Page 110 of Pay the Price

“Holy fuck,” Wolf said.

We looked at the back of the pictures, all labeledNory and Mac, except the last one where she’d been naked in bed.

That one just readNory.

There was a kind of weight in the name on the back of the photograph. It felt like a goodbye, even though that didn’t make sense at all.

“Mac was fucking Daisy’s mom even after she was married to Charles Hammond,” Wolf said.

Jace didn’t say anything — hadn’t said anything — and we sat there in the attic in silence, all of us so busy thinking about what it meant that it took us a minute to realize something.

The heat in the attic had gotten intense.

And there was something else.

“Do you smell smoke?” I asked.

Jace looked at me, his eyes clouded. Then he shot to his feet. “What the fuck?”

He stalked to the door that led out of the attic and pulled.

It only took me half a second to realize something was wrong.

“Someone fucking locked the door,” Jace said.

Now I could really smell the smoke, and not just smell it. It was starting to leak in under the door, through the floor.

I coughed and Wolf dropped to the floor, put his palms against the old floorboards.

He looked up at us. “They’re hot. This place is on fire.”

And then I heard the roar and crackle, the creak of the beams under our feet. They weren’t the sounds of a small fire: they were the sounds of an inferno.

Jace stalked to the tools that were stacked in one corner of the attic. A cough tore through his throat as he started tossing stuff aside. Wolf and I joined him, all of us moving fast.

Looking for something, anything, that would get us out of there.

Chapter 67

Daisy

Iwas riding high from the meeting the rest of the morning. I wouldn’t be a key player in designing the resort, but Piers had called me a liaison, had introduced me to the design team he’d hired to put it all together. That meant I was going to be part of it, and I was giddy with excitement.

I was going to learn a ton, and I was going to do it with a hands-on project, one I could see and touch, one I could watch come to life in real time.

I couldn’t wait to tell the Beasts. I could already see the excitement in Wolf’s eyes, could hear the questions Otis would ask me, like he was really interested. Jace would play it cool, but I’d see through it when he told me congratulations and called me princess.

Diana had ordered in lunch for the office and the design team, and I was picking at a salad and trying to refocus on the deed paperwork when my phone buzzed.

I caught Sarai’s name on the screen and almost didn’t answer (I knew I owed her a text, but geez, give a girl a minute) but guilt won out.

I picked up my phone and frowned.

Have you heard?

Leave it to Sarai to send a breathless text with zero context.About what?

There’s a fire at the Blades’ compound. A big one.

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