/> How long would it be before someone came to check on him?
Nope. She wasn’t taking any chances. She reached for the painting, lifted it, and pulled it off of the wall. It was heavier than it looked, but she placed it carefully on the mattress.
Sure enough, the safe was behind the painting.
It also required a thumbprint, as she expected.
Tabitha looked over at Brent. He was still sleeping on the ground. She could still use magic tonight, but she was worried about using up all of her energy. She wasn’t like the witches she’d heard about in legends as a kid. She was powerful, of course, but she wasn’t an endless source of magic. She also didn’t have a wand to boost her powers. She used only her own body to produce magic, which was a slight drawback when it came to sheer strength.
She would need to ration her use of magic tonight, so she didn’t simply float him over to the safe.
Instead, Tabitha hopped down, grabbed Brent under the armpits, and hauled him toward the bed. Despite the fact that he was an asshole, he was actually pretty fit, and she managed to lift him up onto the bed.
“Fuck,” she growled as she got him up there. She took his hand, placed it on the safe, and opened the door.
Then she looked inside.
If Tabitha had been expecting that to be the end of the day, she was disappointed. It wasn’t the end of the day. It wasn’t the end of her adventure.
The safe was empty.
“What the fuck?” Tabitha stared.
She had known that was where the map was stored. She’d known it. Everything she’d seen and found had indicated that the safe was where Brent kept his new possessions. Anything he truly prized, he kept in this safe.
Her intel had been wrong, though.
It was completely empty.
She looked at the man who had caused her so much trouble tonight, and she frowned. Apparently, he wasn’t as stupid as he looked. She’d underestimated him once again. Of course, a rich guy like Flannigan wouldn’t keep important information in his bedroom, so where did he keep it?
Did he have a treasure room like some sort of dragon shifter?
Maybe he kept his special items at the bank.
Brent started to stir, and she grabbed him by the throat. This was her shot. She had to take it. Soon his guards would be back on duty. If he’d called them from the car, they might already be on their way.
“Where is it?” Tabitha insisted. “Where?”
“What?” He was groggy and disoriented. He didn’t seem to know what was happening.
“Where’s the map?”
It had to be here.
It had to.
She had flirted with this guy. She’d wasted an entire evening with him. She’d had to pretend to be nice and she’d made googly eyes with him. Was he seriously going to act like he didn’t know where the map was?
Where the fuck was it?
“The map,” she said again, but he passed back out, and she released him.
What the fuck was she going to do?
Tabitha paused and took a deep breath. She felt herself start to panic, so she went through her breathing exercises. Anytime she felt anxious, she tried to take a minute to just breathe.
That was what her mother had taught her long ago.