Page 112 of Harnessed in Gold

We tell Topaz what I sensed in the conference room and plan our next move: find a way to the basement of this joint.

Just around the corner from the hallway is a staircase, but not the wide marble kind with ornate railings like in the lobby. These steps are utilitarian concrete and closed off behind a door. Fortunately, thanks to fire codes, they’re accessible to the general public.

As we all cram onto the small landing, I look up, following the line of yellow-painted bannisters as they wind their way up two more floors. But there are no steps going down.

“Guys, check this out,” Avery hisses from under thefirst flight of stairs. Her hand is on the knob of an open yellow door, and on the other side is a stairwell leading to the basement.

Excitement crackles in the air as we rush down the steps. The iron-window room should be just on the other side of the wall. We’re so close?—

“Fuck my life,” Rime growls.

At the bottom of the stairwell, we discover what has him so angry. Rusty chains bind the handles of the two heavy-looking metal doors. It doesn’t look like anyone has used this entrance in decades.

While we all cuss and moan, Leo takes charge. “We’ll have to split up and look for more stairs. There’s got to be a set in each wing.”

Re-energized, we jog back up to the first floor. Avery grabs Rime’s arm and hauls him toward the east wing, while Topaz looks at Aaron and jerks her head in the opposite direction. Chuckling, he dutifully follows her summons.

Seems Rime is alone in his determination to keep Leo and me apart.

“Did he give you an earful?” I ask Leo as we cross the lobby to the refurbished STEM wing.

“Who?”

“Rime. This morning after you guys dropped me off.”

“A little,” he admits. “But he was more worried about getting to Marshall in time before the guy sold the gun to someone else.”

“Did he?”

“No, he sold it to Rime.”

I pull up short, the solid marble floor suddenly liquid under my feet.

“It’s okay, Betts.” Leo folds me in his arms. “You’ll probably never see it. He’ll only use it if he absolutely has to.”

I grip him around the back, burying my face in his shoulder and breathing in the scent clinging to his safe and familiar black denim jacket.

Once I’m calm and steady, I lean back. “Did he get a chance to practice?”

Leo nods. “For most of the day. He’s a natural.”

Of course he is. Doesn’t hurt that he has eagle-eye vision, too.

“Would it help if I told you he didn’t particularly enjoy it?”

I manage a wobbly smile. “Actually, yeah.”

He winces like he’s being shouted at. “And neither of us expected it to be soloud.”

We share a grin. I want to ask him if he took a turn firing, but I’m not sure I want to hear the answer.

“It’ll be okay,” he assures me, in that overconfident, tempting-fate way of his. He takes my hand and tugs me along. “Come on.”

We stay alert as we pass by the stacks of science books and turn down a hallway of cool, dark computer labs.

At the end of a perpendicular hall of study rooms, we find another stairwell, a mirror to the staircase we all went down just a few minutes ago. Only this one has no door and no steps to the basement. Leo and I sigh and go back out into the hall, peeking into every crevice and entryway, hoping for another yellow door. Alas, none appear.

My phone buzzes on our way back to the lobby. I wave Leo closer so we can both read the message.