David could barely contain his rage.
The man was threatening his granddaughter. Scaring her.
But beneath the anger was something else.
Pride.
Secret, fierce pride that his beautiful, courageous granddaughter had gotten this far on her own. That she was solving puzzles he’d created nearly three decades ago. Puzzles that would make any adult, no matter how intelligent, baffled if they didn’t understand the basics. As he watched her with bated breath and probably at least tend new ulcers, he couldn’t help notice how fearless Lila was. So much like Nancy, it made his chest ache.
She truly was remarkable.
Lila
“Whatever we’re going to do,” Brian warned quietly, his back still to their captors, “we need to do it now.”
“I need you to follow my lead,” Lila told him, her fingers working at the locket. “As soon as I put the locket into that hole, it’s going to register as not the correct object.”
“But it is...” Brian started.
“No.” Lila shook her head. She quickly dismantled the locket enough to show him. Inside the ruby heart, nestled in a hidden compartment, was a smaller mechanism. A tiny key made of what looked like platinum. “This part is.” She took it out and secretly pocketed it. “The locket itself is another booby trap. A safeguard.”
“Ah,” Brian’s eyes widened with understanding. “Please tell me we’re not about to get gassed or something.”
“Okay, we’re not about to get gassed or something,” Lila said.
Then she flipped to a page in the book that showed how David Dare had stopped the bad guys from infiltrating the vault.
By trapping them inside it.
“Oh, great,” Brian sighed. “Those wipe puffs pouring into the room are not gas at all.” He raised his brows hopefully. “I’m hoping you’re going to say it’s cold blasts of air.”
“How long can you hold your breath?” Lila asked, giving him a pained look.
“Hopefully long enough to clear the vault and dodge all the objects flying at us,” Brian blew out a breath.
“Tick tock, young people,” Preston hissed again.
Lila turned slightly, keeping her voice calm. “Okay, we need about twenty seconds to get to the end. The moment the fake key is put into the lock, the vault door will slam shut. You need to hold your breath and dodge the balls and floor traps to get back to the door so I can unlock it again.”
“And Preston?” Brian whispered.
“The gas will knock him out if a ball doesn’t,” Lila said. “But we need to time it just right. The moment Preston steps into the vault, I’ll tell him where to step so he doesn’t get knocked out by the door trap. We need to lock him in so if one of the traps doesn’t get him, the knockout gas will.”
“That’s an ambitious plot,” Brian said.
“It’s the only way,” Lila told him.
“Ready?” she asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Brian said.
Then he leaned over and kissed her.
Quick. Soft. Over before she could fully process it.
“Just in case we get shot,” he whispered.
Lila’s face flushed hot, her heart going wild in her chest.
