Making the Rent the Hard Way – 24

It seemed like an eternity before Luca returned.

"The downstairs' light is the kitchen. The upstairs' ones are for a bedroom the size of a small living room and a hell of a large bathroom off it. Best bet, it's his."

"Anything that says someone's around?" I asked.

"Nope. Oh, and nothing went off when I moved around, so probably no motion sensors."

"We'll still wait. We don't want to be inside when the cops or security company personnel come streaming up the drive because the alarm's silent."

Fifteen minutes later, we figured it was safe to enter. Luca dropped us in the kitchen then we began to explore, using my laser penlight and the illumination coming through the windows from the exterior spotlights. The house was as awesome as the photos in the newspapers had led me to believe. When I make my first million, I might find one like it. Sure. Like one man needs this much house. Apparently Farnham disagreed.

We found his office behind heavy oak doors in the library. It contained a huge desk in the center, bookshelves on one wall, and filing cabinets on another. Luca checked out the computer on the desk, deeming it too well secured for him to be able to access in the time we had. The filing cabinets were locked, which wasn't a problem since I'd brought along my lockpicks. I skimmed through the folders, using my penlight, looking for anything that would help us bring Farnham down. Nothing. But then the guy wasn't stupid—unfortunately.

I closed the last drawer then turned to find Luca studying the paneled wainscoting below the bookshelves. It matched what went around the rest of the room, even under the windows.

"Something?" I murmured, joining him.

"Maybe." He knelt, running his fingertips up the edge of one of the panels. "Got you," he whispered as the panel slid to one side. "Now all we need is a safecracker to get into this." This was a safe with a recessed keypad in the middle of the steel door. Not something I had any idea how to bypass.

"And you know one?" I asked hopefully.

"I wish. But…" He slid the panel closed, stood, put his arm around me, then we were in back of The Lycan Den, where Rocky worked.

Luca stayed there while I went in to see if Rocky could get away for a few minutes. He could, since it was Monday and slow, according to him.

He didn't seem all that surprised to see Luca, merely saying, "I figured you'd call him," meaning me, obviously.

"Yeah. We've hooked up to try to stop Farnham, but we ran into a problem." Luca explained about the safe. "I don't suppose, among your list of strange friends, there's one who can get into the safe."

Rocky thought for a minute before nodding. "Orchid." He chuckled. "That's what she calls herself. She's a shifter with what she calls 'mad skills' when it comes to getting into places and things people would rather she didn't. Give me a few to get in touch with her, to see if she's around. She travels a lot."

He went back inside—and we waited. Luca apparently decided the time would best be spent exploring my mouth. While I didn't object in the least, it was frustrating since I wasn't about to take it further in a dark alley. I'm a bed or nowhere kind of guy.