Page 49 of Midnight Torment

And suddenly it all fell into place. The artifacts that Shannon had recovered for him, the missing clues from long dead Council members. “Is it marked?” I asked.

His eyes widened and he cleared his throat. “Yes. It took me a while to find it, but it’s there.”

I nodded once. “I’ll take it with me. I need to know about these diamond mines.” I showed him the photograph I’d taken off the deeds.

“You found them?” His gaze came up to lock with mine. “We thought they were forever lost.”

“They were in a safety deposit box. Two brothers had placed them there for safekeeping. The second key was only discovered recently.” It was the truth but I made sure to mention no names. Hugh and Matteus knew that the Jenkins brothers had the deeds, it was why they descended on those documents like a starving man presented with a meal.

“Is this the property of the Council?” he queried.

“It is the property of the men who control it.”

His grin made the hairs at the back of my neck stand to attention. “There are many people who would like to get their hands on that paperwork. Matteus has a team who harvests some of the contents of that mine periodically. I wondered why he had queried about increasing the size of the team a few weeks ago. It makes sense now.”

So Matteus had been the asshole stealing from Cassandra.

“Now that the deeds have been reclaimed, we should be able to open the mine properly for harvesting. We’ll need a man based locally to oversee everything and I pay for loyalty and discretion.”

I could almost see the pound signs flash in his eyes. The greedy little fucker had probably been skimming off the top for years and I was handing him the keys to the candy cupboard. If Xavier was correct, and he had his fingers on the pulse of supply routes, then this was opening a new world for him. I had also put myself in the middle of the operation with that one statement, and for someone in search of money, that made him begin to trust me without truly researching the situation.

“I need to see the mine,” I said. “I’ll take the artifact and have it packaged and ready to ship.” There were only a few clues missing to finding out whatever the original men who formed the Council thought was priceless and created the ultimate power.

If it was another book or memoire, then I was stabbing it and then burning it.

“I had thought Matteus himself would have collected it,” Johannes muttered, scurrying behind an old wooden counter at the side of the shop. He stopped and gave me a narrowed-eyed glare. “What if you’re stealing this? Matteus has not paid me in full for its acquisition.”

If Matteus wanted something, I didn’t doubt that this little turd had been given full payment. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “Hold on and I’ll phone him.”

Johannes’ eyes widened into saucers when I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and pressed a speed dial. No one knew Matteus was dead, and his ashes were in the Blackwood crypt. He was merely missing, and it wasn’t the first time.

Ash did an exceptional imitation of his father when he needed to. “Hello?”

“Matteus, I’m with Johannes here in Zimbabwe. He says you owe him the rest of the fee for retrieving that artifact for the Council.” I’d been reporting updates to the guys throughout our travels. Ash should be able to keep up.

“Johannes,” Ash almost purred down the phone in a perfect replicate of his father’s voice. “Are you trying to double cross me? Or are you upping the fee without consultation?”

I thought the guy was going to shit himself. He probably thought I was yanking his chain when I dialled my phone.

“I…” His tongue poked out to wet his lips. “It cost me more to acquire than we agreed. You said whatever the cost that you wanted it.”

“Do you know who this man is?” Ash queried and in my head I could imagine the smug smile on his face. “This is the head of security for the Council. He is like the hand of God, reaching out and reaping the souls of the unworthy.”

Johannes’ gaze snapped to me. I gave him my best asshole grin and shrugged a shoulder. In certain circles, my reputation was well known. There were men who left a room when I entered it. Grampa had taught me the art of fear and I was a master of fucking with people’s minds.

“Do you want to reconsider your options, Johannes, because I assure you that even from this side of the world I can ensure that I get what I want and leave you dead.” I needed to buy Ash a bottle of scotch for the performance he was putting on. Anyone who knew Matteus would know that was exactly the type of attitude he would take. There was no chance that he would renegotiate on a deal or pay more than he agreed.

“You can’t blame a businessman for trying to make a profit,” Johannes almost whined.

“I can, and I have a very long memory. Make sure you don’t piss me off any further,” Ash said before hanging up.

Johannes shot me a watery smile before lifting a tribal shield off the wall to reveal a safe. If he got any more cliché then I would have to shoot him. Did bad guys not have any imagination anymore? Watching him, I knew the code to his safe. I sighed inwardly in disgust that Matteus had employed this numpty to retrieve a precious artifact.

He lifted a fucking shoebox out of the safe and set it on the ancient counter. I eyed it warily. “Are you telling me the best way you could think to store this is in a shoebox?”

“One box is much the same as the next.”

I did roll my eyes this time and lifted the lid off to examine the contents. Inside was an Egyptian canopic jar with Horus as the lid. This added to the conundrum. Every piece was from a different location in the world. My fingers traced over it as I pretended to study the figure, looking for the characteristic notches that confirmed it was genuine. I’d seen the others, so knew what I was looking for.

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