Elemental Thief

Chapter 28

Before Ridley could find her father, she had to go to Aura Tower. She knew which building Lawrence would be in tonight, but she didn't know exactly where inside Brex Tower he would be. For that, she needed Archer. She managed to get into the Davenports' private elevator while invisible, then took the longest damn elevator ride of her life all the way to the top. By the time she reached the penthouse, she was almost in tears from sheer frustration.

I'm running out of time! her internal voice screamed inside her head. She knocked repeatedly on the double front doors, then almost cried with relief when it was Archer who opened up. She'd had no explanation ready if it turned out to be someone else.

"Ridley, what are you—"

"He took my father," she said, the words escaping her in a rush as she stepped through the doorway.

"What? Who? Wait, are you okay?" His eyes darted across her face, no doubt taking in her ruffled hair and red eyes. "What happened?"

"Lawrence. He was waiting at my place, and he made me open the figurine with magic, and then one of his guys knocked me out and I woke up in an arxium room inside his freaking pool house, of all places. But then I managed to get away, and I went straight home to see if Dad was okay, but he was gone. And the table was broken, and the window, and there was blood on the floor, and it was a lot, Archer. I mean, I don't know how much is too much, but it looked like a lot. But Dad wasn't there so—"

"Okay, just calm down." Archer gripped her shoulders.

"But he must be alive, right?" she insisted, staring pleadingly into his eyes and hoping he would agree with her. "I mean, that's what you'd assume, isn't it? He's alive. It wouldn't make sense to take him if he's dead. So he has to be alive—"

Archer pulled her against his chest and wrapped both arms around her. "Seriously, you need to calm down. Lawrence would be an idiot to kill Maverick Kayne. We'll find your father, okay?"

It was both extremely strange and oddly comforting to be hugged by someone she'd known since she was four years old but had barely spoken to in almost a decade. She shut her eyes and replayed Archer's words in her head. They sounded so reasonable when he said them. She didn't know why Lawrence would be an idiot to kill her father, but she was happy to go along with that reasoning.

"So Lawrence has the flash drive now?" Archer asked quietly.

Ridley sniffed. "Yes. So you need to get it back before he gives it to someone else, and I need to get my father back." She removed herself from Archer's embrace and stepped backwards. "Do you know where he'll be at Brex Tower tonight?"

"Yes. Sapphire 84. That restaurant on the eighty-fourth floor with all the private balconies, so I'm assuming he'll be on one of those."

"Okay. Let's go." She turned toward the open door.

"Wait, hang on." She looked back at him. "I'll do it. I'm going anyway." He picked up the object she hadn't noticed sitting on the table below the hallway mirror—a gun—and slipped it into the back of his jeans. "I promise I'll get your father back."

Ridley blinked at the spot where the gun had been, shivering as she imagined a cold, hard object pressed to the back of her head. She forced herself to forget it and look at Archer instead. "No way in hell am I staying out of this now. We're going in together. You'll get the flash drive, I'll get Dad—or find out where he is, at least—and then we'll get far away from Lawrence."

"And then?"

Ridley frowned. "Then what?"

"Lawrence knows what you can do. You won't be safe, even if you do manage to get us out of Brex Tower alive."