacing the cover on the ceiling. “No one will even know we were here.”
“I’m not so sure.” Kelos switched his attention to the other people in the building as O’Malley jumped down to land nimbly on the floor. “Someone is coming this way.”
O’Malley’s expression grew serious and his eyes went slightly out of focus as he pushed his senses outward. “You’re right. We need to move.”
The two men rushed from the office and ran along the corridor toward the stairwell. They didn’t have a moment to lose as they swung open the door leading into the stairwell. O’Malley paused for a second, his head tilted to one side as he listened for any sound.
“Whoever is coming is using the elevator,” Kelos whispered in his ear. “We should wait.”
“What if they get off on this floor?” O’Malley asked. “We should go now.” He took a step forward but Kelos grabbed hold of him and pulled him back.
“We don’t have time to get to the next floor and out onto the roof. We should wait.” Kelos was not going to argue, he’d made up his mind.
You never used to be so cautious, his dragon told him.
We never had a mate before, Kelos replied. Finding Amber had tempered his actions and made him more aware of exactly what he had to lose if he messed this up.
“We could make it,” O’Malley answered with a shake of his head. “But we’ll wait.”
He let go of the door and it closed, blocking their exit. O’Malley didn’t look happy, but Kelos was convinced their best chance of getting out of the building undetected was to wait.
Waiting was hard. Both men stood in silence, hardly breathing as the elevator approached. Luckily,
