Snared (Elemental Assassin #16)(56)

Silvio sighed, realizing that I was right. “Well, at least promise me that you’ll be careful. That you won’t take any unnecessary risks.”

Despite the tense situation, I still smiled, even though he couldn’t see me. “There you go, trying to mother me again.”

“Well, someone has to,” he snapped.

“Thank you, Silvio.”

“I’m on my way right now, and I’ll call the others en route,” he snapped again, although his voice was a bit less peevish than before. “Do me a favor. Don’t die before we get there.”

“Why, I wouldn’t dream of it,” I drawled.

? ? ?

I hung up with Silvio, palmed a knife, and got out of my car. Given the watcher at the front windows of Jade’s house, I didn’t dare use the street, so I walked around the side of the home I’d parked in front of, crossed the yard full of plastic castles, swing sets, and other toys, and slipped into the woods. It only took me a few minutes to work my way through the trees and back over to Jade’s house.

I hunkered down just inside the tree line, watching the windows and glass doors on the back of the house. At first, I didn’t see anything, but then a shadow moved into my line of sight, one that became clear as someone stopped in front of the doors, stepped up to the frame, and looked outside—a dwarf wearing a dark suit and clutching a cell phone.

Ryan had speculated that the Dollmaker was exceptionally strong, and dwarves were certainly that. Could this be him? Could this actually be the killer?

The longer I studied the dwarf, the more familiar his features seemed to me, especially his thin black mustache. I’d seen him before. I was sure of it. But where? When? I thought back, but I couldn’t put my finger on how or when our paths might have crossed. I held my position, watching the dwarf, but after several seconds, he moved away from the doors.

But he wasn’t the only one in the house.

Through the windows, I spotted at least two more dwarves, also dressed in dark suits, moving from one room to the next, opening cabinets, looking in drawers, even standing on chairs so that they could peer into the air vents high up on the walls. They were obviously searching for something. But what? And why would they think it was in Jade’s house?

Eventually, the dwarves headed back toward the front of the house, disappearing from my line of sight. The second they were gone, I sprinted from the woods, all the way across the yard, and over to the back corner of Jade’s house. I pressed my body up against the brick and started counting off the seconds in my mind.

One . . . two . . . three . . . five . . . fifteen . . .

A minute passed, and no shouts of alarm, surprise, or warning rang out. The men hadn’t spotted me, so I slithered forward, ducking down around the windows, still keeping my body pressed up against the side of the house. Now that I was closer, I could hear faint muttering, along with several thumps, bumps, and other crashing noises, confirming my theory that the men inside Jade’s house were tearing her things apart.

I made it to the glass patio doors that led into the kitchen. When I was here this morning, the doors had been intact, but now the glass was completely busted out of one of them. This must have been how the dwarves had stormed into the house. Ryan must have heard the noise and dialed me on his phone.

I palmed a second knife and peered around the edge of the broken door, but no one was in the kitchen. In the front of the house, the crashes, clangs, and bangs grew louder and louder, as though the men were in a frenzy now, tearing through everything they could get their hands on, whether or not it was actually what they were searching for.

Go right ahead, boys. Make as much noise as you want. It will drown out the soft sounds of this Spider creeping into the house.

My knives still in my hands, I stepped through the busted door, moving slowly so as not to make my boots crunch any more than necessary on the broken glass. More noises came from the front of the house, but they dwindled and slowly faded away. I tiptoed through the kitchen, stepped into the hallway at the far end, and sidled along the wall until I could peer around the corner up ahead and out into the office beyond.

Jade and Ryan were sitting side by side on a couch along one wall, their hands tied in front of them with thick, heavy ropes. Jade had an ugly bruise on her left cheek, as though someone had backhanded her, while Ryan had multiple cuts on his face and a nasty, -painful-looking black eye. Blood had dripped down his face and spattered all over the front of his dark blue sweater, and his knuckles were also bloody, bruised, and swollen. He’d fought back against the intruders. Good for him, although he’d gotten a vicious beating in return.

Battered though they were, the sight of them eased some of my own tense worry and dread. Jade and Ryan were still upright, still breathing, still alive, and I was going to make sure they stayed that way.

I tiptoed forward a few more steps so that I could see the other people in the office. There were four of them, all dwarves, all wearing dark suits. Your standard low-level muscle. But muscle for whom?

The men were picking through the wreckage of the office, particularly the corner where the boxes of evidence had been stacked. They’d torn the lids off each and every one of the boxes and had strewn all the documents, photos, and files across the floor, creating a thick carpet of paper. They’d also smashed several of the desks, chairs, and phones, adding more splintered debris to the mess.

One of the dwarves stepped in front of Jade and scowled at her. “Is this it?” he growled, sweeping his hand out over the mess. “Is this everything?”