➵ Chapter 54-3

"What?" "Try not to bloody punch me this time." Somehow, despite the nightmare and what was coming, despite the madness of it all, I giggled. "Sorry." "I'm sure." Stretching his arm out from the edge of the bed, he pulled the pillows back up before turning off the lamp, shrouding the room in darkness once more. Under the blanket, my hand found his and clinging to it, I let my eyes shut, readying myself for whatever was to come. ➵ The quiver slung across my back felt heavier than usual - maybe it was the guilt of planning to murder a man that was once friends with my father. Maybe it was the extra arrows. Probably the latter. I highly doubted that my nonexistent guilt would have any physical weight. We were outside the iron gates of a villa, unusually quiet, hidden in one of the few blind spots of Darren Polk's security cameras. Matthias Young had coughed up the name of the company that had helped with the remodeling and refurbishing, and all it took to get our hands on the blueprints was a simple hack on Eric's part. The villa was massive, crafted with colorful windows and wooden shutters. There were balconies outside many of the windows, with elaborate iron railings around them. Once, before Polk had bought it, it had been a series of townhouses. Since then, he had converted it to his own personal estate, but had chosen to keep the original architectural stylings. "You can walk away," I said, breaking the silence. "It's not too late." "No," the twins said simultaneously. Tyra gave me a dirty look, offended by the mere suggestion. Logan scoffed. "Whoever leaves, after all this planning, is taking a dagger to the throat." Jace just cocked his head to the side with a look that said, Aren't you supposed to be some sort of bloody genius? "Fine," I said. "Comms in. Split up. Different points of entry as discussed. Get up where we need to be without setting off alarms. Don't leave your partner behind." Lee gave Tyra a stern look, gripping his scythe. "If you try ditching me like you did in that heist, I swear to God-" Tyra swung her sword in a circle. "Like, no time to bitch. Time to kill. C'mon, partner." Spinning on her Chucks, she ran off, leaving Lee to hurry after her. Jace winked at me before disappearing with Logan. Eric stayed with me, his pouch of spare shurikens swaying, brushing against his legs as a warm wind blew. "Camera switches off in ten." "Ready," Logan said. "Ready," Tyra chimed. Eric touched the pouch. "Five seconds." I let out a deep breath, feeling my pounding heart slow in my chest as my nervousness ebbed away. It was just like any other heist. I needed to reach the target without alerting security. It was something I had done a thousand times. "Go." Eric pulled his first star from the pouch, flinging it through the bars of the gate. The star hit a guard dog smack in the middle of its head, and it hit the ground, dead. He gave a shudder. "Poor dog." "I could've done that," I said, running forward to climb the gate. "No. You love dogs more than I do." He stood, watching me climb over and land on my feet. I tossed a rope over the gate and he grabbed it with both hands, beginning to climb. "Hold it tight." "You'll be fine. It's not that high." "Fifteen feet. I do not like heights." "C'mon, nerd. You've got this." He got to the top, closed his eyes, and jumped off. I threw the rope over the gate so nobody would see it. "Thermal imaging, Eric." He lifted the binoculars that hung around his neck. "Nobody in our way, except for behind the front door. We just need to worry about keypads until we get to the third floor. That's where most of the guards are." We made our way in, Eric punching in the code that let us through the front door, and me shooting an arrow through the entry-guard's kneecap before he could react. Eric clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle his scream. I struck him hard enough across the face to knock him out and pulled two zip-ties from my boot, fastening the man's wrists and ankles together. "Hide him in the cupboard. Gag him if you find something." He nodded. "I'll hack the cameras from the desktop before the guards realize something's wrong. Set them on a loop. Go straight down the hall. You'll see the staircase." I hurried, too set on what I was here to do to admire the black market purchased sculptures and stolen painting as I moved down the marble floored hall. While the outside of the building looked was reminiscent of older Cuban architecture I remembered from Havana, the inside of the villa reminded me of the typical mansions I'd seen back in Manhattan - spiraling staircases with baroque iron railings, modern art, doors with keypads for rooms meant to be private. "From the outside, this place is modeled after the-" Jace began. "Not the time," Logan snapped at him. "Shut up," I said. "I'm on the second floor. Lee, Tyra, don't break through the windows yet." Lee was losing patience already. "My hands are so sweaty. I'm going to fall." "I'll leave you," Tyra threatened. "I'll kill you." "You'll be dead." All the bickering made me feel like my head would burst. Part of was tempted to switch off my comms, but I left it on as I hurried up the next staircase that would lead me to the third floor, bow raised. "Nearly there." "Hurry up," Tyra said. "What happened to 'no bitching'?" Lee shot at her. "Shut up. All of you." "Whatever, mom." "You're older than me, Lee." I went up the last step, eyes scanning everything within my sight for a guard. "Are the cameras on a loop, Eric?" "Yes."