The Secrets We Hide (The Four #2) - Becca Steele Page 0,2
looking over at me, his hand poised over a light switch to the left of the doorway.
Zayde, Cassius, and Weston came to stand next to me, and we took in the square space we were standing in, with a long corridor off to the left. Distinct footprints and marks were visible on the dusty wooden floorboards, a clear indication someone had been that way recently.
Zayde glanced down the corridor, then back to the door, then pulled out his phone, dialling a number.
“I need a favour… Yeah. Backup… Not sure what we’re dealing with. Sending the address now… Yeah.”
He stabbed the phone to end the call and slipped it into his pocket. “Cade, check this out with Cass. Be careful. Me and West will go to the gate to wait for the others, and West can check the security feeds in the guard hut.”
“Sure.” I barely heard him as he threw the words over his shoulder and disappeared with Weston.
“Follow me.” I took command of the situation, skulking down the dimly lit corridor, the floorboards creaking underfoot. The corridor seemed endless. As we moved along, hugging the wall, a door came into view, gunmetal grey, studs around the edge, solid and impenetrable.
I sped up, focused on that door.
The glint of something shiny caught my eye, and I stopped, crouching down to get a better look, careful not to disturb anything. Scanning the floor, I squinted into the corner where the stone wall met the ground. I stretched out, and my hand closed around a small oblong object. Pulling it into the light, I flipped it over.
Winter’s phone.
Shit.
“That explains why we couldn’t track her,” I muttered under my breath as I traced my finger over the cracked screen, the phone completely unresponsive as I attempted to power it on.
Clambering to my feet and pocketing the phone, I stared at Cassius, trying to stop the fucking panic that was trying to rise up inside me. This was why I didn’t get close to people. After my mum died, I swore I wouldn’t let any woman have that power over me. Not for the first time, I asked myself how Winter had managed to slip through my defences.
I shook my head, straightening up, ignoring Cass’ curious look. These thoughts had no place here. All that mattered was finding her. Everything else could wait.
“Let’s check this door, yeah? We need to find Winter.”
Cassius nodded, all business, slipping around me and moving forwards a few paces until he was in front of the door. “You ready?”
I joined him, keeping to the side, all my senses on high alert. “Ready.”
He grabbed the door handle and pushed.
The door opened, to the surprise of both of us, especially considering there was a number panel to the side of the door, clearly there to unlock the entry to the room. We exchanged glances; then I nodded to Cassius, and he pushed the door all the way open, his muscles straining with the effort as he threw his weight against the thick, heavy metal.
The room was dark, and Cass and I both turned on the flashlights on our phones, illuminating the space.
It was completely empty.
Fuck.
There was nothing to give us any clues about what it was used for. Dirty, damp stone walls and floors, boarded-up windows, and old, rusting iron rings cemented into the stones, probably there since the place was built.
“Where’s Winter?” Distress bled through Cassius’ voice, and my stomach turned. Where was she?
Had she been taken somewhere?
The thought sent bile rising in my throat.
“Winter!” My shout bounced off the walls, echoing around us.
“Keep it down, will ya?” Cassius hissed. “We don’t know if anyone else is around. Whoever was in the guard hut had to have gone somewhere.”
He was right. We had to proceed with caution.
“Alright, mate. We need to check out the rest of the area. She was here—we’ve got her phone as proof.”
“C’mon. Z called for backup, didn’t he? We should wait for them to get here; we don’t know who or what else might be here. The last thing we need to do is get into a dodgy situation.”
I nodded, stalking out of the room, back down the corridor, and out into the cool night air to wait for Zayde’s contacts to turn up, Cassius right beside me.
We crossed the docks and reached the entrance, where Zayde and Weston waited, just as a blacked-out, nondescript van pulled up, a guy with a balaclava obscuring his face in the driver’s seat.