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Then I frowned as her words registered, shifting in my seat to look up at her. “An issue?”

She nodded, stepping back so I could excuse myself and stand, trying not to wince—my new Blattleders had started pinching, but I was fighting through the pain because they looked so good with the suit. The event was winding down now, the last few stragglers gathered around the bar or trying to schmooze Felik and me. So even though Anita’s words were somewhat alarming, I was grateful for the escape.

Besides, how much of an issue could there possibly be when we were less than an hour away from going home? Everything had gone off without a hitch, as far as I could see. Anita had done an outstanding job.

I glanced around as I followed Anita across the ballroom. Greid and Beryl had left an hour or so ago, and the others had taken off about fifteen minutes ago—once Mom had dragged Suni and Kiti away from the bar.

The waitstaff were discreetly clearing tables, but I couldn’t spot Corva anywhere. Maybe she’d gone home too. It wasn’t like Anita wasn’t perfectly capable of handling everything herself.

She led me out of the ballroom and directly to a service elevator, pressing the button to call it in silence. I eyed her in mild alarm, glancing around before shuffling closer to rest my hand on her back.

“Everything okay, babe?” I murmured.

She didn’t answer as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, just taking my hand to lead me inside. Her lips were pressed into a flat line as she pressed the button for the top floor, then clasped her hands tightly together in front of her.

I stared at her as we started ascending in silence. She looked… nervous. Really nervous.

What could’ve happened? What could the “issue” be? I frantically tried to think of something that would make Anita this tense and nervous. The longer we stood in silence, the edgier I got.

“Babe, seriously, what’s going on?” I was getting a little nervous myself. “What’s on the top floor? Just tell me what’s happened and we’ll fix it. I’m sure we…”

I trailed off as things started adding up. How tense Anita had been the last couple of weeks in the run-up to the event. The fact that, now I thought about it, I hadn’t seen Corva for a while in the ballroom. She seemed like the hands-on type of business owner, so that was a little surprising. Anita had vanished for a while too—I’d definitely noticed that at the time, because I’d been trying to find her before being roped into a drink with the Lazurite table by Felik. It had been just after Beryl and Greid left.

Shit. Maybe Corva wasn’t as accepting of our relationship as she’d made out. Maybe she’d said something to Beryl, who’d told Anita before they left, and it had been the last straw for Anita, who was already under a lot of pressure, so she’d gone to confront Corva and it had gotten heated…

Realisation thudded into the pit of my stomach. I quickly glanced around for security cameras. Seeing that there weren’t any in the elevator, I leaned down and whispered frantically, “Babe, did you… Did something… happen to Corva?”

Anita turned to stare up at me. “What?”

“It’s okay.” I grabbed her face and ducked down to kiss her hard, my hearts starting to pound. “Shit. Fuck. Okay. We’ll handle it. We can get through this. I can… I’m sure the trunk of my car is big enough, but if not, Laki will let us use their truck. They won’t say a word. I can pay off the hotel staff to look the other way while we get the body out of the building—”

“Oh my god, Nuni.” Anita’s mouth trembled.

“Don’t worry, Nita,” I said immediately, still cupping her face as I stared down at her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. How fast can you pack? Maybe I could pay actors to live in the nesthouse for a while so no one realises we’re gone—”

“Nuni.” Her lips twitched before pursing together. She grasped my wrists, gently removed my hands from her face, then laced our fingers together. “Do you think I killed my boss?”

“I’ll try and pack light, but we will need good sunscreen if we’re on the run—Wait, what?” I stared down at her. “Does… that mean you haven’t?”

She gazed up at me. “Should I be worried that you managed to get from ‘there’s an issue’ to murder that fast?”

My ears went wild as the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open on a plain, eerily empty corridor. “I mean, in my defence, you’re taking me up to the top floor of an old hotel in a creepy service elevator. Late at night when no one’s around.”

“That’s true,” she agreed, lifting our hands to kiss my knuckles. “That does leave murder as the only viable outcome.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled, glad I wasn’t going to be spending the rest of my night heaving a suspiciously heavy rolled rug out of a hotel and into my car. I definitely would’ve sweated through my suit. “So what is the issue, then?”

“Nothing that serious,” Anita told me solemnly, leading me out of the elevator. She didn’t look so tense anymore, so my idiocy had achieved one good thing at least. “It’s nice to know you’d cover up a murder for me though,” she added as we walked down the silent, empty corridor. “And that you’d go on the run with me.”

“Babe.” I squeezed her hand. “Of course I would.”

She smiled up at me. “I would too.”

I grinned, but it turned a little confused when she started taking us up the back staircase that led to the roof. “Okay, wait. So seriously, what’s the issue?”

Had some of the party guests come up here and caused a mess? People could be bastards when they were drunk, uncaring of the staff who had to clean up after them.

“You’ll see.”