4. Margo

4

MARGO

M argo frowned at the footsteps in the snow.

Eva had paused here, clearly, and then gone on.

Did she know that Margo was following her, or was this just general caution? Margo didn't need a trail to know that Eva was headed towards the deserted Wilson Kinetics factory; it was the only thing on this stretch of road besides the bar behind her where Eva had parked her car.

Margo frowned through the gently falling snow at the bright-lit building. Was that door slightly ajar?

She was wading forward through the uncleared snow before common sense could stop her.

The door opened at her touch; Eva had taped the door latch open, and the security pad just inside had been disarmed. Margo set the door back the way she'd found it, shut but not latched, and paused to let her eyes adjust to the dark.

A hand-lettered sign with a giant pink lawn flamingo wearing a helicopter hat hung in greeting. "Welcome back, Flock!" it said .

Past a secretary's cluttered desk, there were doors to offices and a hallway that ended with industrial double doors that suggested a large space beyond. Margo heard a rustling sound through those doors, and she crept towards them carefully, peering into each room she passed.

Was Eva stealing something? Frank Wilson was known for his huge jeweled sculptures, so there were probably gems and precious metals somewhere here. There might also be industry secrets worth pilfering. The company itself was a multi-billion dollar business, thanks to the CEO genius of Harriet's new beau, Tobias Underhill, but it wasn't a direct retail site; Margo couldn't imagine that they had vast amounts of cash on hand.

And she also couldn't imagine Eva stealing .

Eva was the sweetest, gentlest woman that Margo had ever met, as innocent as an angel. She jumped at loud noises and stammered whenever someone spoke too loudly. Even Harriet tempered her sharp tongue around the shy seamstress.

It was also obvious to anyone with a lick of sense that she was in some kind of trouble. She always wore a hood up in public and never met anyone's eyes unless she was startled into it. She didn't leave Harriet's bakery if she didn't have to.

Margo had tried to coax her story out of her only once, one evening that she found an excuse to go upstairs to Harriet's private office, where Eva lived in the back. Eva's haunted blue eyes had undone whatever was left of Margo's heart, and she had never asked about Eva's past again.

Margo had reached the end of the hallway, where big fire doors were closed.

The double doors had windows, and Margo looked through into a huge work room, filled with equipment. She recognized lathes, drills, and enormous milling machines. Most of the workstations were dark, still, and meticulously clean, but one work table, halfway across the space, was brightly lit and littered with shards of metal and broken tools.

There was no sign of movement, but Margo heard the snick of a lock somewhere down the hall behind her.

For a split second, she thought it was Eva, but she realized that there was no effort being made at stealth, and there were two male voices talking.

"It's just Bruno," one of them said. "Don't startle him while he's working."

"I'm not even sure why we have this job. A thief would run into him and just give right up."

"I told you, this job is cake. Who's going to rob Wilson Kinetics? Best-loved billionaire in the world. It would be like kicking puppies."

"Let's just do a sweep of the work floor and get back to our game."

A sweep of the work floor. Margo realized that the voices were coming her way, and she needed a place to hide, immediately. It was too late to get back down the hallway; the only way out was forward, so she eased one of the double doors open and slipped out to the factory floor to find a place big enough for her to hide—which was not going to be the easiest thing given the fact that she was six foot and some spare inches, and as broad-shouldered as a linebacker in the orc league.

For a moment, she hoped that she could simply keep one of the bigger pieces of equipment between herself and the guards. Unfortunately, the two guards split up, clearly intending to sweep either side of the room and cut their job in half. The lines of their flashlights crisscrossed and Margo crept further in, trying to find anything that might be big enough to hide in as she cursed their thoroughness.

The solution was obvious at once. There was a huge hammered copper basin, edged in flowers and fancy leaves, sitting in the center of the lit workspace. This was clearly the masterpiece that was the cause of the mess. Margo timed her advance, moving when the guards were both looking up into the catwalks and she took two long steps to dive into it.

Unfortunately, it was already occupied.

She thought it was a sleeping buffalo at first, thick-furred and well-padded, then it rolled and wrapped strong arms around her.

A bear? If it was, it was the biggest bear that Margo had ever seen. She was too startled to fight, and still in stealth mode, and then the figure shifted beneath her into a massive man.