Elise’s wide eyes narrowed. “Your papa is turning over in his grave.”
Anna’s stomach clenched.
Papa isn’t here.
But Anna was.
Anna replaced her tool and tucked the small case into the reticule attached to her wrist. Hand on the doorknob, she pushed the door open and stepped inside the firelit office, her heart pounding in her chest.
Let’s see what you’re hiding, Lyoness—
A shift of air to her right.
Someone was in the room.
Anna spun on her heel and bolted for the door.
Large hands snatched her from behind. There was not even a second to gasp before one burly arm locked around her chest, the other hand across her mouth, the skin ridged and scarred.
Flashes of hot and cold turned her insides prickly, but Anna didn’t scream—she knew to do so would call more attention than she could afford.
A quick gaze to the hall behind her. No sign of Elise.
Good.
Anna flexed her hand, but the knife in her reticule was useless while her arms were locked at her sides.
“Use whatever is at your disposal. Anything can be a weapon, Annabeth.”
The advice from her childhood came with a wave of anguish and regret, but Anna pushed the past away. Now wasn’t the time to think ofhim.
No knife. No use of her arms. That left one option.
She bit down and twisted out of the hold when the man’s grip loosened.
The man swore and clutched his hand. Abigman.
Anna kept her gaze trained on the brute as she inched back toward the hall. If she could reach the stairs, she may yet vanish into the crowd on the main floor before someone identified her.
“I told you I smelled trouble,” the man said, his voice gruff.
“A credit to your pack as always, Titan,” someone replied.
Anna froze.Twopeople in the room. She turned on wooden legs to see the woman in widow’s weeds behind the desk, nothing but a slash of red lips visible through the black lace of her veil.
Anna’s blood iced in her veins as her thoughts scrambled.
She was meant to be on the floor.
There’d be no slipping through the crowds, no escape Anna could laugh over later.
Not when the Lyoness herself had Anna in her sights.
“Come. Sit,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon said, her gesture indicating the chair on the other side of the desk.
Anna didn’t move.
“Mrs. Dove-Lyon told you to sit,” the giant behind her said.
