The Havoc We Wreak (The Four 3)

The tension in the room was suddenly broken at the sound of Cassius’ voice. I smiled to myself. My plan for distracting everyone from their thoughts was working. “Why wouldn’t it?” I stared at him, a brow raised, and he rolled his eyes.

“Oh, Winter. You have so much to learn about code names. The whole point is to use a name no one will recognise so they can’t guess who you are. Everyone knows that Cade calls you Snowflake, so it would be obvious.”

“I see.” I smirked at him. “We’ll just ignore the fact that you wanted to call this whole thing Operation Snowflake at one point, shall we? What would you pick, then?”

“For you?” He frowned, taking a moment to think. “You’re gonna have to give me some time to think about that, babe.”

“Well, don’t keep me waiting too long.”

“I already have a code name,” Weston announced.

“You can’t use the same one you use on the dark web. That’s not allowed,” Cassius told him.

“Says who?”

I tuned them out as they continued bickering about names, and Caiden bent his head, running his nose along my cheek. “Today has been so fucked up. I don’t even know what to think right now.”

“Forget the whole Lena thing. How are you feeling about Allan?” We hadn’t really had any chance to discuss him yet.

He sighed. “Fuck knows. I need to talk to my dad. But I can’t—not until we have some solid evidence for him.”

“I know. He’s going to have to find out at some point, but you’re right. We can’t go to him until we have proof.”

Our conversation was interrupted by Weston, staring at the camera feed he’d pulled up on his phone. “Lena’s on her way back.”

TWO

She came strolling into the room and threw herself down into an armchair, looking relaxed and carefree. Nothing to suggest any hint of stress, or guilt, or anything.

“I’m guessing you have questions,” she began. Weston and Cassius sent her identical glares as she tapped on her phone, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

Right. “Lena.” I leaned forwards, injecting as much firmness as I could into my voice. I held her gaze. “Did you have anything to do with my rescue?”

“Rescue? What?” Her brows pulled together in a frown. “Why were you guys at the docks, anyway?”

“I think that’s a question you need to answer,” Cassius bit out.

“Oh, fuck it, why don’t we just tell her what’s going on?” I suggested. “Look, you know how I was in the hospital? Well, to cut a long story short, I was held captive at the docks. Someone got me out of there and to the hospital. I really need to know who it is. I’m trying to find out what happened with my dad’s death, and I have reason to believe this is connected to it.”

Her gaze assessed me, giving nothing away. She didn’t seem all that surprised by what I’d just told her, which led me to believe that Cassius must have let more slip than I realised.

“West managed to, um, uncover some information,” I added, unsure of how much to tell her about his hacking skills, or how much she already knew. Glancing over at him, I saw him shake his head almost imperceptibly. “We discovered that someone had used the same ID to swipe in to the docks both tonight and the day of my rescue…” I trailed off, giving her a hopeful look.

“No,” she said, and my heart sank. “I can’t tell you anything about that.” She straightened up, her gaze never leaving mine. “But I might be able to tell you something that may be useful.”

“Really?” My voice came out as an unsure whisper, as hope flooded me.

“Yeah. I think so.” Closing her eyes, she rubbed her hand across her face. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I can. Remember the party at the Cavendish house? The first time I met you?”

I nodded. “What about it?”

“I had an ulterior motive for being there. I wasn’t only there for the party. I swiped someone’s Alstone Holdings ID and made a copy.”

We all stared at her in shock.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck, Lena?” Cassius sounded angrier than I’d ever heard him. “You’d better explain this, right now, or I’ll make sure Mum and Dad ground you for life.”

“Yeah, like that would happen.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, I can’t tell you everything. What I can say is that I was there for an unrelated reason, and I was given a task of getting hold of an ID card. We—I mean I—chose the Cavendish party, because I had it on good authority that a member of Arlo Cavendish’s security team kept his within easy reach. Someone who had a high enough level of security clearance, but not so high that it would draw attention. And with my feminine charms, I was able to get hold of it.”