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but then two other security guards rushed into the room and even Heath knew he stood no chance. Still, when they surrounded us and made it clear they weren’t averse to getting rough with us should we resist, Heathmanaged to stare one of them down enough that the guy took a step back.
    â€œWe’ll call Gopher,” I whispered to Heath. “He’s got to be able to use his clout to help us get the dagger back.”
    â€œYeah, but how long will that take?” Heath said, looking over his shoulder at Oruç’s dagger.
    â€œHopefully, not long,” I said, and crossed my fingers. “He knows full well how dangerous that dagger is. He’ll help us get it back.”
    We made it out of the building behind a stream of shaken pedestrians. All anybody was talking about was the ghostbuster exhibit and how freaky and frightening it had been. It was also surprising to see how many people were really upset about their phones being dead—of course this was a regular occurrence in our ghostbusting world, but to those folks so used to having a charge on their phones to accompany them throughout their day, it was shocking and upsetting to them on a level I barely understood.
    We found Gilley in his new car, crying big wet tears. I rapped on the window and he shrieked. “
Don’t
do that!” he shouted at me before he rolled down the window.
    â€œWe need to talk,” I said sternly. I was in no mood for Gilley’s bullshit. “My condo. Thirty minutes. Be there, or I’m going to hunt you down, Gillespie.”
    Gil bit his lip. I almost never called him by his last name, so he knew I meant business. He nodded meekly and I grabbed Heath’s hand to head toward the parking garage, more furious with Gilley than I could everremember. And given how difficult my best friend could be, that was saying something.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    Gil actually beat us to the condo. I figured he might’ve headed to his own unit ahead of us, which was only down one flight of stairs from mine, but he stood in front of my door dutifully and didn’t mutter a peep as Heath unlocked the door to let us all in.
    Doc—my African grey parrot—welcomed us with “Hi, birdie!” I walked over to him and kissed him on the head. He was such a sweet birdie. I’d had him since I was a little girl, and I treasured and adored him like my own child. I figured that standing close to him would keep me from erupting, which I was damned near close to.
    â€œWhat the hell were you thinking?”
my husband roared the moment Gilley took a seat on the sofa. I should add here that he wasn’t standing anywhere close to the birdie. “That dagger is the most dangerous relic in New England and
you
think it’s okay to put it on display?! Seriously, Gil . . .
what the hell
?!”
    â€œI only loaned it to them for two weeks!” Gil replied. “Heath, it’s still completely surrounded by magnets, and I personally inspected the exhibit to make sure no one could steal it or get too close to it, and I ensured that it’d be in the center of a magnetic field so powerful that there was no
way
Oruç or his demon could get out. I swear to you I followed every protocol, took every precaution, made every attempt to keep that thing in check before I even considered bringing thedagger to the museum! Oruç and his demon should
not
have been able to do that!”
    Heath stared at Gilley like he didn’t even know him. Shaking his head as if he still couldn’t fathom Gilley’s insanely stupid decision, he said, “But that doesn’t tell me why, Gil.
Why
did you loan it out? Of all the things to hand over to the public, why the dagger?”
    Gil’s eyes misted and he began to cry again. I knew he hated being yelled at like that, but I had little sympathy for him. “It was the studio’s idea,” he said. “One of the