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Rory cocked her head to the side. “I’ve been looking into him. I don’t think it’s him. He’s full of shit, and Colter can’t stand the asshole, but he’s not involved. I had someone follow him, and so far, he’s squeaky clean. A dick, but if he’s involved, he’s a pawn, not a mastermind.”
That wasn’t hard to believe. Jerry had never been smart enough to be a mastermind. Either he wasn’t smart enough, or he was too lazy to be in charge.
My mind drifted to Mykel. He’d been strange this morning. Even Lazlo had thought so. He was close to the whole thing, closer than anyone else was, and he could easily do something without being traced.
I wanted to say something but decided against it. Mykel was Rory’s brother. Suggesting he could be working against Colter wouldn’t go down well. It wasn’t something I imagined she wanted to hear.
Colter suddenly appeared in the living room, and Rory and I both jolted with surprise.
“Shit, Colter, sneak up on us, why don’t you?” Rory said, clutching her chest above her heart. “You need to give us a warning or start appearing somewhere else or something.”
“Sorry,” Colter said. “Using the ring makes for faster travel. We had another break-in at the lab this morning.” He tossed a file down on the coffee table.
“What?” Rory and I asked in unison.
Anotherimplied that it had happened before, which I hadn’t known about, but Rory didn’t seem surprised, only worried.
“What did they take?” Rory asked.
“They took all the enchanted blood samples we collected on the drive last week,” Colter said. “Someone is actively trying to stop this research from moving forward.”
I frowned. “What time this morning did it happen?” I asked.
“Around seven, just before the first people arrived at the lab. That doorman of yours wasn’t even around yet to see what happened.”
The time Mykel had been absent had been right over that time. What if it had been him? What if he’d been the one to steal the samples so that Colter couldn’t move forward?
“This is getting ridiculous,” Rory said, shaking her head. She drained her wine class before she put the empty glass down on the floor next to the couch. “You’re going to have to put guards out there watching this shit round-the-clock at this rate.”
Colter ran his hand over his short hair. His face was riddled with frustration and worry. I could pick up on his magic, the vibe that came with it, now that I’d learned how to sense magic.
“What did they find on security cameras?” Rory asked.
“They didn’t find anything. Whoever it was knew exactly where they were. It had to have been an inside job.”
“Maybe we should shut down the whole thing,” Rory suggested. “Just until you know what’s going on.”
“We don’t have time, Rory.”
“It’s not the end of the world if we just postpone a couple of weeks to find out what’s going on. If you don’t figure out who’s working against you—”
Colter glared at her, his hard stare making her snap her mouth shut. They glared at each other, and a conversation that I couldn’t decipher passed silently between them.
Rory pursed her lips. “Fine. You do what you need to do. I’m leaving.”
“You don’t have to,” Colter said, but Rory shook her head and left, anyway. She wasn’t happy.
When she was gone and we were alone, I watched Colter. He walked to the large full-length windows that looked out over the city and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Why is Rory so upset?” I asked.
“It’s a long story,” Colter said.
“You can tell me.”
He glanced at me. “It’s not important.”
“Okay… well, I have something I need to tell you.”
