Page 52 of Midnight Torment

He shrugged. “The good ones are tied into contracts with the big mining companies to ensure they have their undivided attention.”

“Great,” I muttered. “My guess is that they’re targeting you but know exactly who we are.” This had been the moment I’d been trying to avoid—when someone realised who Megan was and put her on a list beside me. It was the reason Xavier had Cassandra locked in a house with a security system to rival Buckingham Palace, and Ash had Lucrezia under house arrest.

“I have a secret way out the back,” Johannes said, his gaze dropping to the diamonds still on the floor.

“This shop is a ruse, isn’t it?” I demanded.

He shrugged and craned his neck to stare out the window again. “Antiques are just pieces of stuff left over from the past. They only hold value to people who want them. To anyone else, they’re junk. Diamonds, on the other hand, possess an eternal value.”

I wasn’t an accountant like Ash but I was starting to add two and two together and get four. Seth had shipments of stones coming in through legal routes. If Johannes had contacts in the other companies, he could have documentation created to ship stones out. It was a victimless crime since that mine was lying dormant.

Ash would be more than pissed that he handed over that car for diamonds from Cassandra’s mine that she was never paid for. I typed a quick message on my phone to let them know what was happening back home before lifting the bag of diamonds and pushing him in front of me toward the back of the shop. You never knew when you needed a bribe.

“Don’t even think of fucking me over,” I warned. “I have no problem leaving you to die in the alley with a knife in your back.”

A huge clock in the back corner had a hidden interior that led to a narrow corridor behind it. Megan paused for a moment, and I grabbed her hand because I knew she hated confined spaces. It had come up during her sub training. She leaned her head against my chest for a moment.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered, tucking her hair behind her ear. Her golden hair probably drew their attention in the market. Nothing hid Megan’s hair, and even a huge pair of sunglasses couldn’t disguise her beauty.

I pushed Johannes into the clock before nodding to Megan since I needed to replace the panel in case anyone followed us. She turned the torch on her phone on to illuminate the dark, dirty area we found ourselves in. I suppressed a shiver since it reminded me of some of the tunnels Grampa had built into his home.

My old home still sat unchanged from the night Mum and Dad died, albeit that someone had cleaned up all the blood. I had returned once when I was sixteen, but all the photographs were removed and anything with a name on it. The hideaway in the library was still there with my red crayon and old dinosaur teddy. Mum’s colourful plates still sat in the utility room. I hated hidden places from the moment my parents were taken from me and I was in that room in the library.

We moved along slowly, turning sideways to get through a narrower section.

“I can’t open the door,” Johannes said. “My hands are bound.”

Megan held her torch over his shoulder, then snaked her hand around his side. I fucking hated the fact that she’d been dragged into this mess of my life. The silence was broken with the sound of a key turning in a lock.

“Almost there,” Megan said. “It’s a bit stiff.”

Fresh air surrounded us and I inhaled a lungful as we all emerged into a courtyard area.

“This way.” Johannes nodded and moved forward. Part of me wanted to trust him, but there was Megan’s safety to consider. The other part of me wanted to send him into the afterlife because he had compromised Megan’s safety.

“Hold on a minute.” I grabbed his arm and spun him toward me. “You could be leading us into a trap.”

“I could, but Seth would roast my balls for putting a friend of his in danger. There is such a thing as honour amongst thieves and I owe him a debt I can never repay. You can let him know that I helped you when you get home.”

He turned and continued on his original path.

Our options were that we’d walk away and lie low for a few days or end up caught by an unknown enemy.

***

Chapter Seventeen

Megan

I used to think Caine was just being an asshole when he took me into London and told me to look out for a tail. The first few times, I wandered around and didn’t see or sense anything out of place. Then I began to notice the same people in a few different areas. Next, my body joined in and I swore I could feel someone watching me before I spotted them.

Today, that training had finally found a use. I clung to Jordan’s hand and followed the happy prisoner with a death wish.

Jordan was grumpy and irritable, but he tended not to miss his target. In fairness, when I entered the shop, his gun had been close enough for even me to be able to hit Johannes and I was a terrible aim.

I had bought some more bits and pieces that I was sure Jordan would glare at later before finding space for them in his case.

“Where are we going?” I whispered, trying to walk on my tiptoes so I was closer to his ear.

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