by Becca Steele
The Secrets We Hide
The Four - book 2
Becca Steele
The Secrets We Hide (The Four, #2)
Copyright © 2020 by Becca Steele
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by NET Hook & Line Design
Editing by One Love Editing
Becca Steele
www.authorbeccasteele.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s crazy imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Playlist
Rise - Katy Perry
Swervin - A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, 6ix9ine
Play With Fire - Sam Tinnesz, Yacht Money
Secrets - OneRepublic
Diet Mountain Dew - Lana Del Rey
Enemies - Post Malone, DaBaby
Failure (Aurora) - Breaking Benjamin
11 Minutes - Yungblud, Halsey, Travis Barker
you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish
Paint It, Black - Ciara
Hide and Seek - Kodaline
Him & I - G-Eazy, Halsey
DNA - Little Mix
Secret - Burna Boy, Jeremih, Serani
Mean It - Lauv, LANY
Flames - R3HAB, Zayn, Jungleboi
Unstable - Janine
One Second - Stormzy, H.E.R.
Take on the World - You Me At Six
Mine - Bazzi
Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran
Find the playlist on Spotify or YouTube
Contents
Author’s note
1. Caiden
2. Caiden
3. Winter
4. Caiden
5. Winter
6. Winter
7. Winter
8. Winter
9. Caiden
10. Winter
11. Winter
12. Caiden
13. Winter
14. Winter
15. Caiden
16. Winter
17. Winter
18. Winter
19. Caiden
20. Caiden
21. Winter
22. Caiden
23. Winter
24. Winter
25. Winter
26. Winter
27. Caiden
28. Winter
29. Winter
30. Winter
31. Winter
That’s it…for now…
Acknowledgments
Also by Becca Steele
About the Author
Author’s note
The author is British, and British English spellings and phrases are used throughout.
To my siblings.
This one’s for you.
(Sorry not sorry I forced you to read my books.)
That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.
Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter
ONE
Cassius navigated through the street, barely any wider than the width of his SUV. His eyes narrowed in concentration, the high stone walls on either side bearing down on us. I grasped my phone so tightly I thought it would shatter in my grip, reading the message over and over.
Snowflake: It might not be Arlo Davis. I think it could be ARGO NAVIS. A boat at the docks. I’m going there to check it out now. Will let you know what I find.
Fear for Winter’s safety mixed with the anger and betrayal already coursing through me, fizzing through my veins.
Concentrating on my anger was easiest right now.
I’d never let anyone get close enough to have the power to hurt me, not after Christine Clifford had fucked up my world, tearing my family apart. Winter had somehow managed to get through my defences, and it fucking hurt that she’d done this to me. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video again, but it was burned into my mind, Granville’s lips on my girl’s…
Fuck. I lashed out, punching the back of the seat in front of me, Weston jerking forwards in his seat as my fist connected with the leather.
“What the fuck, Cade?” he shouted, turning to glare at me. He took in my face and his eyes widened, and he turned around without another word. Guess I looked as bad as I felt.
“I can’t track her phone,” he muttered to Cassius, his finger scrolling through the app we all had that allowed us to locate each other. “Something must’ve happened to it.”
My stomach tightened, and my throat clenched.
“Mate, show me the video.” Zayde leaned over to me, speaking in a low voice, holding his hand out. I opened the message thread and handed him my phone wordlessly, then slumped back, closing my eyes.
Silence.
“I don’t think you should jump to conclusions,” he said finally, handing my phone back. “Yeah, it looks incriminating as fuck, but…” His voice trailed off, defeated. “Shit. I can’t lie. Mate, I’d be fucking livid if that was my girl.”
“Yeah.” I threw my phone onto the seat between us. “Hard to ignore the evidence when it’s right in front of you.”
He tapped the screen. “You’ve got a voicemail.”
I hadn’t noticed, with all the other shit that was going on. I retrieved my phone from where I’d thrown it, dragging my thumb across it to unlock the screen. There was a text from her, too. I’d ignored it when I was reading her latest message, but now I took it in.
Snowflake: We need to talk. NOTHING HAPPENED. Check your voicemail. Phone me as soon as you get this, PLEASE.
I dialled my inbox.
“Cade, it’s me. Well, I guess you already know that. That video isn’t how it looks.” Her voice cracked, and it fucking hurt. “James cornered me in the library, and he had a black eye. What you saw in the video was me showing concern and trying to comfort him, and then—” I heard a muffled cry. “—and then, he tried to kiss me, and I froze. As soon as I realised what was going on, I stamped on his foot as hard as I could to make him stop. Cade, you have to believe me…I would never…I only want you.”
I threw the phone. Hearing her that upset killed me, but the way she’d looked at him on the video, like she cared… They had history. They’d fucked. Before me. Before she was mine.
I didn’t know when I’d started thinking of her as mine, rather than a girl I liked to fuck, but it happened, and now she was in my head. Fucking with me.
Blinding jealousy raged through my body, and I clenched my fists, gritting my teeth, attempting rationality. I needed to step back, to calm the fuck down, but there was no being rational when it came to her.
“Mate.” Zayde looked over at me, concern flashing in his eyes. So unusual for him to show any emotion, it took me aback. He reached down and swiped my phone from where it landed on the floor. “Mind if I listen to the voicemail?”
I shook my head.
He adopted his usual blank expression as he listened to the message, then turned to me. “Maybe she’s putting on an act, but she sounds genuine to me.”
“Why didn’t she tell me, though? Why wait?”
“You need to talk.”
Yeah.
I locked the anger and hurt away and switched my focus to the immedi
ate situation—finding Winter and getting her away from any danger. The only thing that mattered, right now, was her safety. Fuck, I’d rather she ended up with Granville than in danger or hurt. I was furious with her for being so reckless, but at the same time, I understood. If I’d been in her situation? I’d have done exactly the same.
Finally away from Alstone town and out on the open road, Cass put his foot down, increasing our speed, navigating with one hand on the wheel, the other clenched tightly around the gearstick. The atmosphere in the car was thick with tension, only slightly easing up once we were flying down the familiar coastal road, the ocean on our left, past Alstone Castle, towards the docks.
As we drew closer, Cassius slowed down, the SUV’s headlights cutting through the darkness. The only light came from the stars that occasionally appeared between the clouds that covered the night sky.
“Cass!” my brother hissed urgently. “Stop!”
My eyes followed the direction of his outstretched arm, his finger jabbing against the windscreen.
Winter’s car.
Tucked away, off the side of the road, the matte-black paint blending into the shadows.
Cassius pulled to a stop just behind the Fiat 500, sending a shower of dust and gravel flying up around the wheels, and I jumped out, not bothering to wait for him to turn the engine off. Jogging over to the front of her car, I placed my hand on the smooth metal surface.
It was ice-cold.
Fuck.
I jogged back to the SUV, leaning into Weston’s open window. “The engine’s stone cold. She must’ve been here a while, and the fact she hasn’t come back—” I cut my words off abruptly, scrubbing my hand across my face, unable to articulate my worst fears.
“Shit,” Cass swore softly, his eyes darkened with worry. “I’ll park here. Eyes and ears open, all of you. Let’s go get our girl.”
TWO
I shrugged off my suit jacket, rolling up my shirtsleeves, ignoring the biting cold air. Tugging at my collar, I wished I’d been wearing my usual jeans and hoodie. Don’t get me wrong; I liked a sharp suit, tailored to fit, but I was always more comfortable dressed down. Right now? This suit was a fucking inconvenience.
“Here,” Cass grunted, emerging from the boot and throwing me a bundle of fabric. I opened it to find a black hoodie, and I pulled it on over my shirt, tugging the hood over my head.
“Cheers, mate.”
He nodded and tipped his head towards the road leading to the docks, his brows raised in a question.
“Let’s go.”
We all filed into a line, working together as we’d always done, seamlessly, silently, reading each other’s minds. When we reached the entrance to the docks, I held up a hand behind my back, signalling for them to wait.
Peering around the corner, my eyes scanned the area, cataloguing every detail.
The white painted guard hut by the entrance barrier was empty, and the whole place seemed quiet. Too quiet.
I noted the cameras mounted on high stalks and on the side of the guard hut, and indicated to my boys so they were aware. Crossing the entrance, I flattened my body against the side of the hut, Z in position next to me, poised and ready.
“Nothing. Except…that full mug of coffee.”
I followed Zayde’s gaze, noting an Alstone Holdings branded ceramic mug, balanced on the table in front of the monitors, and a dog-eared open book next to it, face down. The spine was creased, the title and author name written in a language I couldn’t read.
“Stay alert. Someone must’ve been here. Recently,” I told the others in a low voice.
“The coffee looks cold to me,” Cassius commented, peering through the window. “There’s a film on the top.”
Fuck. Whoever had been on guard duty could be long gone.
Time to check out the rest of the docks.
We moved stealthily around the corner of a low building, avoiding the cameras. Where was Winter?
My gaze was drawn to a crumbling stone building by the water’s edge, set apart from the rest of the docks. Every single instinct in me screamed that this was where I needed to be.
Keeping to the shadows, I ran.
I burst through the doorway, the door itself wide open, hanging at an angle.
Fuck. I couldn’t see anything.
I heard the sounds of my boys falling in behind me, a solid presence at my back. I straightened up.
Whatever was going on here, we’d get to the bottom of it. No one fucked with what was ours and got away with it.
We’d bury them.
Lights flickered on overhead, and I spun around to see Cass 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 tur
ned. 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.
“Z. Show us where to go.”
Zayde looked between us. “Keep a lookout. We’ll do a sweep of the area. Catch up with you after.” I nodded at him, and he swung himself into the van.
I turned to my brother. “Did you sort the security footage?”
“Yeah, sorted. Fucking camera on the gate was on the blink, and the ones in the docks were facing the wrong way. All seems too convenient, if you ask me.”