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Recap…
Back all together, minus Weston, who was busy digging for any data he could get his hands on, the mood turned deadly serious as the reality of what I’d discovered about Allan sank in.
“He’s always been so quiet and unassuming. I never once would’ve imagined he’d be involved in any of this.” Cassius rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “Nothing adds up.”
Caiden nodded in agreement, his eyes on my phone as he scrolled through the photos I’d taken. “That’s the fucking problem. Not even a hint of trouble.”
“Except—” Zayde hesitated, and we all turned to look at him. The look in his eyes gave me chills. “I need to speak to Creed. I’ll be back.”
Caiden, Cassius, and I exchanged glances as he got up without another word, stalking out of the room.
“What was that all about?” Cassius wondered aloud. “Any ideas, mate?”
Caiden shrugged. “None. He’s never said anything to me about Allan. Nothing suspicious, anyway.”
“Is it worth speaking to your dad?” I leaned closer to Caiden, and he gave me a quick smile, tugging me closer and putting his arm around me.
“Yeah, I could. But I’d rather keep that as our last resort, if we can’t find out anything else. I don’t think my dad’s involved, and I don’t wanna make him suspicious.”
“You didn’t think Allan was involved though, either,” Cassius pointed out.
Caiden stiffened next to me, and I frowned at Cassius. Don’t, I mouthed, and he grimaced, his thoughts clearly turning in the same direction mine had. Enough shit had happened for one day. I didn’t want Cade stressing about his dad on top of everything else, questioning everything he knew.
“Nah, your dad’s not involved. I’m sure of it.” Cassius blew out a heavy breath. “I’m not convinced that all this shit with Allan is as it seems, either.”
We sat in silence for a moment, Cassius motioning for Caiden to pass him my phone so he could look through the photos.
“You okay?” I stared up at Caiden, worried.
“I don’t know.”
Sadness filled me at his despondent tone.
“Cade…” I slid my arms around him, and he held on to me tightly, as if he needed me to support him. As much as I needed answers, and as strong as he was, he’d been through so much in his life, and to now have all this to deal with… It was enough to shake even the strongest person. “We’re going to get through this, okay?”
He didn’t answer me, but he placed a soft kiss on my forehead, pulling me into him.
“Winter’s right. We’re so close to putting these puzzle pieces together. Failure is not an option. We’re gonna get the answers, fuck some shit up, then get back to our lives.” I looked around to see Cassius holding out his fist, his expression resolute.
Caiden released me, reluctantly I think, and they bumped fists, a smile finally back on my boyfriend’s face.
“C’mon, babe. You have to do it, too.” Cassius held his fist out to me, and I was just about to respond when Weston crashed into the room, throwing a set of keys to Cassius.
“We need to go, right now. Cass, you’re driving us to the docks. I’ll explain on the way.”
In the car, the second Cassius had started the engine, Weston continued, twisting in his seat to look at us, his leg bouncing restlessly, excitement in his eyes.
“Allan, nothing, total dead end, although I didn’t have much time to look. But…call me a fucking genius. All the Alstone Holdings places other than AMC—the offices, warehouses, docks? Staff have an ID card they use to scan in and out with. I’ve been working on getting into their system for ages so I could match up the IDs to see if we could build up a picture of who was where and when. When I was searching for Allan, I had I guess what you could call an epiphany, and I managed to access the system. Finally! They had the strongest security I’d come across, as strong as Dad’s.” He paused in the middle of his speech, a thoughtful expression stealing across his face. “I wonder if it’s the same as Dad’s? If so, I might be able to hack his system at long last.”
“Get to the point, will you?” Caiden stared at him impatiently.
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t dare to stay in the system for long in case I was detected, so I went straight to the date Winter was attacked, and the date she was rescued, on the off chance we might find an answer.” Taking a deep breath, he met my eyes. “There’s only one ID logged for the night you were attacked, which we have to assume was the guard. All the IDs are a long string of numbers, so I can’t match them up to names yet. The night you were rescued? Same
ID. But that wasn’t the only one. Someone else was there, and the time they scanned in correlates with the rough time frame you were rescued, if we go by the time Kinslee got the phone call from the hospital.”
“But how do we find out who—”
“Wait,” he interrupted me. “I’m getting to that. That same ID has just scanned in at the docks. They literally did it as I was in the system, so they won’t have been there long. There’s one other ID already logged in, which I’m assuming will be the security guard, but that’s it.”
I gripped Caiden’s hand tighter, my heart rate speeding up. Were we about to come face to face with my potential rescuer?
“Fuck!” Weston exclaimed, holding up his phone. “The answers are coming thick and fast. Not only are we about to find out who rescued Winter, or at least, find out who else was there at that time, but Mercury has info waiting for me. He says he’s found out what Andromeda is.”
What?
Hope soared in me. At last, we were going to get some answers.
We sped towards the docks, and Cassius threw his SUV into the layby I’d parked in way back when I’d first come here to investigate.
“Everyone stay together. Stay cautious,” Caiden commanded in a low tone. “I’ve sent Z an SOS message, so he’ll be here soon.”
Moving stealthily towards the entrance, we fell into complete silence. Caiden kept hold of my hand the entire time but stayed in front of me, protecting me, while Cassius and Weston fell back in line behind me.
We could see the outline of the night guard in the hut, reclined in his chair, scrolling through his phone. It was easy enough to sneak past him and around to the long, low warehouse.
I sucked in a sharp breath, as all four of us stopped dead once we rounded the corner, staring at the figure that Caiden had almost run straight into.
My gaze travelled up, past the black boots, the jeans, the leather jacket, to the face, and our eyes met, mine widening in shock.
“You!”
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
