“Then, we have this photo of my mother. I don’t know if it means anything to any of you?” I handed the image to Zayde. It was a grainy, blown-up image in black and white. She was sitting at a table, partially obscured, and I could see a man’s hand but hadn’t been able to glean anything useful from it.
“Give it here.” Zayde handed the picture to Weston, and he wiggled the computer mouse next to me, the screens coming to life. He walked to the corner of the room and opened the lid of a scanner, then started tapping on the computer keyboard.
“Should be ready in a few.” I tuned out as he began talking about image processing software, staring blankly at the screen as various boxes and lines of writing flashed up and disappeared as quickly as they’d appeared.
“Done. The software should have enhanced the image for us. I’m hoping it makes it a bit clearer.” He clicked the mouse a few times, and the picture appeared on the huge computer monitor directly in front of me, much sharper and clearer than the original.
“Ooh, that’s impressive,” I told Weston, and he grinned proudly.
“Yep. I’m amazing.”
Turning back to study the screen, I noticed more details I’d missed originally.
“West, can you zoom in there?” I pointed, and he nodded. As he zoomed, I gasped. “I completely missed that before. Look.”
The hand of the man sitting at the table with my mother was far easier to see now.
The tip of his little finger was missing.
“Littlefinger.”
I glanced over at Weston and raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“You know, in Game of Thrones? That could be his code name. I mean, that’s what we can call him.”
“Littlefinger wasn’t called Littlefinger for that reason. All his fingers were intact,” Cassius argued.
“Whatever, still works.” Weston shrugged.
“Not really. What about what’s-his-name? Theon? He had his dick cut off.”
“A dick is not the same as a finger.”
“Didn’t say it was, did I?”
“Please. Can we just get back to the task?” I begged, drumming my fingers on the table. “Let’s agree to call him Littlefinger for now; since West said it, it’s kind of stuck in my head.”
“Fine. I’m picking the next code name, then,” Cassius muttered.
Seriously. I rolled my eyes.
“Anyway. If you’ve finished pretending you’re James Bond or whatever, assigning code names to people. Does anything about this picture mean anything?”
Caiden moved closer to the screen, leaning his arm on the back of my chair. I shivered as it brushed along the back of my neck. “Something about this place rings a bell. What’s that symbol there? Zoom in.” We watched as the blurry shape on the window at the back of the picture grew bigger, but it was difficult to make it out.
“It almost reminds me of a crown or something,” I mused, squinting at it.
“That’s it! You genius!” Caiden fist pumped the air, his voice triumphant. I was so shocked by the unexpected compliment I froze, then smiled to myself. Bet he hadn’t meant to compliment me.
“The Crown and Anchor?” Zayde spoke.
“Yeah, that’s it. The one in Highnam. West?”
“Already on it.” The screen next to the one we were looking at lit up, and Weston began typing.
“Highnam?” I murmured to Caiden.
“Yeah.” He leaned a little closer to me. “A town about half an hour away. There’s not much there, but there’s a hotel.”
“Oh.” I sat, watching as Weston pulled up the website.
“No pictures of the interior, but look. That’s the same symbol.”
Caiden’s finger brushed against the strands of my hair and moved to touch the back of my neck. I hardly dared to breathe.
“Let’s start a list,” Weston suggested. “First item—check out the hotel.”
“We need to be careful not to be spotted. We don’t want anyone getting suspicious.” Caiden’s voice was firm. He drew tiny, slow circles on the back of my neck with his finger. Goosebumps erupted all down my arms, and my breath hitched.
“I agree. What if I go with James, or Kinslee, like for a drink in the bar or something?” I somehow managed to sound normal.
His finger stilled. “No fucking way. Not Granville. And I don’t want you and Kinslee going near there without one of us, not until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“Yeah. If it was important enough for your dad to take a photo, enlarge it, and include it in this file, then we need to proceed with caution,” Cassius added.
Caiden’s finger resumed making lazy circles on my neck, and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He was looking straight ahead at the screen, seemingly completely focused, but he continued to draw patterns on my skin as the boys discussed the best way to proceed. As much as I was loving it, I really wished he wouldn’t blow so hot and cold with me. I was starting to get whiplash.
Not that I’d stop him.
Okay, concentrate. Forget how good Cade’s touch feels. Think about why you’re here.
A thought occurred to me, and I interrupted the discussion. “West? Do you want to scan the notes as well? It might be easier if they’re all up on the screen.”
I passed him the folder, and a few minutes later we were looking at the scribbled notes. “See, there’s the first date, and that corresponds with his first trip here.”
Underneath the date, it said:
CC MTG MAN. ALS HLDS. PLANNING?
There were other words and dates.
TRANSACTION. ILLEGAL???
DEAL WORTH ££££££
TRANSACTIONS ONGOING. WHAT??
CC PLANNING. TRANSPORTING MERCH.
The paper had a few water spots, and thanks to my dad’s penchant for making all his notes with a fountain pen, a couple of the words were difficult to make out, but the Four came to the same conclusion I had—that the words were Arlo and possibly Davis.
AR(letter missing)O (letter missing)AVIS. TUES NIGHTS.
Underneath the final date, the date he’d sent me the text, there was a woman’s name and a sentence that still sent shivers down my spine.
ANDROMEDA. CC KNOWS I KNOW.
“I know it’s not much to go on, but putting together the notes with the picture of my mother and the printouts, plus the way he’d been acting, and the text…it seemed too big a coincidence. Maybe I’m just grasping at straws, but I owe it to my dad to get to the bottom of it. He was obviously concerned enough to make a file.”
Caiden straightened up, removing his hand from the back of my neck. “I think we have something here. We’ve had suspicions about your mother for a while. We haven’t done much, mostly background checks, watching her where we could on the security feeds, having her followed on occasion.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Clearly the wrong occasions since we missed all this shit. Oh, yeah, and we knew about you and your dad, and we kept a basic file on you both.”
“A file on us?”
“Standard procedure for any person who becomes involved in Alstone Holdings. They do a background check, investigate their relationships, criminal records check, and so forth. West here has worked out how to bypass their security systems, so he was able to get hold of copies of all their checks.”