“Just like your mother,” Viktor grumbled.
“Well, someone has to be the adult here.”
The woman held the elevator. “Are you coming?”
Wyatt waved at her. “I need to get his keys out of the van. Thanks again, lady!” As he jogged toward the doors, he listened for the sound of the elevator doors closing. Then he quietly pivoted, relieved that she hadn’t suspected anything.
Viktor pushed the elevator button. “It frightens me sometimes how easy it is for you to lie.”
He waltzed up to the doors. “I made a career out of it.”
After a short ride to the top floor, they jogged upstairs to the roof. There wasn’t much to picking the roof lock, but the real challenge was how they were going to get down to the auction house. They were about two stories higher than they needed to be. Not a huge distance, but it wouldn’t take much for Wyatt to crack his melon.
Viktor walked to the back corner. “This is good.”
Wyatt approached the edge and was hit by a gust of wind as he bent over and studied a pipe going down the wall. “You call this good? A ladder is good.That’sthe thing of nightmares.”
Viktor chuckled. “Is my son afraid?”
Wyatt took off his backpack and shoved it into Viktor’s arms. “I want a bonus for this,Dad.”
“It is not as if you will die.”
“Says the man who can heal in three seconds. Remember the time I cracked my skull and we had to call the Relic? That was when you sent Niko and Blue on that trip to Dallas. It took me a week to heal all the way, and I had to wear that stupid helmet.”
“Niko is not far.”
Wyatt sat on the ledge and imagined his head splitting open like a melon. As far as he was concerned, brave men fell into two categories: stupid and smart. The stupid ones put their lives in peril for nothing. The smart ones lived to see another day. As a Gravewalker, he could live to be a thousand as long as he made smart choices. He healed at an accelerated rate and was harder to kill than a human, but death never took a holiday.
He reached down and felt the pipe. “There’s no gap. I can’t hold on to it.”
“Use your fingertips. We have no time to quarrel. Go!”
Wyatt put the ski mask over his face, and Viktor held his hand as he lowered himself off the roof. When he thought he had his boots anchored against the brick on the adjoining walls, he let go of Viktor’s hand and clasped the pipe. Wyatt could already feel his weight pulling him down like an anchor. His boots scrabbled in a futile attempt to slow his descent. When his knuckles began to scrape against the brick, he jumped onto the lower roof and rolled across the asphalt.
Despite his stinging knuckles and sore arm, he sprang to his feet and reached up to catch the bag Viktor tossed. Seconds later, Viktor jumped off the roof like a crazy person. Wyatt was so startled by the leap that the backpack struck him on the head.
Right before landing, Viktor shifted into his wolf. His clothes and gun fell on top of him.
“Show-off,” Wyatt muttered, rubbing the knot on his head. “They always make it look easy in the movies. You never see Jason Statham pulling a groin muscle. Tell your wolf the plan. There might be a security guy in the lobby, so I’ll need you to take a sniff while I check things out.” He gathered up Viktor’s clothes and weapon. “Since you’re in doggie mode, I’ll leave these up here by the door.”
Viktor’s wolf snatched the gun holster from Wyatt’s hand and trotted off.
Some of these old buildings didn’t have roof access, but to Wyatt’s delight, there was a hatch door made of glass. It was raised like a crypt, and when he grabbed the lower bar, it opened. Hopefully the fall hadn’t messed up his finger tattoos, but it was too dark to see anything. After descending the stairs, Wyatt got out his lockpick, put a penlight in his mouth, and went to work on the door. Blue had taught him a few techniques that had come in handy on a few occasions.
Viktor’s wolf growled impatiently.
“Got it!”
Once inside the main stairwell, they crept through the second floor. Someone had gutted the place for storage, filling it with large crates, tons of paintings covered in tarps, rugs, statues, a piano, and old weapons. He shined his light on the walls and saw nothing but tapestries. If any secret files were hidden in here, it would take him hours to find them.
“Downstairs,” he said to the wolf even though Viktor had probably blinked out of consciousness by now.
Instead of the elevator, they took the stairs. Wyatt couldn’t breathe in the ski mask, but the lights were off and it helped him blend into the shadows, so he left it on.
When they reached the first floor, Wyatt gave the grey wolf a long look. “I need to look around. Your job is to protect me. You don’t understand anything I’m saying, do you? I bet all you want is a bone.”
Based on the blueprints, the first floor didn’t have any private offices. But Wyatt still wanted to search the place, and they needed to make sure there wasn’t a security guard who might set off the alarm or make calls. He shouldered open the door and peered out. Like upstairs, it was an open space, only this room had the art tastefully displayed. To his relief, the front desk was empty. Viktor’s wolf sniffed the chair by the desk and investigated all the smells in the room while Wyatt located the elevator.
