Page 17 of Miki

Seriously, who still used this old shit?

“Hey, the old ones are the best!” I could practically hear Joe chiding me, and I smothered a chuckle behind my hand.

Checking my watch, I noticed there wasn’t a lot of time left before the guard would be back.

Shit, I needed to hurry.

My skills were rusty, but excitement fizzled through me like a live wire at the thought of playing with my tools again.

Pulling my kit open, I selected the instruments which would do the job, put my ear to the door and in less than a minute, it was open. A sense of satisfaction flowed through me, and I grinned from ear to ear. That was fun! It was almost a pity it was over so soon.

Snapping a photo of the contents, I quickly riffled through them, taking pictures of everything before replacing the items back exactly where they had been. There was an enormous pile of cash and several passports with Mathieson’s picture, but different names. It looked like this was where the shady lawyer kept his escape cache.

Stuffed at the back of the safe was a plastic bag with a gun inside. I froze and gulped, feeling sick as I wondered if it was the gun that killed my dad.

Closing my eyes briefly, I sucked in a deep breath, not wanting to even look at a weapon that might have ended my dad’s life.

Come on, Eilidh, move, you haven’t got time to freak out now. It might not even have anything to do with Dad!

Forcing myself to get moving, but unable to handle the bag with the gun, just in case, I used one of my tools to move it aside to ensure nothing else was hidden away. There wasn’t, but that there was such a weapon in Mathieson’s safe proved to me that the man was into some nasty shit.

This was the UK; we didn’t carry guns here, and if it was evidence of a crime, it should be with the police and not a defence lawyer. There was no reason a lawyer would have a gun in a plastic bag in his safe unless he was keeping it as leverage for some reason.

Aidan Mathieson was either using it to blackmail someone, or to ensure his own safety. Whatever the reason, seeing it there made me nervous as fuck, and thinking it could be connected to my dad made me sick to my stomach.

It was too much. I needed to leave. I’d done enough snooping for one night. Besides, time was running out.

After shutting the safe and replacing the picture, I scanned the office to make sure nothing looked disturbed. Satisfied, I pulled up the hood of my jacket, ensuring it obscured my face as I slipped out of the office, closed the door, and with my head down, hurried back along the hall.

Intent on leaving as quickly as possible, I opened the door to the stairwell to head back downstairs. I had just started down the steps when my arm was grabbed and I was pushed up against the wall.

The breath whooshed out of me as a large body pressed tightly against me, and a hand covered my mouth.

The initial shock of being grabbed quickly wore off.

“What the fuck?” I mumbled behind his hand as I struggled frantically against a steel-like grip.

The guy was taller than me and built like a tank, and the way I was pressed tightly against the length of him left no room for me to manoeuvre. My pitiful attempts to break free of his hold were getting me nowhere. It was time to change tactics.

Just as I was about to go limp in his arms, so he was forced to change his grip on me, his body stiffened. He leaned in and hissed, “Quiet.”

At that moment, I heard a door open below accompanied by whistling and the sound of footsteps. The guard was coming up the stairs. Shit!

Frozen in place, we held our breath and waited, listening to the steps getting closer.

Thankfully, the guard opened the door to the floor two floors below and headed inside. Geez, that was close. If I had barrelled down the stairs as planned, I would have run straight into him and been discovered.

That’s when I realised that whoever had me pressed against the wall had just saved me from being caught. But who was he, and why?

CHAPTER 8

MIKI

THAT SAME NIGHT – THE MYSTERY WOMAN

As soon as the female exited Mathieson’s office, I followed. Thank god she hadn’t bothered to come into the tiny bathroom!

My mind was awhirl with questions. Who the hell was she? What had she been looking for?

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