Lady Superior Read Online Free PDF Page B

expected something massive in a crate of that size. It struck her that it hadn’t felt heavy enough for that, but her strength—the extent of which she didn’t yet know—made accurate estimates impossible.
    Finally, Jane’s flashlight illuminated a small, wooden box at the center of the foam. A gold latch glimmered in light. Kristen turned back, face screwed up in confusion. “A jewelry box?”
    Jane pushed past her without a word and snatched the box, a sudden hunger in her eyes. She tucked the flashlight under her arm, flipped the latch, and lifted the lid. Hot anger rose in Kristen’s chest. Instinct told her to push back, grab the box, and go. Who was this woman, asking for all this help and snatching the prize?
    “Damn it!” Jane snarled, spiking the box like a football. The pieces bounced, splinters skittering across the concrete. She walked to the shelf nearby, slamming her forearm against another crate. She leaned her head against it. Her posture sagged, all energy gone in an instant.
    Kristen looked between her and the shattered remnants of the box. “Empty?”
    Jane’s head banged against metal. Her voice went flat. “Yep.”
    As if on eggshells, Kristen tiptoed to gather the pieces of the box. Moving with caution seemed right just then, though she wasn’t sure why. She turned the pieces over in her hand. They seemed…mundane. She remembered picking through her grandmother’s jewelry box as a little girl, and it’d clearly been crafted with more care than this one. Her lips pursed. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed. For all of the effort and secrecy, their prize was little better than a box a kid might make for Mother’s Day.
    She noticed writing on the piece that had once been the bottom. Too slow, Jane.
    Kristen glanced at the woman. “It wasn’t even here?”
    Jane pushed off of the crate and turned, rubbing her face. “It was. I know it was. I tracked it here myself; I had my own people watching the building.”
    “You might have been wrong. Or maybe they didn’t see it get moved. I mean…it’s a big warehouse and you didn’t have anyone inside, right? If I were hiding something super important, I wouldn’t keep it in the box it’d been traveling around in.” Kristen swept a hand in a vague gesture across the warehouse. “At the very least, I’d have put it in a different crate.”
    Jane paced nearly at a jog, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Look, you don’t know me very well, so I’m not going to be offended. But I know what I’m doing, okay? This isn’t my first rodeo. This couldn’t have been the changelings. It isn’t their style. They only hunker down until they can move something again; if it wasn’t here, they wouldn’t be here.”
    Kristen eyed Jane warily. “Like I said, maybe it’s in another crate. If your people—whoever they are—bought us time, then why don’t we look for it?”
    Above all else, she wanted to know what it was.
    “The Sea People don’t play games. They don’t leave messages. They show up, they take what they want, they leave. That’s it. If they were here, they thought it would be here. Obviously, it isn’t. Someone’s screwing with me.”
    Kristen blew out a harsh sigh. “At least tell me what was supposed to be in the box. You can do that, right? It isn’t here. I don’t have it. Telling me what it was can’t hurt anything.”
    “It was a ring.”
    “A ring?” Kristen’s brow knit. “You made me do all of this for a ring? What, was Temple repo-ing someone’s wedding ring?”
    Jane looked her in the eyes. “Knowing what you are—and seeing what you have tonight—you really think this was about someone’s wedding ring?”
    Kristen shrugged. “Probably not, but I haven’t figured this out yet. And you haven’t helped. I don’t get it. You work for a bank. How the hell does a bank fit into this? Banks are just… money. I’m not convinced I’m not helping you make a stack of cash somehow. For all I know,