“Jewel demanded it.” He pressed a button she couldn’t even tell was a button in the wall. A panel appeared—he entered a code and the wall slid apart, revealing an elevator. Inside, he pressed the 3. “If anything off plan happened, whoever was on shift had thirty seconds to get there. Luna’s guard got fired last night. That’s what Ethan needed my help with.”

“Firing someone?” she asked, managing her surprise.

He shook his head. “Revoking their access. I told you, I do security and some IT work on the side.”

Nicole sighed, careful not to let her reaction slide into overexaggerated territory. “You didn’t mention that it was for Jewel.”

“Because it’s not.” Her sigh had worked—his expression changed to confusion mixed with worry. “I work for Ethan. He’s in charge of staff.”

On the third floor, the elevator doors opened directly into an attic. The floor sparkled despite the musty smell of neglect and dust that lingered in the air. Overhead, the ceiling sloped at a 45-degree angle and one entire wooden panel had been replaced by a skylight. Sunlight beamed through, curling into every square inch it could reach.

The only thing inside the room was a computer station with three monitors and a wheezing desktop tower.

“This is what’s left of the old server room.” Francis held the chair out for her to sit down. “I’m going to patch into the security system and show you how to make the cameras follow me.”

“Won’t they be able to detect that? An intruder alert or something?”

“Not if I use the back door that I built,” he said, leaning close to her while he typed too quickly for her to follow on the keyboard. “Ethan and I designed the system together. We’re the only people who know about it. I’ll just tell him I wanted to double-check to make sure everything was running the way it should, all things considered.”

The screens clicked on, each with a grid of nine cameras and a list of available feeds. “That is … overwhelming to look at it.” Every room in the house really was monitored.

“I’ll simplify it. Don’t worry.” He handed her a pair of dusty, old headphones. “They won’t know you’re watching. By the time they figure out you were, it’ll be too late to do anything about it. You’ll get a front-row seat to the truth.”

“And you’re really okay with this? Letting me spy on you and your friends?”

“Not particularly,” he said. “But if this is how Jewel wants to play it this time, then so be it.”

This time.

The fact that they were the first group to play The Cruelest Jewel had been quietly haunting her. The fact that Francis appeared in one of the videos meant something. And now, not only did he work for Ethan, he had access to the security system.