I could feel Ryder’s eyes burn a hole through me at those words.
Did he feel betrayed by me now?
Shit.
“My husband went to get your boxes from storage.” Natasha’s announcement saved me from making eye contact with Delta One, and that was how I needed to think of the man right now. “When he’s back, I’ll scan everything into the program. No need for you to look at anything.”
Never thought I’d be grateful for AI when I wasn’t a fan of humans being replaced by technology, especially as rapidly as it seemed to be happening lately. But consider me a fan right now if I could avoid Beth.
I forced my hands to relax, keeping them on the couch without death-gripping it. “So while your program sifts through the haystack, what do we do? You start looking into Arlo’s background? Trace Mitch’s last steps between when Arlo died and Audrey’s rings disappeared before the plane crash?”
“Looking into all that now, yes.” Gwen smiled. “Well, my program is.”
“Could’ve used her last year when Mitch’s transport was hit,” Natasha commented, pride, not jealousy, in her voice.
“Well, you have me now. You all have the dream team with us.” Gwen winked, eyes on Audrey as she clutched the pillow to her chest like I’d seen her do a few times today. “So, while you two were, um, otherwise occupied, we did figure something out.”
Oh, she knows. How the hell does she know?
Ryder’s spine went straight.
And yup, he knows Gwen just read the tension in the room, too.
“Thanks to Reed,” Gwen continued, “we knew the cipher in the ring was incomplete, which suggested the key requires two rings to work.” Her fingers tapped across a sleek and colorful wireless keyboard. “We also got lucky. Mitch’s ring appears to hold the second half of the code, not the first. The final four digits helped us pinpoint what kind of vault the keys unlock.”
I stayed behind the couch, grounding my hands more firmly on the backrest. “Like a routing number? A digital signature tied to a specific vault?”
Gwen nodded, clearly in her element. I was glad we had her on our team, but I also had to keep in mind Mitch had a pretty damn good hacker on his side to pull everything off he had so far. We couldn’t get too comfortable.
“We narrowed it down to three possible vault brands, based on the sequence,” Gwen announced. “These types of vaults are designed to require not only physical keys but often a biometric verification.”
“So even if someone had the rings, they couldn’t open the vault without the original owner.” Reed gave us the shit news, confirming our concern as to why Mitch needed Audrey.
“So that’s why Mitch wants me.” Audrey said what we’d guessed back at the lodge. “But how’d he pull this off without me being physically present when he locked the vault?”
“Good question.” Natasha slipped on what looked like a pair of blue-light glasses as she studied a different screen off to her side. “And I don’t have an answer for you that won’t sound sci-fi.”
Audrey held up her hand. “I’m okay, then. I’ve had enough over-my-head stuff for a lifetime.” She folded forward a little as if the weight of those words had physically hit her. I stole a look over her shoulder to see her knuckles whitening around the pillow.
“These types of vaults come with expiration dates,” Gwen continued, eyes on something else and not on us, so she probably didn’t notice Audrey turning a little pale. “If the contents aren’t claimed and fees paid by then—”
“Wait, what?” I interrupted. Now they were losing me, and Iwasa sci-fi guy.
“There’s a date embedded in the cipher,” Gwen explained. “I found the sequence: two, twenty-seven, twenty-seven. February twenty-seventh of this year.”
I didn’t try to pretend I fully understood how she’d found numbers inside numbers, but sure.Let’s go with that.“So that’s the expiration date for the safe that the two rings will open.”
“We believe so,” Gwen responded. “The timeline fits.”
“Why would he take the risk to cut it so close to the expiration date, though?” I asked. “For that matter, why store evidence in a vault that expires? What happens if he misses the deadline? Does the vault explode?”
“Unfortunately not,” Natasha replied dryly. “That would’ve worked in our favor, especially in my father’s. Think of it like a layaway. These companies charge an exorbitant fee for every day they store someone’s assets. If the contents aren’t claimed and the fees aren’t paid by the deadline—”
“They keep it.” Audrey’s voice was hollow as she slowly rose from the couch, tossing the pillow aside. “Which means they must’ve seen what’s being stored is of value. They know it’s worth keeping if the owner doesn’t come back for it in time.”
“Precisely.” Not the news any of us were looking to hear from Natasha. “And I actually think the timing feels intentional, like Mitch really did plan all of this out down to the last detail and minute for a reason.”
Yeah, putting him five steps too many ahead of us.
