what are you thinking?” I looked back up at Dom to find his arms folded, a questioning look on his face, as he tried to follow my racing thoughts.
“I am thinking that our little lost princess might not be quite as lost as she has allowed us all to think,” I told him before holding out my hand and requesting,
“Give me your phone.” My demand made him pull it from his suit jacket, unlock the security feature with his thumbprint and hand it to me. I scoffed at the picture of Keira and himself on the front making me roll my eyes without comment, making him mutter,
“Just you wait, asshole.”
I ignored him, mainly because he was right. Amelia and I didn’t have a single photograph together and the ones I had of her were all from afar and taken without her knowledge. Making me envious that he had that and what I wouldn’t have given to have been granted a picture of her smile to obsess over.
“Adam, no it’s me Luc, listen I need to know, exactly how many copies of the map did you find on my desk before we left for Afterlife?” I asked knowing that if anyone would remember it would be Adam, he was meticulous about the details.
“Six, why?” I looked up at Dom as I answered Adam’s question,
“Because I had seven copies made.” Dom raised a brow understanding where my thoughts were headed.
“So, you’re sure?” I had to ask.
“I think you get that I don’t make mistakes, Luc,” Adam responded making me reply with a grin,
“Oh, I know you don’t.”
“You think someone stole one when they were still in your office?” he asked slamming me back to a memory. It had been shortly after our argument, Amelia and me. It was also one she had sheepishly come to my office to apologize for, after once again taking my meaning and twisting it into something dark and untrue. A common trait with my girl, so it would seem.
But then after that, Amelia had made a note of seeing them on the desk. She asked me about them, making some funny comment about planning a lame treasure hunt or something to that effect. Then, after spending time going over the map together, there had been a phone call from Dom demanding once more to speak with his daughter.
Shortly after which, we had left my office only when doing so, we had barely rounded a corner when she told me she’d forgotten her sweater, running back for it.
The seven copies of the map had still been on my desk waiting for Adam to retrieve.
“Oh, we had a thief alright, and I think I have a pretty good idea who,” I told Adam who laughed once and said,
“And let me guess, a troublesome little princess now going by the name Lia Earhart.” I didn’t answer him, as I didn’t need to. No, instead he added,
“Keep us posted.” Then I ended the call.
“I must say, Dom, but that daughter of yours is becoming quite the thief these days.”
“You think she stole a copy of the map from you?” My look echoed the words that followed,
“No, I know she did, which means that she left a copy in her room on purpose to throw us off the fact that she was still pursuing it,” I said leaving now to go to my office to retrieve that same copy. Dom followed and quickly made the point,
“But even if she did, we all agreed the maps are useless, so how would she know where to go?” I stopped in my tracks, giving thought to his comment before I then turned back to face him.
“What if she found a way?” I asked.
“Luc, I am fully aware of my daughter’s intelligence, and speak very highly of it in fact, despite where it has gotten her right now…that being said, we have had all our people working on cracking that fucking map, all of the Kings have also had their own people on it and nothing!” I dragged a hand at the back of my neck thinking about all he’d said and knowing it to be true.
But then, this was Amelia we were talking about, which meant I knew anything was possible.
“I think you’re forgetting that she was the one who cracked the box and discovered how to open it.”
“Yes, but are you really telling me that my daughter has somehow now deciphered what seems to be the biggest fucking puzzle on Earth right now and