Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

“I should have seen it.”

“Seen what?” I asked him.

“You weren’t just a part of their game,” Xander replied. “Of course you weren’t. The old man’s mind didn’t operate that way. He didn’t just choose you for them.”

Them being Grayson and Jameson. Their game being the one we’d already solved. “He left you a game, too,” I said slowly. It was the only thing that made sense. Nash had warned me once that their grandfather had, in all likelihood, never intended me to be a player.

I was the glass ballerina or the knife. A part of the puzzle. A tool. I narrowed my eyes at Xander. “Either tell us what you know, or give me that sledgehammer.”

No matter the old man’s intentions—I wasn’t here to be used.

“Not much to tell!” Xander declared jollily. “The old man left me a letter congratulating me for getting my hardheaded and much less handsome brothers to the end of their game. He signed the letter as Tobias Hawthorne, no middle initial, but when submerged in water, that signature became ‘Find Tobias Hawthorne the Second.’”

Find Toby. The old man had left his youngest grandson with that charge. And there was a good chance that the only real clue he’d left him… was me. Twelve birds with one stone.

“I guess that answers the question of whether the old man knew Toby was alive,” Jameson murmured.

Tobias Hawthorne knew. My entire body rang with that revelation.

“If we have Toby’s last known location,” Xander mused, “perhaps a sledgehammering is unnecessary. My plan was to search his room and see if any clues turned up, but…”

I shook my head. “I have no idea how to find Toby. I asked Alisa to get money to him, right after I inherited, before I even knew who he was. He was already in the wind.”

Jameson cocked his head to the side. “Interesting.”

“Is Toby’s wing the lead you mentioned earlier?” I asked him.

“Maybe it is,” Jameson said, grinning. “Or maybe it isn’t.”

“Far be it from me to interrupt banter,” Xander interjected. “But this is my lead. And my sledgehammer!” He heaved it over his shoulder.

I stared at the wall and wondered what lay beyond it. “Are you sure about this?” I asked Xander.

He took a deep breath. “As sure as anyone holding a sledgehammer has ever been.”