7

THE NECKLACE

(The Next Day)

“Is it possible to invent a murder necklace?”

Jordan looks up from the table where she’s working, goggles over her eyes and some sort of makeshift chemist’s lab set up in front of her. There’s a burner and a milky-white liquid bubbling in a flask, which I figure has equal chances of being an explosive or a recipe for a chai latte.

“Are you asking about my capabilities or soliciting my professional opinion?” she asks.

With a kick of my foot, I manage to slam her apartment door shut behind me. I’ve got actual chai lattes balanced in my hands, which makes navigating the security locks a bit tricky. I’m only supposed to use her spare key in emergencies, but this is. An emergency, I mean. I’m pretty sure I’m dying.

“Professional opinion.” I set the cups down, as far away from her experiment as possible, and shrug off my messenger bag. “If you wanted to kill someone, could you put poison in the metal or invent some kind of incredible shrinking gold that slowly tightened in a choke hold?”

She flips the switch on her burner, the flame dying from a healthy blue to an orange whimper. “Is this about the diamond necklace?”

I wish. The diamond necklace might be causing me sleepless nights and panic-inducing anxiety, but it’s the one currently around my neck I’m really worried about. Yesterday, it was passports and Thai food. Today, this. I don’t know how much more I can take.

“I can’t get it off.” I twist my head to reveal the slinky gilded chain pressed against my throat. It’s probably too soon for the poison to be taking effect, but I swear I can feel my skin burning away in a neat circle. “He welded the clasp shut or something. I’m trapped, and only the jaws of death will save me.”

The goggles come down, which is good, because they were making Jordan’s eyes freakishly large. “Holy smokes, Pen. That’s some necklace.”

“Don’t start.”

“No—I’m serious.” She draws closer for a better look. This time, she smells like chloroform and candy instead of sulfur and candy. It’s still oddly appealing. “I think I might like it better than the one we were trying to steal. It’s beautiful.”

“I know it’s beautiful.” I give it a tug, but the thing is made of kryptonite or something. “No one is questioning its beauty. What I’m questioning is its lethality.”

“Hold still a minute.” Her fingers are warm as she pushes my hair aside to work the clasp, a task that takes her all of five seconds before the chain slips from around my neck and pools into her waiting palm. “You’re so dramatic sometimes. It’s got a security clasp, that’s all. So it won’t fall off or get stolen by a light-fingered thief.”

“Oh.”

She doesn’t say anything more, just examines the newest piece of jewelry that’s been introduced to throw my life into disorder. This one isn’t nearly as big or expensive, but Jordan is right about how stunning it is. It’s a delicate gold chain, twisted in the center to showcase a perfect infinity knot. Exactly my style and an ideal complement to my simple wardrobe. “I guess Mr. Romance wasn’t done with the anniversary celebrations yet, huh?”

I glance sharply up. “Don’t call him that.”

Jordan blinks at me in surprise.

“I’m sorry. It’s just…” I trail off, shifting on the balls of my feet, and reach for one of the cups of tea. I’m not really thirsty, but if I don’t bring some kind of snack or beverage to Jordan’s house, she always feels a motherly urge to feed me. Instead of drinking, I toy with the lid. “I don’t like it when you guys call him Mr. Romance, that’s all. It’s not like that between us.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.” She nods. I’m so used to fighting Riker over every little thing that it feels almost wrong to have someone respect my boundaries without question. “It is from Grant, though, right?”

“Oh, it’s from Grant. He took me back to Paulson’s today.”

Jordan laughs, the sound of it so genuine and warm that I feel better in an instant. It’s exactly what I need to sort my feelings, to know that I’m not going crazy all alone. “Did you hear that, Oz? Pen paid a visit to our favorite jeweler today.”

Oz pokes up from the couch in the living room like a meerkat.

Although I once again manage to subdue the worst of my alarm, I stagger back a step at the sight of his tousled head appearing as if from nowhere. I swear, if that man were an assassin, I’d be dead ten times over by now.

“Jesus, Oz. Have you been here this whole time?” I ask.

He shrugs and makes a vague gesture toward the door. “Girl talk?”

I pick up on his meaning right away. It’s nice of him to offer to leave so I can have a chance to chat with Jordan alone, but there’s not much of a point. As much as I wish I could keep things close to the heart the way he does, I’ve always been the hang-your-dirty-laundry-out-for-all-the-world-to-judge type. Ladylike mystery is for much classier women than I.

“He’s keeping me company while I try out this new compound,” Jordan says. “It was supposed to be a liquid explosive that neutralizes itself after a few minutes, but I got some of the components wrong. Here. Smell it.”

“Will it kill me?”

“Probably not. Oz and I are still here.”

I give her concoction a sniff—and then immediately regret it. It smells kind of like that bleach and ammonia mixture Riker mocked me for. I press my sleeve to my nose. “God, that’s awful. What’s in it?”

“Do you really want me to list the chemicals?”

Not really. I only got as far as the ninth grade in school, way too early for chemistry classes. Jordan might be a scientific genius who trained herself—and has the burns on her arms to prove it—but I never really bothered furthering my own education. Not the formal kind, anyway.

“As long as you know what you’re doing,” I say.

“Let’s hope so.” She lifts the flask to her lips and takes a deep drink. I’m ready to make a dive to save her from her own folly, but Oz just chuckles from across the living room. If he’s not worried, then I probably shouldn’t be. That man would cut off his own limbs to save her from getting a paper cut. She swirls the flask and sips again. “Huh. It’s kind of fruity. I didn’t expect that.”

“Are you going to turn into the Hulk now?”

“Nah. It neutralized itself exactly the way I wanted it to. It’s just the explosion part that’s missing.”

“I’m still not drinking any,” I warn.

“Fair enough.” She flaps some kind of hand message to Oz, and even though I honestly don’t mind if he sticks around—who’s he going to blab all my secrets to?—he takes himself off to the bedroom. The door clicks quietly shut behind him.

“What’s he going to do in there?” I wonder aloud. Oz doesn’t strike me as a snooper, but it’s not like Jordan has board games or even a TV. Sitting around staring at the walls has to get boring after a while, even for him.

“Escape out the window and come back later, probably.” Jordan sets her flask aside and settles her full attention on me instead. “Grant really took you to Paulson’s? With the diamonds still in the safe at home? That man must have nerves of steel.”

He has something made of steel, but I’m much more inclined to believe he keeps them in his pants. “It was awful. I thought for sure I was done for. He left work early to pick me up and everything. He said he wanted to get me something special.”

“That’s sweet.”

No. It wasn’t sweet at all. It was some kind of ploy to get me to break down. He’d used the exact same words from the failed heist, startling me right out of my skin. I want to get you something special, he’d said and pulled me into his arms. You deserve it.

There was nothing I could do to stop him. He’d been so eager, whisking me away to the jewelry store, forcing me to stand there while he tried different necklaces on me, his hands touching, roaming, caressing… It’s getting to the point where I can’t even think about a necklace without my thighs turning liquid. Things could get embarrassing if we ever go to one of those fancy dress FBI balls.

“Has Riker reported in to you yet?” I ask, mostly to distract myself. “I spied him yesterday outside the field office, but I didn’t see him while we were at the jewelry store today.”

She shakes her head, her lips compressed in a tight line. “I haven’t heard anything, but he’s been purposefully vague ever since he started tailing Grant, so it doesn’t mean much. It’s weird. I think maybe…”

I wait patiently for her to finish her thought, but she remains silent. Probably because what she thinks isn’t something I want to hear. It’s hard for her to say hurtful things, even when they’re not her fault.

“You think he’s planning a secret backdoor heist to take the necklace from that safe, don’t you?” I ask, only half kidding.

She’s not amused. “Riker would never do that to you, Pen.”

No, I guess he wouldn’t. But that necklace being so close at hand—all these necklaces being so close at hand—is making me crazy. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could just get my hands on evidence of what Grant’s planning. As it is, all I have are theories and conjectures and a whole lot of nothing. “Then what is it? What has Riker discovered that’s so important he can’t take five minutes to check in?”

“I don’t…” She draws a deep breath. “I don’t know the details, but be prepared for anything, okay? He said something the last time we talked, something about Grant’s deception going much deeper than we all suspected. I’m afraid things might get worse before they get better.”

Personally, I don’t see how that’s possible. Things feel pretty awful already.

“Well, I guess you better clasp the stupid thing back on me, then.” I gesture at the necklace. “Until Riker can be bothered to resurface, all we can do is keep playing along.”

“What about the poisonous metal?”

“I almost hope it does kill me. At least then I could relax again. I swear, Jordan, it’s like Grant wants me to steal the diamond necklace—almost as much as Riker does. Why else would he keep drawing my attention to it?”

She doesn’t have an answer, so she holds the chain up. I dip my head to accept it, the noose slipping back on—except it doesn’t feel like a noose, and the ring of burned skin now tingles with a different kind of warmth.

Infinity. Forever. Me and you, Penelope Blue. Grant wasn’t much for flowery words, but I’d remember those for a long time.

“Leaving the necklace unattended in your safe could be his way of letting you know how much he trusts you,” Jordan says gently. “A man who showers you with jewels and affection isn’t the worst thing in the world, you know. Maybe you should just accept defeat and take the life he’s offering you.”

“And what about the rest? What about my dad’s fortune? What about you and Oz and Riker? I can’t leave you guys behind.”

She laughs. “It just so happens we know where to find a highly unguarded two-million-dollar necklace. If you do end up abandoning us, I think we’ll be fine.”