Chapter 23 · Joy's Keycard

"Take it." Joy shoved something cold and rectangular into my palm before I even turned around. "Don't look at it. Just walk."

My fingers closed on plastic. A keycard, warm from her apron pocket, edges worn soft from years of swiping. "Joy, whose is this?"

"Housekeeping supervisor's spare. Don't ask how I got it." She grabbed my elbow and yanked me into the linen alcove, out of the camera's blind cone. Her hands were shaking worse than mine. "That's a thirty-floor badge, Lila. Executive level. You want in there or not?"

"I want in there so bad it hurts." My voice came out low, fast. "Grant's people are closing something tonight. I heard it in the service hallway — half English, half numbers. Numbers that only make sense if you know what a due diligence folder looks like."

"So go find out."

"If Bianca finds out you took this—"

"She won't." Joy's jaw locked tight. "And if she does, I say I dropped my badge in the laundry chute and yours fell out of my cart.