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My eye is drawn immediately to the woman on the screen.
It’s…my sister.
She’s older and thicker—muscled and physically powerful in a way she wasn’t before—but it’s Kelley. I would know her anywhere.
My sister is alive.
And she was here. Right in this building.
She might even be here now.
Leaning over the desk, I bring my face closer to the screen.
“What are you doing?” Diana tugs sharply at my shirt. “Get down. We should go. Maxim is really going to freak if he realizes we’re here while all this shit is going down.”
“Just a second,” I whisper, my heart pounding as I read the time signature at the bottom of the image.
Two hours ago.
Two, which means…
Kelley was here during the explosion.
But…why? Was she trying to get me out? Did she send the tiger? Did she sense that I was in danger or something? And where is she now? Do they have her back there in one of those cells? Is she still wandering around the building? Are enforcers scouring the floors for her as I stand here staring at her frozen image?
Questions rush up so fast it feels like I’m drowning in them, but as they sweep over, I latch onto one and can’t let it go.
Could Kelley have had something to do with the explosion?
The sister I knew was wild and loud, but unfailingly kind. She was one of the cool kids, but not the ones who made fun of nerds like me. Kelley punched up and only at people who deserved it—people like the Darius clan and the thugs who do their dirty work.
She exercised her quick wit on those guys so often, in fact, she nearly gave our mother a heart condition.
Mom was positive that, sooner or later, Kelley’s smart mouth was going to get her in serious trouble with Victor. But Kelley always managed to push just far enough without stepping over the line.
But maybe she’s changed in the past eight years.
I don’t want to imagine that she would ever put innocent people at risk, but it’s just too much of a coincidence to be explained away.
At least not with any explanation I can think of.
I mean, what are the chances that someone else just happened to set off a bomb in the theater right when Kelley was roaming around…
“Diana, where is this?” I point to the screen. “What floor? Do you know?”
She leans over the desk next to me. “Um…I don’t know. It doesn’t look familiar. Which means it’s probably somewhere above fifty, on the off-limits floors.”
I cut a glance her way. “Off-limits why?”
“Expensive, important stuff stored up there. Secrets and treasure and shit,” she says, dividing her attention between the chaos at the rear of the office and my face, clearly past ready to bolt. “And maybe a spa for Alphas with lots of golden bathtubs and possible golden showers if you’re into that sort of thing, but Maxim won’t tell me if that’s just a rumor or not.” She grabs my hand, squeezing hard as her eyes go wide. “Now can we go? Please?”
I nod. “Yeah.” We slide off the desk and start back toward the small lobby. I glance over my shoulder, making sure no one’s spotted us as I whisper, “Can you get me up there? Fiftieth floor?”
“No, you psycho,” Diana hisses as we pass the still empty front desk and push out through the frosted glass doors into the wide, white-tiled hallway outside. “I mean, yes, I could, because I excel at breaking and entering. But no, I won’t. Because we would get caught and in insane amounts of trouble. Seriously. Like, we might end up in a jail cell by Scary Mister Tiger.”
“That was my sister on the monitor,” I say. “Kelley. I haven’t seen her in eight years. I thought she was dead.”
Diana’s eyes bulge. “Shit. And she’s here? Now?”
