Page 74 of Blood Money

She shakes her head. “Everything seems exactly how it always is. Quiet and empty.”

I inhale deeply through my nose, then let it out. How fucking sad is it to have something so nice but virtually no one to share it with.

“We can check the third floor. Maybe there is something there to tell us where he is.”

I raise a brow. “That’s exactly what someone would say in a horror movie.”

“Well, you’re the fucking expert here, Cyrus, so lead the way.” She turns and gestures in front of her. “I’ve never had to look for clues like the fucking Scooby gang.”

I keep my mouth clamped shut. She’s clearly on edge, and my commentary isn’t helping. Stepping around her, I take the lead again and walk back to where we started, but this time, we start up the stairs.

I don’t bother stopping at the second floor and move straight to the third. When we make it to the landing, I turn back to her. “You need to look for anything out of place. I’ve never been here, so it’s hard for me to tell.”

“That makes two of us. I don’t come up here.”

Great. This makes things harder. Normally, I have time to watch my targets, learn their patterns and behavior, but this isn’t a normal job. Alexander has connections to Ghost, and I’m worried Ghost has already tipped him off that Carmen knows. And doing what I do, I know exactly how far people will go to keep their secrets. I’m sure Alexander is no different.

“Okay. Just stay behind me, then.”

I don’t wait for her to answer before I start walking again. As we make it to the first door, I reach for the handle, but it doesn’t twist. “What’s in there?”

“His office.”

I can feel the warning in my gut, but I don’t know what it is. Something isn’t right. Trying the handle one last time, I give up. First, I push on the door to see just how secure it is. It gives slightly, which is a good sign to me.

“Step back,” I tell Carmen, pushing her away gently.

Once she’s out of the doorway, I take a few steps back, then use every ounce of energy I have to ram the door. With the first hit, my shoulder screams, but I’ve felt worse. I hit it again, and pain vibrates to my back, but I don’t stop. On the third hit, it flies open, flinging into the wall behind it with a thud.

At first, everything seems normal for an office. There is a desk, a shelf with a few knickknacks, and a lamp set up in the corner. But when I look back to Carmen, I know something isn’t right. She stares at the backdrop positioned behind his desk with her mouth slightly agape.

“What is it?”

“That.” She points to it.

I can’t figure out why it’s so important. To me, it’s nothing but a fake bookcase, probably used to make his background look better on zoom meetings or whatever else he does online. “What’s wrong?”

“Ghost had that same background behind him when he talked to me on the laptop.”

Immediately, the wheels start turning in my head, but I have to be logical. “It’s probably a generic one from online. Could purely be a coincidence.”

“Coincidence? Do you really think any of this is a coincidence? You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it too, Cyrus,” she says seriously.

Honestly, I haven’t. I’ve been too preoccupied with other shit, but her words get my mind wandering.

“Maybe our meeting was a coincidence, but you getting assigned a job in Bexley? You’ve been doing this for how long, and how many jobs have you had here?” she adds.

“None.”

“It’s like this entire thing was a setup, and I don’t just mean the recent shit with Ghost. You may think he didn’t know you, but nothing is ever erased completely.”

I see what she’s saying crystal fucking clear, but why me? I did my job, I never complained, and I made sure things never came back to bite me or Ghost in the ass. “But why me?”

“I don’t know, but we can find out.”

Both of us start going through the papers on his desk. There are bank statements, payroll invoices, and other unimportant shit from his hotel. Nothing other than the backdrop seems odd, which brings me back to my earlier thoughts. It’s a coincidence. Everything else may not be, but this is.

Carmen opens the laptop sitting in the center and turns it on. Once it powers up, a space to type in a password pops up. She stares at it, biting her lip.

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