“Damn it, Trent!” I hissed, snatching up my clutch purse and following him. Ankle hurting, I caught up with him at the foot of the stairs. Reaching out, I jerked him back, sending his shoulder into the wall of the narrow passage. “What are you doing?” I said, inches away from his angry eyes. “Is this how you treat Quen? You don’t know what’s out there, and if you die, I’m the one that’s going to suffer, not you!”

He said nothing, his green eyes choleric and his jaw tight.

“Now get your scrawny ass behind mine, and keep it there,” I said, giving him a shove.

Sullen and worried, I left him there. My hand wanted to reach for my splat gun, but as long as that purple disk was up and running, the potions in it wouldn’t do anything but tick someone off as I got a nasty concoction of monkshood and spiderwort all over their nice dress clothes. A faint smile curved over my face. I didn’t mind doing this the physical way.

What I could see of the room was empty. I listened, hearing nothing. Crouching to put my head at knee level, I peeked around the corner. I was down here for two reasons. First, if anyone was waiting to hit me, they’d have to adjust their swing, giving me time to get out of the way. Second, if I were hit, I wouldn’t have so far to go to find the floor. But as I took in the elegant room, my stomach churned. The floor was littered with bodies.

“Oh my God,” I said softly as I rose. “Trent, he killed them.” Was that it? Was Lee going to frame us for murder?

Trent pushed past me, slipping my grasping reach easily. He crouched by the first body. “Knocked out,” he said flatly, his beautiful voice turned to steel.

My horror turned to confusion. “Why?” I scanned the floor, guessing they had fallen where they stood.

Trent rose. His eyes went to the door. I agreed. “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

His steps behind me were quick as we hustled to the foyer to find it predictably locked. Through the frosted glass I could see cars in the parking lot, Trent’s limo parked where we left it. “I got a bad feeling about this,” I muttered, and Trent pushed me aside to look.

I stared at the thick wood, knowing I wouldn’t be able to kick through that. Tense, I dug through my clutch purse. While Trent wasted his energy trying to break a window with a bar stool, I punched speed dial number one. “It’s bulletproof glass,” I said as the phone rang.

He lowered the stool and ran a hand over his wispy hair to make it perfect again. He wasn’t even breathing hard. “How do you know?”