Page 81 of Haven

I gave them a moment to process. “Was there anything else found with her?” Mal asked.

“A note addressed to Rory. He wants her, and he will keep killing people to get her. No one tells Rory. We will have patrols to make sure everyone is safe, but we cannot let her know.”

“You do know if she finds out we knew and didn’t tell her, she’ll be pissed as hell,” Vesper said.

I sighed. “Do you think we should tell her?”

We were already looking for Cinder, and I didn’t want to see the turmoil in her if we found out Cinder was actually dead. Rory had hope, and hope was a dangerous thing in situations like this. She wanted to believe Cinder was alive to hide the possibility that her stalker killed her.

“I don’t know, but her reaction will be bad either way.”

“We can figure that out later, but for now I will be with Melisa to find a way out of this, how to stop him, and I will keep everyone updated.”

Vesper pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll go through her office and see what I can find. Do you think Blaize would know anything?”

Blaize was a lifetime ago for Cinder. I knew they still spoke and we had a trade deal with the Reapers, but we didn’t communicate more than that. “She may. Right now we need to focus on the now. I can’t chase women from other territories over a hunch or an idea. Blaize doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Sixty-Nine

Vesper

Being in Cinder’s office without her here felt like an invasion of privacy. If—when—she came home, she would be pissed that I looked through all of this without her permission. Cinder’s office was a part of her, and it represented her to a T. The only thing that gave her office life were the various pictures she had with Rory. I loved the woman, but she needed a personality outside of her sister.

One thing I could say without a doubt, despite the way she showed it, was that she loved Rory. Rory was Cinder’s heart, and she did everything in her power to make this world perfect for her. I think it was part of the guilt of not being there when Rory needed it most.

I hoped like hell she was alive, and I’d ask forgiveness when I found her, but right now, I was chasing my girl. No more refusing, no more hiding my feelings. There were already videos waiting for me on my phone, and I knew I needed to wait. I needed to focus on finding clues or something that would lead me to Cinder.

I moved around her desk, slowly running my hand over the pristine mahogany surface, not a crumb or speck of dust to be seen. If she had anything she didn’t want anyone to know about, it would be secured tightly.

“Where the hell are you, Cin?” I muttered under my breath.

I yanked open the top drawer, trying not to be disappointed when it was just filled with the usual stationery and random shit: pens, lighters, cigarettes, and peppermints. The other two had shipment orders, files related to marijuana dealers, and everything else related to Viper business. Other drawers were filled with meaningless shit, but nothing that screamed secrets. I opened the last drawer, and it had pictures of her and Rory.

I pulled the drawer out, frustration kissing my skin as I threw the contents to the side. Cinder had to have something in her desk giving us a fucking clue. She was crafty, cunning, and so goddamn paranoid. I threw everything out of the desk drawers, not worried about the mess. It was something I would deal with later.

The bottom draw had a secret bottom that was sticking out. Why the hell did she have a hidden door in her desk? I ripped the thin wood divider and tossed it to the side, finding a silver lockbox that was surprisingly open.

Inside were letters Rory wrote to Cinder when she was in foster care. I tucked those away because I didn’t need to read these to help find Cinder.

“Fuck, come on Cinder,” I cursed under my breath. I glanced up to a portrait of Cinder and Rory that Rory made them take for Christmas. “Don’t tell me you chose the safe behind the picture route, Cin,” I muttered, getting up and walking to the picture, carefully removing it from the wall. A slight smile tugged at my lips as I shook my head at the safe.

I took a wild guess and did Rory’s birthday for the code, and it worked.

It was stuffed with closed files, pictures, newspaper articles about dead agents, and a set of keys. I gathered everything and spread it out on Cinder’s desk. Sifting through the articles first, I saw several were about a boy. Cinder knew about the boy? Why did she give Rory the third degree if she knew? She should have told us if she knew, that way we could have prevented this. Along with the newspaper articles, there were a set of gold keys. Cinder wouldn’t have keys hidden if they were for anything here. These keys were meant for something, now I had to figure out what the fuck it was for.

Jesus, Cinder practically kept a shrine of information dedicated to Rory and her case. Information like this would make someone go mad. I opened a manila folder to find Rory’s rape kit results. Cinder said she didn’t want to know what Jude did to her, but she had the file? The date shows they were recently obtained.

I frowned, the files scrunching in my fist. How the hell did she do this without breaching HIPAA laws? Cinder was good, but she wasn’t that good. Shaking my head, I thrust the file back in the safe. Cinder might have taken a deep dive on this information, but I wanted no part in it.

It looked like Cinder was looking into this longer than we thought.

I needed to tell Widow. Maybe I needed to get Rory involved in this, too. Keeping secrets from her would end horribly for all of us. Hades needed to know what we had, as well. She was a part of this, whether Widow liked it or not.

I pulled out my phone, remembering Hades had mentioned her tech friend. He could be useful, but I decided then this was something Rory didn’t need to know about. Rory would feel immense guilt if she knew her stalker killed a girl and made her look like Rory. I knew my mariposa. She had a heart of gold, and it would leave her devastated.

ME

We have a problem