Page 81 of Road to Redemption

“I have a feeling the Ducati would disagree,” she raised her eyebrow. “Go finish up before she starts to get jealous.”

I groaned playfully, pushing off the counter and grabbing my tools. “Never thought I’d see the day you turned down the chance at motorcycle sex.”

“Can’t have motorcycle sex if you don’t take care of that thing,” she shrugged.

I adjusted my work station so that I could keep an eye on her. She was stunning up on that workbench — her heap of red curls framed her shoulders and neck beautifully. All I wanted to do was push that hair aside and sink my teeth into her.

But as she kicked her feet and fiddled with a wrench she’d pulled down from the peg board, I started to suspect that Kiera had something else on her mind.

“What are you thinking about?” And before she could say nothing, I pointed a finger at her. “You promised to be honest.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t want to bring down your mood.”

“You never bring down my mood, baby. Tell me. I’m all ears.”

With a sigh, she set the wrench down. “I guess I was just wondering how your research is going. But then I came in here and it seemed like maybe you were taking a break, and⁠—”

“Break from my screen,” I corrected. “But I’m always happy to talk to you.”

Even if the futility of my search makes me want to puke.

As I cranked the chain back into alignment, I shook my head. “Unfortunately, I still don’t have much to report. Their records are clean as a whistle. Which should be reassuring, but really is just kind of terrifying? I don’t know…”

The pit in my stomach had become a constant companion ever since our flight out to Washington. I wouldn’t be able to stop my mind from wondering until I found something definitive.

But the fact of the matter was that I wasn’t looking in the right place. If there was something to find in the old contracts or on their social media, I would have found it by now.

My options were to give up the search or to find a new tree to bark up. And I certainly wasn’t quitting — that old picture of my parents and Isaac was way too cryptic to be meaningless.

“It is terrifying.” Kiera shuddered, “Thinking about how many people were involved in something so disturbing… I can’t wrap my head around how it’s possible: how there could be so many people, and yet not a word of it has leaked to the outside world?”

“Isaac probably killed off anyone who tried to tell,” I scoffed. And though I’d meant it as a joke, the words rang eerily true.

After all, that was how Viv had ended up in Washington, and she was his wife. Hell, he’d killed his own best friend to keep his secrets — what was the odd whistleblower in comparison to that?

“I’m sorry,” I rubbed my neck. “I didn’t mean it like th⁠—”

“It’s okay, it’s true.” Kiera shrugged. “Is it weird that that’s less upsetting to me than the idea that my dad killed himself?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I think that makes a lot of sense. Knowing he went out with purpose.”

I was glad that Viv had been able to offer Kiera that comfort. Honestly, Viv had been able to provide us with so much while we were in Washington. There was the paperwork, of course, putting Kiera on track to reclaim her shares.

But there was an emotional aspect, too, as well as a logistical one. Talking to her over those few weeks had taught me so much about our opponents: the lengths they were willing to go to, the way that they thought.

And as my mind travelled back to Washington, a memory pulled, at my thoughts like a splinter tugging a loose thread.

I turned to Kiera, brows furrowed. “Didn’t Viv say something about… bones? Monsters?”

Kiera laughed as I struggled for the words. “She called the assholes at Zeus a bunch of dinosaurs. ‘Skeletons with skeletons in their closets.’”

“Right,” I nodded. “I just can’t help thinking… they’ve been at this for decades. Clearly their public internet records are scrubbed clean, but is it possible that there’s something older? Something they wouldn’t have thought to have their tech goons scrub clean?”

“Something they thought was private?”

“Yeah…”

Kiera pursed her lips, peering up at the ceiling as it might give her the answer. Then, like a sign from the heavens, her phone pinged in her pocket. As she glanced down at it, her eyes widened. “Emails!”