“So maybe the Brazil trip is Rudy’s way of lying low,” Dorian suggested.
“No. Something isn’t adding up here. My gut says Rudy’s not planning to pay out at all. He wouldn’t leave that kind of detail to anyone else.”
“You think he’s double-crossing his crew?”
“Looks that way. The thing is—I don’t know who the crew evenisthis time. When he first brought me in on Ravenswood, he said it was a side project between him and Travis, and that our usual guys weren’t involved. He was adamant that I not discuss it with anyone else.”
“But othersareinvolved,” Dorian said. “All that surveillance of my property, the spies at FierceConnect…”
“Exactly. But I have no idea who they are. Rudy’s a demon. For all we know, Rogozin is his crew.”
“The spies who interviewed me were human.”
“Maybe they had watches or something that hid their true nature. Rudy had us fooled, didn’t he?”
Dorian sighed. She was right. They had no way of knowing what they were up against. No idea who—or what—might show up at Ravenswood for the planned heist.
No idea who might be holding Sasha hostage.
Dorian kept that last bit of worry to himself.
“We’ll figure it out, love,” he said instead. “This is just a starting point.”
She grabbed her phone and snapped a few pictures of the tickets and passport, then slid them back into the envelope.
“Let’s check the digital files.” She plugged the flash drive into the laptop, navigating to the directory and clicking through the drive’s folders. “Shit. The drive itself isn’t encrypted, but the folders are—I can’t open them or copy them over, and we can’t just take the drive—Estas will get suspicious if he knows it’s missing.”
“Ha!” Dorian pointed at her and grinned. For the first time since he’d crossed the threshold into this place, he actually had something to offer—something she needed. “I can crack the encryption.”
Charlotte arched averysexy eyebrow. “So not only are you a video game nerd, you’re a hacker? Since when?”
“Since University. Well, the most recent go-round.”
“I thought college was all about drinking and getting laid.”
“Not for nerds. We’ve got a special track.”
“Well, well, well.” Charlotte’s smile lit up the dim room. “NowI’mthe one who’s impressed.”
“Offering me a spot on the crew, are you?”
“At this rate, we’ll be able to start our own.”
“Assuming we don’t get hell-roasted by a demon tonight. Cheers, then.” Dorian got to work. After just a few moments of tech wizardry, he was able to crack the encryption on the folders. “It appears the files themselves have a slightly stronger encryption, so we’ll need to deal with that back at Ravenswood.”
“Good. Let’s just copy everything onto the external drive so we can get the fuck out of here. We’ve already overstayed our welcome.”
He did as she asked, then passed the flash drive back to her to return to the envelope.
“Anything else of interest in the safe?” he asked as she put everything back in order.
“More envelopes like this one—all different names. I’m sure it’s all fascinating stuff, but we don’t have time to go through it.” She closed up the safe and re-hung the painting. “We need to get moving.”
“It’s too bad, really. We didn’t even get a chance to try out the closet.” Dorian knocked on the back wall behind the coats.
Thethunkthat greeted him in return was hollow and deep.
He knocked again. Same echo.
