“Sure, why not,” Maeve agreed, but there was no enthusiasm in her voice or her heart. It would be a waste of time. She knew it.
Nearly two hours later, she’d been proven right, though she’d rather have been wrong. “I can’t believe we risked our lives breaking into that place for nothing.”
“It wasn’t for nothing,” Lili chided, the trace of some accent barely flirting with her words for the first time. “Nick destroyed the monster’s workroom, and acquired more information about the device we seek. That’s a major setback for someone like him.”
Maeve studied her for a moment. “You called him a monster. Do you know him? I mean, have you encountered him personally, during your work with Nico?”
“Him and others just like him. Not as powerful always, but just as evil. Trust me, child. They have to be stopped.”
She blinked at being called “child” by this young-looking woman. Curiosity was a bubble in her chest, threatening to pop. And when it did, the questions would come flying out. She grabbed the water bottle she’d filled earlier and drank half the contents down. Nothing about Nico or his people was ordinary. They all had long, long histories of pain and war. Who was to say that Lili wasn’t another of those? And Maeve had no right to ask about her story, just because they happened to share a desk for a couple hours.
“You’re right,” she said, looking down at the screen. “He needs to be destroyed, even if it’s only for what he did to Dragan and the others. I just wish—”
“There’s one more place we haven’t looked, sweet Mae—” She looked up with a twinkle in her eye. “—as Dragan calls you.”
Maeve blushed, but more from happiness than not. Then she frowned when the substance of the comment hit her. “Where?” she asked, scanning the drive contents again.
“The trash can,” Lili said with a flourish. “Don’t you watch the crime shows on TV? That’s always where they find the big clues.”
She laughed, and clicked obediently on the trash symbol. “There’s only one thing in here, I’m afraid. Looks like . . . yep, deleted email. Huh. Not junk either. Let’s see, it’s from someone named AntoniaR62. Just one line, though. ‘Leave me alone.’” She started to laugh again as she looked over to Lili, but found the other woman sitting perfectly still.
“What was the woman’s name?” she whispered.
“AntoniaR62,” Maeve repeated slowly. “Why? Does that mean something?”
“No,” she said briskly. “It just . . . reminded me of someone else, but the number was much longer. Good to know I was wrong.”
Maeve wanted to pursue it anyway. This Antonia might be nothing more than an old girlfriend of Nico’s, but she couldn’t shake the feel that there was something . . . off, about Lili’s response. Sometimes “nothing” definitely meant something. But it was obvious that Lili wanted her to drop it, so she did.
“I’ll give it to Nico,” Lili said finally. “If it is Antonia, she’s his problem to deal with, not ours.”
“You think she’s involved in this?”
“I don’t,” she said firmly, then made a clucking sound with her tongue. “Now, what other footprints can we follow?” She glanced up. “Do you think he’d go back to the house where you worked, the house by the lake?”
“Nico already asked that,” Maeve said, burying her curiosity once more. “I told him I didn’t think so, because it’s stuffed with what I call treasures. I’m sure they’re worth a fortune. And Dragan confirmed that there’s a lot of magic inside the house, too. The team decided Sotiris wouldn’t risk losing that magical stuff, on top of what he lost last night. What do you think?”
“You raise a good point. Let me just . . . I can have someone put in a call to the local police authorities up there. They do have something like that, don’t they?”
“Yes, of course. The city only has a small police force this time of year, but they add on officers during summer and fall when the tourists arrive. And the police station is close to the house. About five miles, maybe a bit more.”
“Good. I have someone I can ask to—” She was tapping on her keys again. “—request an official welfare check on poor Mr. Sotiris, who received bad news and hasn’t been heard from. Family is very worried, and so on. There we go. If he’s there, we’ll know soon, and we can let Nick and the others know, too. That would solve the problem of where he is, although in my experience, these things are never that easy. So what else can we try while we wait to hear back?”
“We can try tracking Sotiris’s car. It’s distinctive, and I know the license plate. If he left the city, he’d have to pass through toll booths and such—”
“Unless he flew,” Lili added. “And if he’s driving a long distance, we’ll lose him as soon as he leaves the state, if not sooner. I have certain connections I can ask about those sorts of things, but I’d need to give them more than a license plate to go on. It’s a big country.”
“Right. What if—?”
Lili’s cell phone rang at that moment, her face showing surprise when she saw who was calling. “Nick?” she answered, then put it on speaker.
“. . . and we’re moving,” Maeve heard Nick say. “Casey just called from the stadium. There’s something big there, something with a huge magical signature. She and Damian are checking it out, but I’m afraid of what it could be. I spoiled Sotiris’s lair, and now he’s going to kill a lot of innocent people, just because they live in Florida.”
Maeve glanced up when Grace walked into the room, with a drowsy, “What’s happening?”
“The guys and Hana are coming with me,” Nico was saying on the speaker. “Grace is staying there with you and Maeve.”
“Should I warn the authorities?” Lili asked. “Evacuate the stadium?”
“No. If he’s watching, he’ll trigger it early, just for kicks. And the authorities won’t know what to do with this anyway. Casey’s the best person I could have on the scene with me. With any luck, we’ll get rid of it quietly, with no one the wiser.”
Maeve heard what sounded like a heavy car door slamming and jumped up in alarm. “Wait,” she said frantically, but he’d already hung up. And when she ran to the front window, she caught only the narrowest glimpse of tail lights from Gabriel’s SUV disappearing down the street.