“And I’m here for?”
“I need you to help me find it because I sense this place is locked down pretty tight.”
I scrunched my brows in a silent question that she seemed to understand because she replied, “Because the owner was a paranoid fucker and this is the last place I have to look, so I know it’s not going to be easy to find.”
“Fine,” I huffed out.
She held out her hand and flicked her fingers in a back and forth motion that said ‘gimme’. I let the bag fall from my shoulder and handed it to her, watching as she slung it over her head so it rested diagonally across her body. Then she twitchedher head to my laptop. “Can you check out what security’s in here? I’m thinking silent alarms, cameras, that sort of thing.”
“Someone was that paranoid?” I asked, opening my laptop and balancing it on one arm as I typed. It wasn’t ideal, but I got the impression that Hana wanted me thinking on my toes and following her rather than taking a seat somewhere more suitable.
It didn’t take me long to find what she meant.
“Okay, so there are motion sensors and cameras in the basement, along with an electronic lock on the door. And then upstairs… is that an attic room? It looks like a similar setup.” I let out a whistle, seeing what else was hidden in this place. “Wow, we also have shock sensors that I guess are meant to pick up footsteps from where they’re positioned, and tamper alarms on the attic door.” I looked to Hana, who dragged her fingers over her mouth as if she was deep in thought.
“You turned off the main alarm, so where are these connected to?” I asked.
She pointed to the laptop. “That’s why you’re here, Ro. I can’t have anyone know I’m here. I need you to work your magic. You can do that, right? Find out where these alarms are linked to and deactivate them all?”
Frustration flooded my body. If I was in the office, this shit would take me minutes, but standing here with my laptop, it would take longer. I moved to the sofa, taking a seat while Hana glared at me.
“What?” I barked. “You want this done properly?”
She perched on the arm next to me, the scent of her body wash far too distracting as I tried to disarm the basement security and the most pressing problem—the shock sensors that would go off if Hana got too close.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Can you bypass all that?”
I narrowed my gaze. “Do bears shit in the woods?”
Hana rolled her eyes. “A simple yes or no will suffice, psycho.”
“Yes.” I turned my focus to what she needed me to do, typing away furiously for a couple of minutes. “Right, cameras set to loop so we won’t alert anyone to you being here, motion sensors disrupted, but again, no one will notice for a while, and the electronic doors are unlocked.” I looked up at Hana, who appeared suitably impressed, her lips curled into a slight smile that lit up her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Not that hard, was it?” I asked, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
“What?” she replied, already turning to walk down the stairs as I scrambled to stand so I could follow.
“Asking for help.”
“Fuck off, Ro. Now, let’s go find this key.”
48
HANA
“So,what does this key look like? Big, small, old-fashioned? Does it have a keyring attached, or am I looking for a single key?” Roman asked as I pushed open the basement door slowly, not quite believing the security was that easy to bypass and expecting an alarm to sound at any moment.
I stepped into the dimly lit room, the sun only having three narrow letterbox-sized windows to shine through. I flicked on the light, glancing around the space.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What is it?” Roman came to stand next to me, his giant presence easing the lump in my throat when my gaze bounced around the floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with hundreds of files.
“I think the key is in one of them,” I whispered as I pointed to the wall across from us.
“Someone hid a key in their paperwork?”
