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“Sweetheart, you’ve never met me before.”
He lay on his back, his lips curled. “Do as you want,” he said, his voice fading.
Though she wanted to get moving, Jasmine waited another minute or two to ensure Christos was well and truly asleep and wouldn’t follow her to the artifact room.
When Christos’s chest rose and fell in a slow, easy motion, Jasmine reached for the money on the table and shoved it into the pouch beneath her shirt. Then she stood and crossed the room to the locked door.
She twisted the lock and opened the door.
Ace stood there with a frown creasing his forehead. When he saw it was her, he pulled her into his arms. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, loving how warm and secure she felt wrapped in his arms. “Yes.” For another moment, she allowed herself to revel in his embrace. “I’m okay,” she said. “The drug worked like a charm.”
“Good.” He set her at arms’ length, looked down into her face and then kissed her quickly. “We need to get moving.”
“Right,” she said, pulling herself together, wishing she could stay longer in his embrace, but knowing she couldn’t. Maybe, when she had Eli back, safe and sound, they could pick up where they’d left off all those years ago.
She snorted softly. And if wishes were horses…
Chapter 9
Ace wanted to hold Jasmine so much longer, but they didn’t have much time.
“Athanasios could return at any moment,” Jasmine said, echoing his thoughts. She stepped free of his embrace. “We don’t want to be caught in his highly secure artifact room.”
“Agreed,” Ace said.
He led the way back to the staircase and down to the first floor. With no time to spare, he hurried down the corridor to the artifact room and shoved aside the painting of the Birth of Venus. After keying in the code Dmytro had provided, he held his breath, praying the code was still the same one Christos had used.
The heavy metal door slid slowly open.
Ace released the breath he’d been holding. As soon as the gap was wide enough, he slipped inside.
Jasmine rushed past him. “This way.”
Once they were both over the threshold, the door closed behind them.
“Where’s the scroll?” Ace asked, looking around at the large room full of so many things.
“Follow me. It’s at the far end of the room.” Jasmine led him to the back of the room, where a table stood with some kind of lamp hanging over the tabletop. A box lay on the table. It was there that Jasmine led him. She opened the box and showed him what was inside.
He stared down at several pieces of thin copper nestled in soft foam. “Is it all there?” he asked.
She nodded, quickly closed the case and slipped it into the satchel she found looped across the back of a chair. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Let me carry that,” Ace said.
Jasmine didn’t argue. She handed over the satchel and headed for the door.
Ace looked around for a doorknob and didn’t find one. “How?—”
“I think he waved his hand over this.” Jasmine lifted her palm and held it over a red light on the wall. It turned green, and the door slid open.
With Ace leading the way, they ran down the hallway toward the front of the mansion. As they neared the front entrance, voices echoed in the foyer.
Ace stopped short and glanced around. He found the door to Athanasios’s study, twisted the knob and pushed it inward.
Jasmine dove through.
