Naomi followed Sawyer’s gaze to a van, where two men got out, with one of them holding what looked like a cooler of some sort. Sawyer tensed at her side, his hand hovering near the door handle.

The delivery they had been waiting for was here. And for all they knew, so was Verin.

Even if Naomi was right and the demon couldn’t change faces whenever he wanted, that didn’t mean he couldn’t still show up, looking like his creepy self. Sawyer had banked on the creature not taking that risk, but they couldn’t really be sure of anything.

I don’t think logic really applies to cold-blooded serial killers from hell.

Heart starting to pound, she looked over at Sawyer.

“What now?” she whispered, even though the men now walking toward the university building couldn’t possibly hear them. “Do we follow?”

“We wait for them to hand the thing over. Then we go in,” Sawyer replied. “The fewer witnesses that see us here, the better.”

“Right,” Naomi nodded, as if she knew anything about witnesses or sneaking around unseen.

“What if we run into Verin?” she couldn’t help but ask.

It wasn’t really a productive question, and what-ifs were rarely helpful. But now that her nerves were kicking in, causing her mind to race, she was having trouble staying quiet.

“We deal with that if and when it comes to that,” he replied. “Don’t stress about the hypotheticals. But Naomi,” he added, turning his gaze toward her, “if anything goes wrong, you get out. I can handle myself, but I need to know you will get out of harm’s way if it should get to that point.”

Naomi fell silent for a moment. If she were brutally honest with herself, she knew that against a demon, she was pretty much useless. Verin could swat her like a fly, and there wouldn’t be anything she could do about it.

It wasn’t something she wanted to admit, and even as the thought crawled into her brain, she pushed it away. Inside her, there was a deep need to help, to be of use, to redeem herself in a way. But that was selfish, and she didn’t have just herself to think about.

If putting her safety first was something Sawyer needed her to do in order to be at his best, then it would be foolish to argue.

“Okay,” she said reluctantly.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, with Sawyer looking like he was ready to leap out of the car at any moment. Naomi herself was on pins and needles. She had never really had a rebellious teenage phase. Not after moving in with her aunt, anyway.

Sophie had just lost her only sister, and her brother-in-law, and was suddenly thrust into parenthood. Naomi was old enough to realize that her being a brat was the last thing her aunt needed. And since they were pretty much the only family they each had left, pushing Sophie away had never really been an option.

Just like arguing with Sawyer wouldn’t have been a great choice at the moment.

When she spotted the men from the van coming back out empty-handed, adrenaline rushed through her body. This was all really happening. She and Sawyer were going to walk in and steal a precious artifact.

That fact hadn’t really sunk in until that moment. It had seemed like some vague plan to be executed sometime in the future. Squeezing her hands into fists, she sat still, waiting for Sawyer’s cue to act.

“Shouldn’t we wait until nightfall or something?” she asked. “Sneak in under the cover of darkness?”

Wasn’t that what criminals did? That’s what was always done in the movies, at least…

“You mean when the doors are locked and campus security makes regular rounds?” Sawyer replied. “Right now, we can just walk in, and if someone sees you, you can easily come up with a legitimate reason for being there. Once we start breaking locks, we lose our shot at talking our way out of things.”

Naomi nodded. That sounded reasonable enough. She had almost forgotten she was part of the staff, and that it wasn’t exactly unusual for her to come in during the weekends. Still, she would rather not run into someone on the very night that a priceless artifact goes missing.

Especially after asking Roy how much the thing is worth…

The men from the lab drove away, and after no one exited or entered the building for a few minutes, Sawyer opened the driver’s side door.

“All right, let’s do this,” he said, sounding a lot more confident than Naomi felt. “I’m assuming you know where most of the security cameras are,” he added, as she pushed her own door open.

“In that regard, I’d say we’re pretty lucky,” she replied. “We’ve been meaning to upgrade, but haven’t gotten through all the red tape yet. So it’s mostly just the doors, the parking lot, and a couple of the main hallways that have cameras up.”

Sawyer leaned closer to her for a second, his arm grazing her knees as he reached for the glovebox, and pulled out a baseball hat. He put it on, pulling it down over his eyes.

“You walk inside first. If I get caught, I don’t want you to be seen on the tape, walking in with me. Which floor is your office on?” he asked.

“Second floor, in the east wing,” she replied. “Fourth door on the right.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “Wait for me there, with the door open. When you see me pass by, come out and lead me toward the basement.”

Every command was said with such self-assuredness, with no hesitance, that Naomi couldn’t help but nod and agree with everything he said. After all, wouldn’t a former cop know what he was doing?

“Just act casual. If you run into anyone, react as you normally would. I’ll give you enough time that you don’t have to worry about me showing up before you get to your office,” Sawyer said. “Now go.”

“Okay,” Naomi replied, running her palms down the sides of her legs. “I’ll see you soon.”

With that, she took one last look at Sawyer before turning on her heel and marching over to the university. She had to keep herself from glancing back, and kept her shoulders squared, while hoping the anxiety in the pit of her stomach didn’t show in her face.

Crossing the small courtyard out front, she stopped herself from looking in the spots she knew the cameras would be.

I’m just going to go get something from my office. That’s a completely normal thing to do. I’m not here to rob the place or anything.

By the time she got through the front doors, she was sure the back of her shirt was already damp from the sweat trickling down her spine. Who knew a lifetime of being a good girl would come in this… unhelpful.

She climbed the stairs and walked through the halls on autopilot, barely noticing anything but her own feet. When she was finally only a few doors away from her office, she glanced up, just in time to almost run into Kate from accounting.

“Oh, sorry,” the woman muttered, as they both stopped just in time to not bump into each other.

“It’s all right,” Naomi replied, stepping aside to let the woman pass.

For a moment, it looked like Kate was going to say something else. She got that look on her face that people got when they were about to say something like “I’m sorry for your loss”, or “My condolences”.

But since she and Naomi weren’t exactly close, Kate seemed to think better of it, and just kept walking. So now there was at least one witness that put Naomi in the building, in addition to the security camera footage.

Taking a deep breath, Naomi continued on, fishing a key out of her pocket and unlocking the door to her office. As Sawyer had told her to do, she left it open, and went to sit behind her desk, where she would have a good view of the hallway.

She heard footsteps echo out in other parts of the building, but no one passed by her door. As the seconds ticked by, turning into minutes, she became acutely aware of her own heartbeat hammering against her chest.

When she spotted Sawyer’s tall frame approaching down the hallway, though, some of the queasiness in the pit of her stomach subsided. Almost knocking her chair over in her hurry to get out from behind her desk, she rushed into the hallway, closing the office door after herself.

She only looked over at Sawyer from the corner of her eye, as she passed him by and started walking toward the basement. If anyone were to walk by, they wouldn’t have guessed that she knew the man behind her at all.

Unless that someone is Roy, she reminded herself, cold sweat forming on the back of her neck.

What if their canceled dinner plans meant that Roy came back to get a head start on examining the statue?

Don’t worry about the hypotheticals, she told herself, reminded of Sawyer’s advice earlier.

Descending several flights of stairs, she listened to Sawyer’s steps behind her. They were very quiet for a man of his size, and she found herself softening her steps as well. When they finally arrived on the basement floor, they both stopped, hidden between the protruding walls on either side of the large double doors in front of them.

She looked over at Sawyer, who pressed a finger over his lips, and angled his head toward the doors. A couple of seconds passed, feeling like an eternity for Naomi.

“I don’t hear anyone inside,” Sawyer said quietly.

Carefully, he pushed on the doors, and they exchanged a surprised look when they opened. Sawyer stepped halfway inside, with Naomi close behind him. It was then that they noticed another set of doors, these ones looking a lot newer.

A keypad was attached to the wall next to it, with a slot for an ID card.

“Damn,” Sawyer muttered under his breath.

Exactly what I was thinking, Naomi sighed. I knew it couldn’t be this easy.