Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(10)

I had been a completely different girl. A Robin who had no idea how the real world worked. A Robin who could never have imagined what I was going through now.

Jace took a sudden right and dashed up an alley lined with orderly, overly neat trashcans that looked more like storage devices than trash receptacles. I watched them fly by, wondering how much farther we had to go, until we came skidding to a stop.

In front of me I saw a building that did indeed look like a house. The bottom floor had a sign for the offices of a lawyer, the second floor had curtains in the windows, and the third floor window appeared to have blinds made of—I blinked, confused. The blinds looked like they were reflecting the sunlight.

“Are those blinds made of… metal?” My eyes widened.

“They are,” Jace confirmed. “Just one of the security measures that Nathan put in place for Zion and Alexy. My apartment, of course, doesn’t require them,” he added, grinning.

I watched as he pulled his backpack around and started digging through it. Seconds later, he had the lockpicking device in hand and was bending toward the back door that we needed to enter.

“So you don’t have a key?” Ant asked. “I thought you and Zion were close. On the same team and all that.”

“This is my key,” Jace retorted. He fit the lockpick to the doorknob, shifted it a bit, and then pulled the trigger. There was a click in the door. He lifted his eyebrows at Ant and then turned the knob. “Works every time.”

Ant snorted and brushed past him, Jackie on his heels.

“Let’s get this over with,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “Third floor, right? Where are the stairs? If Zion is up there lounging around in his apartment, I have a thing or two to say to him.”

“Stairs are on the right,” Jace answered. He reached out and grabbed my arm. “And we need to move quickly. I don’t want to spend any longer here than we have to. If Zion’s not here, we need to get to Alexy’s.”

I nodded and then hurried after Ant and Jackie, whom I could just see disappearing up the stairs. We caught up with them on the landing of the second floor and all ascended to the third floor together.

There, we found another door at the end of the staircase and another lock.

“Ant, take her,” Jace said quietly, noticing me stagger a bit after our climb up the stairs.

Ant held out an arm without question, and I found myself in the less-desirable position of being held up against Ant’s bony frame. I wondered how he and Jackie managed to fit together, then put that out of my mind and turned to where Jace was fitting his lockpick to the doorknob.

“Shouldn’t we, you know, knock?” Jackie whispered. “What if he’s in there?”

“If he’s in there, then he won’t be surprised that I’m coming in by picking the lock rather than knocking,” Jace replied. “If he’s in there and he’s smart, he’ll be hiding, and he won’t answer the door, no matter who’s on the other side. You never know who might be compromised or who might come up the stairs with enforcers at their back.”

I stared at him, surprised at the statement and its implications. What exactly was Jace into? I’d always known that he was part of the inner circle, headed by Nathan, but I’d never realized that they were quite so paranoid. It made the security put into place by Nelson look almost tame.

Seconds later, the door succumbed to Jace’s ministrations and swung open. An alarm started screaming, echoing through the tiny hallway and announcing the arrival of intruders.





4





Ant, Jackie, and I immediately dropped to the ground, our hands on our ears, and though I cringed at hitting the bruise on my leg, the pain was secondary to me.

All I could think about was the sound. I pressed my hands tighter against my head and tried desperately to shut out the wailing now spilling from Zion’s apartment and through the building.

What in God’s good name was going on in there?

I looked up, eyes nearly closed against the pain, and saw Jace still standing right outside the door, looking as if everything was normal. He cast an amused glance at us writhing on the ground, and then stepped calmly through the door.

Three seconds later, the siren cut out.

I cautiously removed my hands from my ears and squinted at the door. I could still hear the ghost of the sound, and I had to wonder if my ears might be permanently damaged. I’d never heard anything so high-pitched in my life. It had sounded like some sort of auditory torture device.

“What the hell was that, and what did we do to deserve it?” Ant hissed, sticking his forefingers in his ears and twisting.

“The security measures Zion chose to put in,” Jace called from inside the apartment. “Now, get up and get in here.”

Jackie rose to her feet, helping me to mine, and we hurried into the apartment.

I looked around, then paused and looked around again, trying to convince myself that I hadn’t started imagining things. The entire place was done in chrome and red lacquer, with a black leather finish. It was a bizarre combination of shine and matte, with bright, aggressive coloration. My gaze darted from the windows covered with metal blinders, to the black leather couch, to the red lacquer table, to the gray carpeting.

This place was pure Zion, I realized, in terms of how aggressive and masculine it was.