“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.”
“So you found something that made you suspicious?”
“Not in the checks, no. It’s her shady as fuck behaviour. The way she wormed her way into dad’s life, and…” Caiden’s voice trailed off as he glanced at Weston. “Just the way she works people. She gets them wrapped around her little finger, and she’s managed to go from a disowned school dropout to the wife of one of the most powerful men in the country and a shareholder in Alstone Holdings. None of the four of us trust her, and we won’t make the mistake of underestimating her.”