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“Hell if I know. I thought about using her as a trade for Lilliana.”
“Wryn would never forgive you.”
“She’d get over it.”
Geo snorts.
“Fuck off,” I say and turn to continue walking to my office. “Actually, don’t. I have something to show you.”
He follows me into the office once I unlock the door. I’ve started keeping it locked when I’m gone, and I wonder why my father never did. We stare down at the safe that’s still sitting on my desk.
“Where did it come from?” Geo asks.
I point over at the oriental rug. “I found it in the floor.”
“You found it in the floor underneath the rug?”
“Yes.” I don’t elaborate further. There’s no reason to rehash the whole reason the carpet and table were moved to begin with even though my brain starts to replay the entire scenario, sensations and all. I shake my head, trying to focus on the task at hand.
“Can you get it open?” Geo asks.
“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure out if a code was left lying around here somewhere, but I think it’s more likely that we will need to cut it open.”
“I say we cut it open.” Geo picks it up, looking at each side of it.
I don’t say anything.
He sets it back down, then glances at me. “What are you waiting for?”
“I’m not sure I actually want to know what’s inside of it.”
“What if it’s a bag of perfect diamonds and you are sitting on top of that?”
“Bertrand didn’t hide a bag of diamonds in the floor.”
“Either way, we still need to know.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” I round the desk and sink into the chair, staring at the damn safe. “Do we have any sort of tools to cut into it?”
“Most safes are reinforced to deter drilling into it. Autodialers are a better route, but sadly, I don’t have one of those hanging around. I’ll look over what we have and call my guy to see if I can figure out the weak point of this one. I’ll be right back.”
Geo quickly leaves the office, and I’m left alone with the metal box. It’s taunting me, sitting there, unable to be opened until we force it.
Why wouldn’t my father have told me about this? Why did he keep all these secrets from me?They became my secrets as I took over. I’m sure he didn’t think he would meet an early demise, but in this life, it always helps to be prepared. I don’t know many men who live to be old. The majority who dance with the Mafia devil end up six feet under before fifty.
I know that I won’t find a combination to it, so it makes the most sense to go ahead and drill into it if we can. I think about inviting Wryn, but something holds me back. I want to be able to see what’s inside first and deal with it on my own. It probably doesn’t hold anything that she would be interested in, so I stay silent and wait until Geo walks through the door with a drill.
“Will that work?” I ask, and he shrugs.
“I called the locksmith I know, and he said this one’s weak point is on the back. Only one way to find out.”
He flips the safe over and puts the drill to the metal, powering it on and pressing in. I watch as the drill works to make a hole. It’s a heavy-duty drill, not a regular one, but it still surprises me how easily Geo is able to break into it. You would think Bertrand would have invested in a larger or thicker one, but that wouldn’t have been as easily hidden.
If I hadn’t been railing Wryn against the small table, we never would have found it in the first place.
A bead of sweat gathers on Geo’s face as he works, indicating it might not be as easy as it looks, but I wait. I’ll have my answers soon enough. When he’s done, Geo powers off the drill and sets it down amid the metal shavings that flew all over the desk. He presses in on the window of metal that he made, and it falls inside the safe with a clang.
He tilts the safe to sit up, and the metal inside makes noise as it shifts. He steps back to let me look. I reach in, careful of the jagged edges, and grope around until my fingers brush a few papers. I pull them out and set them beside me, then pick up the small box to tilt it toward the light and make sure I got everything.
