Evie huffed, a hint of reluctance on her face. “Fine. I found a few things from my parents. Just random odds and ends type of stuff, and one of the things I found led to this building. I wanted to see if there was anything here from them or that may have been connected to them.”
“And did you find anything?”
“Besides you leaving most of the offices a wreck? No. Do you have any records of what businesses were in this building around ten to fifteen years ago?” she asked.
A wry smile tugged at his lips as he leaned back on his bike. “What? Can’t hack into my computers for that?”
I clenched my jaw as he threw a flirtatious grin her way. I hated the way he flirted even with me here, every word a reminder he could want her as much as I did—unlike me, though, he openly attempted to get her.
“Unfortunately, your team on computer security is much better than your building security, so no.”
Asher laughed and walked his bike a little closer. “I don’t know what I’ve got on file, but the last owner dumped a mess of records on me. If you want to look through them, you’re welcome to come by my office at the Vault. We stuffed everything in a storage closet until someone came along with the patience to organize it.”
Evie turned to me, her dark blue eyes wide, already pleading. As much as I wanted to snap at her to let Asher take her, I couldn’t. Even without the blackmail between us, she was digging into another dangerous situation so leaving her alone—even with Asher—wasn’t an option.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, trying to keep my tone even. I didn’t only want her safe, I knew her parents’ deaths haunted her—it had haunted Rook, too—and if she was digging this deep, it must mean a lot to her still.
Asher nodded, pulling his helmet back on. “I’ll meet you down there. Head straight to my office.”
As he sped off, Evie turned back to me.
“You should let everyone know where we’re headed. I think they’re at Hellfire tonight.”
“Can we keep this between us for now?” she asked, her voice tight. “I don’t need Rook asking a thousand questions when I don’t even want him to know what I’m doing.”
I couldn’t resist a sneer. “So, now you’re keeping things from Rook while you’re holding something over my head about him? Interesting. Maybe I should use this against you now.”
“No, because if Rook finds out about my little secrets, it’ll be an annoyance at most. But if he finds out about yours, you’re losing everything—your job, your place to live, and probably your bike, too,” she bit back. For one brief second she almost looked guilty at her words, but her face smoothed back into a defiant grin in seconds.
What a fucking psycho girl. She reveled in this.
I shook my head, but I couldn’t argue with her because she was right. This wouldn’t do much to Evie besides one or two fights between siblings; mine would destroy me.
I swung onto the bike. Not even hesitating to bring her to the Vault. Because for whatever reason—blackmail included—now I was determined to help her.
I pulled up to the back of the Vault, riding into the small gated parking area where one of Asher’s men waved us inside.
“Make this quick,” I huffed, swinging off the bike and facing her. She glared up at me, one eyebrow jumping up, and I internally groaned.
“You think you get to set the timeframe? This is a blackmail payment, Aiden. You have no room to make demands.”
“I’ll make any fucking demands I want when you are threatening to ruin my life.”
She smiled, grabbing her bag and throwing it over one shoulder. “Fine, make demands until you fall over and pass out. I promise you,Ace, I won’t listen to a single one.”
God, I fucking hated that nickname—hated the disdain in her tone every time she said it.
Hated she truly believed I wasn’therAce.
She spun on her heel, heading toward the back entrance, which led right to Asher’s upper floor of offices. Most of all, I hated how comfortable she was here and with Asher. Another guy met us at the door, walking us down a dark hallway until we reached a small storage closet.
“Asher told me you can look through anything in here, but no wandering off. I’ll be at the end of the hall watching, so don’t get any ideas.”
Evie nodded, her eyes already darting around to the different stacks of paper. She immediately headed for the first box, kneeling down and rifling through it, pulling out random files, checking dates, and tossing them aside when deemed useless.
“Why did he keep all this old crap when it means nothing to him?” she asked mindlessly.
I flicked through a stack of papers, not knowing exactly what she was looking for, but attempting to help, anyway.
