“How do you know I’m anxious?”
“Because your jaw ticks and you start double-checking everything. You checked everything in your bag multiple times before getting on and I see you double-checking things on the screen. You do it when you’re anxious.”
“No, I don’t.” I didn’t recall even checking my bag once, let alone multiple times, but I knew he was right about my anxious habits.
“Can you tell me what we’re doing here?”
I watched the program load as it tried to unlock the security system’s interface. “If I tell you what I’m doing, you can use it against me, and then my blackmail could potentially be useless.”
“Your blackmail will be useless soon, anyway. You said you want two favors. This is one.”
“I never said what the second one would be.”
“Doesn’t matter. Once it’s done, it’s done.”
I grinned as the computer gave a small ding, showing the program worked. I hit through a few more steps, until the keypad flashed green, the bolt clicking loud.
“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” I said, slipping inside.
The building swallowed us in darkness, the stale air thick and unmoving. There was no light in the main lobby, only the faint smell of dust and neglect. Aiden stepped in beside me, and the soft click of his phone’s flashlight brought the room into harsh view. Shadows danced along the walls, revealing broken furniture and discarded papers littering the floor.
“Looks like it hasn’t seen life in years,” he mumbled, kicking at a stray stack of papers.
“I don’t think it has, which could be good for us,” I replied, stepping cautiously over a cracked tile as I swept the light from my phone around the room. The beam caught on what looked like the remnants of an old reception desk, its surface covered in faded papers and crumbling business cards.
I moved toward it, my pulse quickening as I sorted through the scattered documents. Most were too faded to read, their ink smeared or their edges singed as though someone had tried to burn them.
“What exactly are you looking for?” Aiden asked, his voice close behind me.
“Anything that could tell me what my parents were doing here,” I said, flipping through the papers, pulling out ones with any sign of a company name on it. My fingers brushed over something solid, and I pulled out a laminated ID card. My breath caught.
The card bore the name of a company I vaguely recognized—one I had seen scrawled in my dad’s old notes we found from his office. I handed it to Aiden, who held it under the flashlight’s beam, studying it.
He handed the card back, and I slipped it into my pocket.
“What about it? And your parents? What are you digging into about your parents?”
“Nothing important that concerns you.”
“It concerns me enough, since I have to be here with you. Is this place connected to them?”
“Maybe,” I murmured, my mind racing.
Something like a low growl rose from him, the sound making a shiver run down my spine until his next words killed that feeling.
“Does Rook know you are doing this?”
“No,” I huffed. “And he doesn’t need to. He’s moved on. He got his closure with our parents, there is no reason to bring it all back up for him.”
He seemed to think it over but finally agreed. “For once, you are actually thinking something through?Shocking.How did you know this place connected to them? Have you been here?” His voice was sharp, but his posture was anything but relaxed. Shoulders broad and tense beneath the black T-shirt, jaw flexing like he was biting back more words, every bit the wall I could never quite get past.
“No. And they had never mentioned it, but this place has come up in a few things I’ve found—some old records. I wanted to know why.”
“Need to know why for what? We know who killed them, we took care of him. What else is there?”
“My parents were people before Cameron. They were good,hardworking people and while we were alone a lot, I know they cared about Rook and me.”
“And I could agree with all of that. But it doesn’t explain what you are doing.”
