“I want to know who they were, Aiden. I want to know what led to Cameron putting a literal hit out on them and having their home burn down with all of us inside. And I want to know how good people like my parents were working with someone like Cameron in the first place.”
“You know why. They thought Cameron was a business partner and that went bad.”
I pulled out the small piece of paper I kept tucked against my phone. The paper I had found hidden in the small bag of my mother’s things Rook had given me. Aiden took it from me, looking it over.
They say no one leaves. We didn’t ask to come.
But now we have to stay. For her.
“Ifound it in my mom’s things. I tried to ignore it, but the further I dig the more it feels like there was more to it. What do they mean,for her?Do they mean me?”
“It could have been written by your father. For her, could be your mother.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s my mom’s handwriting, but it could be. Either way, doesn’t it seem like an important thing to know?”
“Do you have any other information yet?” he asked, not answering my question, and somehow that made me even more sure of what I was doing. He wasn’t scolding me, he was already digging deeper, and once Aiden dug into something, he wassticking it out until he found the answers he wanted. It was one of the biggest things we had in common—neither of us would be giving up once we set our mind to something.
“No, this place is the first actual clue I found about what they were doing before their death.”
He stepped forward, his body so close to mine I could lean in and press against him, but I didn’t. “Just don’t dig so deep you get yourself into trouble. And if you think you’re about to, you better fucking call me.”
“I don’t know. You might count that as your other favor and think you’re off the hook for the blackmail.”
“Evie,” he said, the sound of my name sinking low, pulling something tight inside me.
“Fine.I can agree to that.”
“Then come on. We have a lot more ground to cover.”
We moved farther into the building, our footsteps echoing down a long, dim corridor. The walls were lined with doors, some ajar, others tightly shut. Each one making me worry I would miss a piece of the puzzle.
I pushed open one of the doors, and it creaked in protest. Inside, the room was empty except for one desk covered in dusty files. There were too many of them to go through now, but I grabbed a stray piece of paper, scanning for a company name. I flipped through more, checking each page.
Finally, I saw a name I didn’t recognize stamped on the page:Veritas.
“What is Veritas?” I whispered, showing the paper to Aiden. “Or who?”
He frowned, squinting at the sheet. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it.”
“Then I better keep this one, too.”
I folded up the paper and tucked it into my pocket, moving to the next office space.
We continued through the building, every room as desolate as the last, littered with fragments hinting at a bigger story just out of reach. I wanted to tear the place apart, search every crevice until I found answers—but I knew better than to think it would be that easy.
As we made our way back to the lobby, the faint sound of something—a distant hum—caught my attention. I froze, holding up my hand to stop Aiden. He stopped at my back, heat rolling off him. When I turned, he reached out to steady me, his face inches from mine.
For one breath, I stayed frozen, taking in the closeness until he cocked his head, listening.
We both knew all too well the sound of a motorcycle.
“Someone’s coming?” I asked.
“Sounds like it. Come on. Let’s go before we find out who.”
We stepped out, not saying a word to each other as the cool night air rushed over us. Another loud rumble of a bike made us both stop again.
“Did you tell any of the pack we were coming here?” I asked, not recognizing the sound of this bike.
