was worthless. The painting was worthless. Just like Nick. Angry and hurt, I wiped a hand under my eye. It had all been faked, even down to the kiss and his self-sacrificing drivel.
"Where is it?" Trent's voice was intent, and I took a breath, holding it.
"In my pocket," Nick said smugly, and I heard the thunk of someone hitting the floor, followed by Nick cursing softly and the rasping sound of him trying to get up off tile.
"This is a saltshaker," Trent said, and the scuffling sound redoubled, making it hard to hear Nick, but one thing was abundantly clear. He was not happy.
"No!" Nick exclaimed. "She did it again! The bitch! She did it to me again!"
In a turmoil of betrayal and frustration, I looked up at Ivy - smug, satisfied Ivy with her eyes black and her fangs showing in a savage grin.
Jenks flew to her, and the two exchanged a high five, Ivy using a single digit so as not to send him flying backward. Pierce breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Got you, you sewer rat," Jenks said, spilling a clear pixy dust to light Ivy's belt pack. Inside was the statue.
I took a breath, then another, trying to figure it out. "She didn't take anything but the painting, did she," Trent said, pissed. "You took it, and when you couldn't get through the gate, you came up with this cock-and-bull story about picking it from her."
Nick grunted in pain, and I heard something scrape on the tile.
"How?" I whispered, and Ivy glanced at me, her eyebrows raised and her smile wide. "When? You never touched it!"
"I lifted it when we were trying to get into the kitchen. Rachel, I don't trust him. Anything he took was going to be more valuable than a picture so new that the canvas could roll up that easily."
I frowned, thinking I must look really stupid.
"Especially one that still stank of oil," Jenks added, doubling my shame.
"He lied," I said, feeling depressed. "He lied to me. I'm so stupid." From the little receiver came a high voice, shouting, "This isn't my fault!"
Trent's voice made me shiver. "Make yourself comfortable, Sparag-mos. I won't be crossed like this. Morgan, at least, has values."
He thought I had values? My focus blurred and I thought about the Pandora charm. Had it been an accident? Maybe Trent just wasn't that good at magic.
The sound of a distant door opening was heralded by the sudden office noise and Quen saying, "It's gone, Sa'han. This was left in its place."
"My father's hoof pick...," Trent said, his shock obvious.
"I don't understand," Quen said. "You lost that - "
"Morgan has the statue," Trent said, interrupting him. "Sparagmos took it, intending to keep it, and somehow Morgan got it. I don't know how the pick fits into it."
My eyes closed, and I prayed he'd figure it out before he sent Quen to kill me.
"This is going to be a problem," Quen said softly, and then louder, with some authority, "What is Rachel going to do with it, Sparagmos?"
"Give it back to you - ow!" Nick barked, then went silent.
There was a moment of silence, and then I shivered when Trent said, "Give him to Jonathan. He likes this kind of thing."
"Hey!" Nick said, and I heard him being dragged away. "I thought I had it! You've got to believe me!"
"Oh, I believe you," Trent said, distance between them now. "I also know you were going to sell it if you managed to get out of here alive. I doubt Rachel picked your pocket. It was probably Ivy. She's got a good friend there."
I glanced at Ivy, who wouldn't look at me, eyes fixed on the dark night. "I've got two good friends," I whispered, and Jenks's wings clattered.
I didn't want to hear any more. Nick... Well, what had I expected? At least now I could write him off. I mean, I had, but now there were no lingering doubts that he was only doing what he had to in order to survive. He'd lied about my stealing the statue. But as I looked at the erotic thing in the faint light, I decided that nothing had changed. Nick might have been working both sides to get us in there, but I was the one who walked through the wall. It wasn't all fake. We could still do the sting, and the pornographic statue would be a better attention getter than a doctored picture. Trent seemed desperate to get it back.