Jenks and I spent the better part of the afternoon squashing bugs, doing more than the saltwater to rid Trent’s roses of pests. The gardens remained quiet, and the other maintenance crews stayed clear of Nick’s caution flags stuck around the rose bed. By the time the moon rose, I was wound tighter than a virgin troll on his wedding night. It didn’t help that it was so cold.

“Now?” Jenks asked sarcastically, his wings invisible but for a silver shimmer in the dark as he hovered before me.

“Now,” I said, teeth chattering as I picked my careful way through the thorns.

With Jenks flying vanguard, we skulked from pruned bush to stately tree, finding our way in through a back door at the commissary. From there it was a quick dash to the front lobby, Jenks putting every camera on a fifteen-minute loop.

Trent’s new lock on his office gave us trouble. Pulse pounding, I fidgeted by the door as Jenks spent an entire, unreal five minutes jigging it. Cursing like a furnace repairman, he finally asked for my help in holding an unbent paper clip against a switch. He didn’t bother to tell me I was closing a circuit until after a jolt of electricity knocked me on my can.

“You ass!” I hissed from the floor, wringing my hand instead of wringing his neck like I wanted. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“You wouldn’t have done it if I had told you,” he said from the safety of the ceiling.

Eyes narrowed, I ignored his snarky, half-heard justifications and pushed open the door. I half expected to find Trent waiting for me, and I breathed easier upon finding the room empty, lit dimly from the fish tank behind the desk. Hunched with anticipation, I went right for the bottom drawer, waiting until Jenks nodded to tell me it hadn’t been tampered with. Breath tight, I pulled it open to find—nothing.

Not surprised, I looked up at Jenks and shrugged. “Plan B,” we said simultaneously as I pulled a wipe from a pocket and swabbed everything down. “To his back office.”

Jenks flitted out the door and back. “Five minutes left on the loop. We gotta hurry.”

I bobbed my head, taking a last look at Trent’s office before I followed Jenks out. He buzzed ahead of me down the hallway at chest height. Heart pounding, I followed at a discreet distance, my shoes silent on the carpet as I jogged through the empty building. The fail-safe amulet about my neck glowed a nice, steady green.

My pulse increased and a smile curved over me as I found Jenks at the door to Trent’s secondary office. This was what I had missed, why I had left the I.S. The excitement, the thrill of beating the odds. Proving I was smarter than the bad guy. This time, I’d get what I came for. “What’s our clock?” I whispered as I came to a halt, pulling a strand of hair out of my mouth.