Page 76 of Guarded from Havoc

Despite the somber atmosphere, everyone chuckles.

“I remember that,” Niall says, shaking his head and smiling ruefully. “Whew. I never imagined a baby could make that much of a mess.”

Xavier plops down into the chair beside Rhiannon. “Neither did I.” Then his expression softens. “But it’s worth it. She’s just so perfect.”

Aww.

Xavier might come across as a little gruff to people he doesn’t know, but he’s got a squishy side that comes out around the ones he trusts.

And Erik. I knew him during that first meeting, but it’s become so much more. Back then, I knew I cared about him. Trusted him. But I never imagined that we’d end up together.

Hoped? Yes. In my heart of hearts, I hoped even then. But for it to actually happen…

“Are you okay?” Erik whispers. He gives my hand a little squeeze. “It’s not too late to go back to the apartment. You know I’ll tell you everything right after.”

“I’m okay. Nervous,” I amend, “but I’ll survive.”

He flinches, and I immediately feel bad for saying it. Especially on the heels of his nightmare. But before I can say anything else, Dante clears his throat.

Everyone straightens as their attention shifts to him. Beside me, Erik tenses. His shoulders set and his chin lifts. Around the table, the rest of his teammates follow suit.

“I know it’s early,” Dante says. “But given what Matt found, I didn’t want to sit on it.”

Matt picks up a small remote from beside his laptop and turns on the screen on the wall. A few seconds later, his laptop connects to it, displaying something that looks like a message board.

“Are you ready for me to go?” Matt asks.

Dante nods. “Please.”

“Okay.” Matt casts a quick glance around the table. “So I set up a web crawler to search the dark web. Basically, I designed it to look for certain words, tags on photos and videos, anything that could be associated with what happened on the island. But it wasn’t easy because so many of the keywords are so generic. Traps. Games. Some of the locations, like the airports you guys were transported through.”

Pausing, he clicks his mouse pad, opening up one of the posts. “On their own, finding one of the keywords didn’t mean much. But once the crawler picked up a few of them in combination… it started digging deeper.”

Niall leans forward to look at the screen. “This just looks like a post talking about a drug deal. How much product, the price, the method of delivery… What am I missing?”

“Nothing,” Matt replies, “because you haven’t unencrypted it yet.” He clicks the mouse pad a few more times, and the screen flashes. A moment later, a completely different message is displayed.

Rhiannon is the first to finish reading it. “What the fuck? Is this for real?”

But from her grim expression, it’s clear her question is rhetorical. And I understand why. After hearing about all the other crazy things that happened to Erik’s friends and teammates, I can’t imagine much surprises them anymore.

“Unfortunately, I think so.” Matt rakes his hand through his hair. “It’s frustrating that it’s taken so long to spot this. If I’d found it sooner, maybe we could?—”

“It’s not your fault,” Xavier interrupts. “You’re doing as much as you can. And anyway.” He pauses. “It looks like the post date was only three days ago. So it’s not like it’s old.”

“I guess.” Matt looks tired. And it makes me realize how much pressure he must be under, being the one in charge of investigating all this crap online. How he must feel so helpless when it’s not going as fast as he’d like.

“Matt.” Erik’s voice is calm, but with an undercurrent of tension running through it. “We all know you’re doing your best. And you found something. Which is more than anyone else did. So.” He pauses. “I know what I’m reading. But maybe you could explain.”

Matt lifts his chin. “Right. So this message is talking about mice and the hunt. And mousetraps. Plus, paying to buy in, with a starting bid of ten K. Which sounds a lot like a game. Once I found this post, it served as a starting point to find more posts. More references to mice. And a hunt.”

He glances at me. “Tatum. This next part is going to be hard to hear. Not that I don’t think you can handle it, but are you sure you want to?”

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yes. I was on that island. I could have died. So, yes, I want to know.”

Matt shares a quick look with Erik, and I just know he’s looking for his approval, too. Which I’d normally get irritated about, but I know Matt means well.

Erik gives an almost imperceptible nod. “Let’s hear it.”

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