The Secrets We Hide (The Four #2) - Becca Steele Page 0,48
handcuffs, and rolls of duct tape. “If we were anywhere else, I’d say all this stuff—” She waved her hand at the ropes, chains and handcuffs. “—was for some kinky shit. But here, it just seems kind of scary.” We photographed the room, replaced the padlock, took some photos of the main room, then exited as quickly as possible.
As we were lowering the hatch into place, Zayde burst into the room. “We’ve got company.”
We raced out of the building and skidded around the corner, hearing the rumble of an engine drawing closer, then coming to a spluttering stop. An insistent beeping sounded, and I ducked down, looking around the corner.
A small lorry with no number plates had parked next to the pallets, and a forklift truck, where the beeping was coming from, was lifting one of the pallets up. I watched, using my phone to take photos as a figure opened the back of the lorry, then gestured to the forklift truck driver, and one by one, they transferred the pallets into the back of the lorry.
“My leg’s gone dead,” Winter groaned quietly behind me, sinking to the floor and stretching her legs out in front of her, rubbing her thigh to try to get some circulation back into it. Zayde chuckled under his breath, alternating between staring around the corner and texting on his phone.
“They’re almost done,” I commented. The final pallet was eventually loaded, and the back of the lorry was closed. The figure at the back of the lorry spoke to the driver of the forklift truck, and I strained my ears to hear. I couldn’t make out anything they were saying, but what I did know was that they weren’t speaking English.
Once the lorry and the forklift truck had both disappeared, I turned to the others. “Let’s get back to the boat and back to the house. Get all these photos and drone footage on the computer.”
“Cass and West are on their way back.” Z waved his phone in the air.
Winter looked between us both, her gaze all hopeful and determined. “Good. Maybe between the five of us, we can finally get some answers.”
After all the shit we’d been through, we’d better.
TWENTY
We studied the charts that were spread across the table in front of us. Weston sat at the computer, searching for information, a large mug of coffee in hand.
“It says here that Andromeda’s a galaxy, closest one to our galaxy, in fact, and it’s also a constellation.” His eyes scanned the screen, cataloguing all the details, before he sighed in defeat. “I really don’t see anything here that would help us.”
“That was my conclusion, when I googled it.” Winter shifted in my lap, her voice sad. I brushed her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck, and she turned her head and gave me a small smile, before staring back at the charts.
“Yeah. I’ve heard the name before, only in relation to this cybercrime shit that was going on a few years back, but that’s nothing to do with this.” He slumped back in his chair, rubbing a hand across his face, then straightened up. “No. Fuck this. I’m not giving up. I’m gonna speak to Mercury.”
“Snowflake, I’m gonna give West a hand, okay?” She nodded, and I lifted her off me, letting her slide back into my seat, then crossed over to join West at the computers. He was soon connected to the secure chat he used in the deep web, waiting for Mercury to show up. A green light blinked on next to Mercury’s name, finally, and West started typing, with a relieved breath.
NITRO: Need some intel.
MERCURY: Details?
NITRO: 2 items. 1: A name/word—Andromeda. Constellation and galaxy have been ruled out unless you see anything suspicious.
2: Sending you footage taken earlier relating to the 2 subjects I asked you to investigate. Might be useful.
MERCURY: On it. Anything I should know?
NITRO: Think all this is linked somehow. But can’t work it out.
MERCURY: Give me a couple of hours. Might have some intel on the ring too.
The screen went blank, both of them logging out at the same time. West stretched, turning to me. “Mercury’s on it,” he said, as if I hadn’t been sitting right next to him for the past five minutes. “I want to try hacking into Dad’s system again, see if I can find anything. Alstone Holdings isn’t showing anything out of the ordinary, and AMC was a complete waste of time tonight.”
“This is so fucking frustrating,” I muttered. “Did