by Becca Steele
Climbing to his feet, he held out his hand, and I took it.
NINETEEN
The oars dipped through the water with a soft splash as my muscles strained, moving us closer to the docks.
“I can’t believe we’re in a rowboat.” Winter’s quiet laugh cut through the night air, as she sat across from me on the bench seat. From his seat in the prow Zayde sat, silent and still, scanning the coastline with the night-vision binoculars my brother had given to us.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe we were in a fucking rowboat, either. Z’s mates had come through for us, so here we were, cutting through the water, hoping to get close to the docks without being spotted. Security was still tight around the docks’ entrance, so this way we could avoid detection. If we were lucky. So far, luck was on our side—the sky was clear, the moon providing a bright enough glow that we hadn’t needed to use lights and the sea was calm—it would’ve been suicide to come out here in a rowing boat in bad weather.
Weston had wanted to come with us, but there was no way I was letting him put himself in danger. I’d asked him and Cassius to go back to AMC instead, to see if they could get any more answers, while me and Zayde took the docks. I wanted Winter to stay out of the way, too, but my girl flat-out fucking refused, stubborn woman that she was. Consequently, my stress levels were at an all-time high; not only did I not know what kind of shit we’d find ourselves in, but I had to worry about her.
Other than that, we were as prepared as we could be—all armed and dressed in black. Yesterday and this morning, Z had taught Winter a couple of basic tricks with knives that she’d hopefully never have to use, because if anyone hurt her, I would fucking end them.
We drew closer to the docks, hugging the coastline, and Z tapped me on the shoulder, handing me the binoculars. Placing the oars down, I scanned the direction he was pointing, until I saw it. The Argo Navis, a nondescript, small cargo ship moored in its own berth, away from the other boats. I passed the binoculars to Winter and unpacked the drone, before rowing us closer.
Stopping a safe distance away, I turned on the drone. It hovered noiselessly in the air just above the boat, responding to the controls like a fucking dream. I’d spent yesterday getting to grips with it until I could handle it to West’s satisfaction, and now today I was putting my new skills to the test.
Winter leaned around me, passing the binoculars back to Zayde. Before we’d left, we’d agreed that Z would be the lookout, I’d commandeer the drone, and Winter would watch the tiny video monitor that connected to the drone’s camera, to see if anything jogged a memory.
Winter crawled across to my seat, the boat rocking despite her slow, careful movements, and I sat her between my legs. I slid my thumb forwards on the controller, and the drone shot off across the sea, while she held the video monitor. Angling my head, I leaned my chin on her shoulder, my face next to hers so I could see the screen as well.
She wriggled against me, and my dick decided this completely inappropriate moment was a great time to wake up, hardening against her ass.
“Sorry,” I breathed into her ear. “Can’t help my reaction to you.”
“I’m not complaining,” she murmured, her amused voice laced with heat. “We’ll do something about it when we get—” Her voice cut off as she suddenly leaned closer to the screen, and I followed her gaze, holding the controls of the drone steady. She pointed at the top right corner of the screen, where one of the little cranes that was used to lift the cargo off the boats was hoisting something into the air from the deck of the Argo Navis. “Do you see that? Can you fly it closer?”
“Yeah.” I flew it closer to the boat until it was hovering near to the hull, still keeping it at a safe distance. Even though it was tiny, and noiseless, and a solid black colour which blended in with the darkened sea and sky, it was possible that it could still be spotted.
“Z, are you seeing this?” I hissed.
“Yep.” The object became clearer the closer we got. A large pallet, stacked high but completely wrapped in some kind of plastic—it was difficult to make out from here. The deck had more, identical pallets, arranged in neat rows. A figure stood on the docks, gesturing as each pallet was placed down, unhooking them from the crane.
We sat in silence until all the pallets were unloaded, and then the boat shuddered to life, and I flew the drone to the side, hovering over the roof of the building Winter had been held in. Fuck, thinking of her in there, the fact she’d been under our feet all that time, I could kick myself for missing it. Whoever her rescuer was, I owed them. Massively. If only they’d show their face. Why had they kept themselves hidden?
Shaking off my thoughts, I used the oars to move us even closer to the coastline, where there was a thin strip of stony beach, and we waited as the Argo Navis moved out of the dock and disappeared out to sea. The drone’s low-battery alert flashed up, so I navigated it back to the rowboat.
“Now what? You reckon we should check out the pallets?” I asked Z in a low voice.
He studied the docks through the binoculars for a moment without answering me, before he lowered them. “Yeah, it looks to be safe. I’ll signal Creed.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he texted “going in,” which would let Creed know we were entering the docks. We’d planned it all to leave as little room for fuck ups as possible—Creed had a couple of his guys waiting in a van a way down the road from the docks, and if Z didn’t make contact an hour after the first message, they’d come after us.
That was something we didn’t want to happen, but it was our safety net in case it all went wrong.
Rowing the boat around the side of the building, I steadied it, holding it in place while Z jumped out, tying the boat to a chunky iron ring that was cemented into the ground. If we were lucky, no one would spot it.
“What are the chances of you waiting here in the boat?” I tightened my arms around Snowflake possessively, the need to protect her so strong that it overrode everything else.
“Zero, so don’t even suggest it.” She twisted her head to frown at me, her blue eyes huge and serious. “I’ll be careful, I promise. You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you, but I fucking hate this whole situation. I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you.” I buried my face in her shoulder, and she sighed.
“I know. Same, though. I know you think you’re this big, bad, invincible person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt.” She kissed my jaw, running her hands over mine. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Are you coming, or what?” Zayde’s low hiss came from above us.
“Yeah, sorry, mate.” I helped Winter out of the boat. We pulled on the balaclavas and gloves we’d brought with us—Winter’s idea—and skulked around the side of the building, keeping low to the ground. We used the pallets for cover, keeping behind them with the sea at our backs, in case anyone showed up.
I held up a hand, signalling Winter and Zayde to halt, so we could examine the pallets. I took my knife from its sheath, carefully making a small slice in the wrapping, then digging it in further to reach the contents. Zayde pointed his phone flashlight at the pallet so we could see better.
White powder.
“Coke?” Z pulled a glove off, running his finger over the flat of my knife blade, which was dusted with the powder. Lifting his balaclava, he touched it to his tongue and grimaced. “Yep. It’s coke.”
What the fuck were pallets full of cocaine doing at Alstone Holdings’ docks?
“Are they all the same?” Winter’s soft, muffled voice sounded close to my ear.
“I think so, yeah.” I scanned the rows of pallets. I couldn’t be sure without examining them all, but they looked the same to me.
“You wanna check out the building, again?” Z suggested, and I glanced at Winter. I could only see her eyes, but they held so much trepidation that I was about to say no, not wanting her to have to relive her experience there, but then a steely glint of determination entered her gaze.
“Let’s do it.” Her voice was firm, with only the slightest tremor, and in that moment I was so fucking proud of her. My girl was prepared to face something that probably scared the shit out of her, and there was no hesitation on her part.
After a short, whispered discussion, we decided that Zayde would stay by the door as our lookout, and Winter and I would go inside. He took up his position, and we entered the building, turning on our phone flashlights. As we headed down the dusty, dark corridor, Winter swallowed nervously, her hands shaking slightly. I took her hand in mine, and she held on to me tightly as we drew closer to the metal door.
The door was ajar, thank fuck. I grunted as I threw my weight against it, pushing it open enough for us to enter the room. It was empty, just like before. But now we knew there was a hatch in the floor, I scanned the ground with the torch and noticed a dull metallic gleam off to the side of the room.
“There.”
I lifted the hatch with a scraping sound that echoed around us, reverberating off the stone walls, and shone my light into the gloom. Rough stone steps led downwards, and I descended into the room Winter had been held in. She followed close behind me, keeping her hand on me the whole time as if to reassure herself I was still there. When we reached the bottom, I looked around until I found the light switch on the wall and turned it on, bringing a dim glow to the room.
“Snowflake?” I turned around, noticing Winter standing frozen at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes filling with tears.
Fuck.
In three strides I was over to her, pulling her into my arms. “Shh, it’s okay.” I stroked my hands up and down her back, feeling her body tremble against me.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I didn’t think it would affect me so much. I just…the memories suddenly hit me. Hearing your voice and not being able to do anything, then trying to escape and getting so close, then…” She buried her face in my chest.
“Listen to me.” Lifting her chin, I pulled up her balaclava, and mine, so we could see each other properly. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, okay?” Lowering my head, I kissed her softly. “I’d take a fucking bullet for you, baby.”
Her eyes widened in horror. “Don’t tempt fate by saying things like that.” Then she reached up and kissed me again. “I’d do the same for you.”
Something inside me cracked open at her emphatic words, but I pushed the feeling aside. I had to.
She lifted her hands, tugging my balaclava back down before doing the same to her own. “Thanks for, well, everything. Come on. Let’s see if we can find anything useful here.”
We explored the room, and I learned just how much fucking restraint I had, digging deep into my reserves as she relived the experience of being held captive down here. Yeah, she’d told us all before, but it was one thing to hear it, and another to be standing in the place it had gone down. I needed to break something, really fucking badly, by the time we’d finished and she’d told me the whole story again.
“You’re incredible, you know that?” My voice came out all hoarse, and I cleared my throat, trying to get myself under control. She needed me to be strong; I couldn’t afford to show any chinks in my armour. Not until this shit was over. And maybe not even then.
She squeezed my hand tightly, seeming to sense my mood, tugging me over to a door with a heavy padlock.
“Do you have that lock-picking thingy?”
I nodded and dug around in my zip pocket, pulling out the lock-picking tool. Within a few minutes the lock was open, and we were peering into a storeroom.
“This is a bit weird.” Winter scanned the shelves that lined the room. Blankets, clothing, rolls of toilet paper, camping mats, as well as some more sinister-looking items—thick, heavy ropes, chains, 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 complet
e waste of time tonight.”
“This is so fucking frustrating,” I muttered. “Did you manage to pull up the employment records for the docks staff?”
“Yeah, but there’s no one listed that fits the dead guy. Another dead end.”
“All we’re doing is getting one dead end after another.” I drummed my fingers on the table, needing to do something. Anything. “Is there anything else we can check?”
Not only did I want Winter to find out what had happened to her dad, for definite, I wanted to pin something on Christine, something concrete. It was clear all this shit tied together, somehow. Winter needed answers for her dad, and the rest of us needed to know what the fuck was going on. Were our families involved? What the fuck was happening at AMC, and at the docks?
“Cade. We’re on it.” My brother looked at me with so much conviction, so much trust. He shouldn’t. The familiar feeling of guilt rolled through me, thick and suffocating. I’d become a pro at pushing it down, but ever since Winter had come into my life, it had forced it to the surface.
Fuck.
Glad my brother couldn’t read my thoughts, I changed the subject, before the memories could drag me under. “Anyone want another coffee? Think it’s gonna be a late one.”
“I’ll help,” Cass offered, standing up and stretching with a yawn. I nodded my thanks, and he followed me out of the room.
When Cade and Cass had left the room, and Weston was absorbed in sorting through the cargo records from the docks, I got up and switched to Cassius’ seat, next to Zayde.
“Um…Z?” I ventured. He’d been more irritable than usual the last few days, ever since the ball, actually, other than earlier tonight, when he’d been engrossed in our mission to the docks. It wasn’t really my place to ask him, but I got the feeling that he didn’t really have female friends, and maybe I could be that to him. I was that to him, at least I thought so, but I wanted him to know that I was there for him.