I went downstairs to his office, crawled under his desk, where the box was, and stretched out on my belly. For a while, I had been taking the box to my room to work on, but I was jumpy as hell when I did that, and convinced that Dad would notice that the dust had been wiped off in the move. Every tiny noise made my heart leap into my throat, and once Hue came into the room and startled me so much that I had to curl up around him and sit quietly for half an hour to calm myself.

I spun the dial a few times to clear it, took a deep breath, and started trying combinations.

Our house number.

Our phone number.

Mom and Dad’s anniversary.

Model numbers of all his cameras.

My license plate.

His license pl—

I froze, my fingers still clutching the dial. License plate. I was blasted with a memory, an image that sucker punched me. Luna, sprinting through the parking lot behind Tesori Antico, her blond hair flying out behind her like a cape. The smoky chemical smell of fired gunpowder enwreathing me, my ears muffled and ringing from the gunfight inside. My chest hitching with quick breaths from fear and exertion as I chased after her. My eyes burning. My throat dry.

My stomach sinking as I realized she’d gotten too far ahead of me.

She was getting away.

She jumped into the passenger seat of a silver truck. A man with very white-blond hair driving.

The license plate a candy cane stripe and mustard.

“VP,” I said aloud. “The license plate was VP.”

I’d known it this whole time but had been busy trying to put that night out of my mind entirely. I wasn’t ready to recall anything about it. Too many terrifying images tried to crowd in on me—Vanessa on the floor, a hole appearing in Bill Hollis’s head just when he was pointing the gun directly at me, so much blood, waking up on the floor of an empty van, and Jones. Oh God, Jones. But I especially wasn’t ready to recall the fact that Luna got away.

Luna got away.

She got away.

She was insane and angry and now she had absolutely nothing to lose, and I was the one who had taken everything from her. And she got away.

I scrambled out from under the desk, my palms clammy and my heart pounding. I swallowed and swallowed, trying to get the taste of Tesori Antico out of my mouth. I backed against a filing cabinet and closed my eyes, resting my head on the cool cabinet, trying to calm my breathing. Soon Hue padded in and nosed my hand. I turned it over and let him lick my palm.

Get a grip, Nikki. Get a fucking grip.