Chapter Fifty-Eight Alejandro
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Alejandro
Tasmania
Thick concrete walls surrounded us, embedded with steel and reinforced glass. The room stretched wide and high, its design more military grade than financial—a fallout shelter crossed with a weapons depot.
There were multiple guards in paramilitary gear flanking the single reinforced entrance, and security cameras buzzed softly overhead. Even without seeing their weapons, I could tell these weren’t the rent-a-cop type.
“Cutting it close,” the woman in charge said. “Almost disappointed you made it, to be honest. Something tells me what’s inside this vault is worth more than the fee you’re paying to pick it up.”
Thanks to Hollis, who’d fronted us the cash on behalf of Uncle Sam, so we had the emergency funds on hand for this moment.
“So, you’ve got Mitch’s death certificate, the key, and me . . .” Audrey nervously wrung her hands together. “Do you need my handprint or eye scan or something now?”
The woman flicked her wrist, gesturing to a guard to hand her an iPad.
“You weren’t here with Mitchell Langston, so we had to improvise on our typical procedures.
He was rather convincing and had an interesting pitch.
” She began typing on the iPad. “One second. Let me get it ready so you can activate your vault to unlock it.”
I reached for Audrey’s left hand, reminding her she wasn’t alone. She had Ryder and me with her. We’d get through this together.
At the feel of her ring still on her finger, my chest constricted. We may not have really been married, but something told me that the wedding band no longer felt like a prop to her. Crazy or not, it hadn’t felt like one when I’d picked it out.
Rhett might’ve been the reason behind the purchase, but that didn’t change what it meant to me. I’d still put my heart into it when I slipped it on her finger.
“Here you go. Sixty seconds to unlock the vault, or the contents remain with us. Time starts now,” the woman announced, handing Audrey the iPad and forcing me to let go.
Another countdown. Great.
“Why am I looking at piano keys on this thing?” Audrey asked, shooting the woman a nervous look.
“I assumed you’d know.” The woman checked her slim silver watch.
I hated not being able to help her. Hated watching her hands shake and knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing except stand there.
Audrey closed her eyes. “What song would you think I’d pick?” she murmured under her breath as if talking to a ghost. In this case, maybe she was.
“Forty-five seconds.” This play-by-play from the woman was not helping.
“It’s okay. You’ve got this,” Ryder reassured Audrey, giving the other woman a death stare at the same time.
Audrey opened her eyes and exhaled a deep breath. “How many chances do I get?”
“Just the one.” She checked her watch again. “Thirty-three seconds.”
Audrey nodded, then clenched and unclenched her right hand as her left one shook while holding the iPad.
I slipped my hand under it to offer support; then she caught my eyes and her brows slanted.
“Lace,” I whispered, reminding her of the story she’d told me over coffee this morning at the hotel—because talking about her panties had somehow become our thing. And I was good with that.
Now that I knew she used to buy lace underwear to help her nerves while performing, I was hoping she’d visualize herself in a pair to steel her nerves.
“Lace,” she said back, nodding in understanding, her confidence returning.
“Ten seconds,” the woman warned.
Audrey’s fingers hit the fake keys on the screen, and then, on the fifth note, the sealed door hissed before opening with a hydraulic groan.
“Just in time.” The woman took the iPad from her. “Too bad.”
“Oh thank God.” Audrey covered her face with both palms as Ryder looked inside the vault.
I pulled her into my arms, resting my chin on top of her head. “I knew you could do it,” I said as Ryder held up a flash drive and an envelope.
“Who’d have thought our conversations about underwear would save the world,” she said, pulling away with a half cry, half laugh.
“I predicted it,” I joked. “I called it a week ago when I walked in on you and—” I abandoned that thought, remembering Ryder was still present. I’d been caught up in the moment with her.
“Still her brother. Still here,” he reminded us, though a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Still owe you an apology for breaking my promise,” I said once we were completely paid up and out of the maze, back up top in the land of the living. Breathing fresh air and no longer feeling like we were inside a crematorium.
“I don’t even want to know what you’re sorry for,” Ryder said as Reed, Gray, and Hollis met us outside by our two parked SUVs.
“And for the record, you only owe me an apology if you ever break her heart.” He slipped on his Ray-Bans, only to pull them down to steal a look at me. “That better never happen.”
He handed the flash drive off to Gray, who had a laptop open, ready to confirm the contents.
“So, what song was it?” I deflected.
“‘River Flows in You’ by Yiruma. Only song I figured Mitch might be able to play the first few notes of. He used to whistle along, but only stayed in sync for the first few seconds. It was his favorite, though.”
“Music?” Hollis swooped in and pulled Audrey off for a sidebar conversation, asking her, “What happened in there?”
I joined the guys as Ryder removed a letter from the envelope.
He quietly read it over, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, unease settling on his face.
“An ‘if anything happens to me’ letter from Mitch.” He removed his sunglasses and shook his head, then motioned for Audrey to rejoin us.
“There’s a note for you at the end.” He handed her the letter.
I folded my arms and closed my eyes, not sure I wanted to know what his parting words to her were. Not after everything he’d put her through.
Audrey’s voice was shaky as she read out loud: “If you’re reading this without me, that means I didn’t make it.
I’m sorry. I didn’t want to pull you into this, but I knew I could only protect you by keeping you in the dark while also requiring Rhett to need you if he were to ever find out what I knew.
I didn’t know who to trust, but I hope you finished what I tried to start. ”
At her pause to take a breath, I opened my eyes, needing to take a deep one myself.
“I know I’ve been acting weird lately. Drinking too much.
Stressed. I hope it all makes sense now.
I’m still sorry, though. But in truth? I haven’t been the best husband anyway, have I?
Not sure if a dead man’s sorry is worth anything, but if it is?
I am. Hope you find someone who actually deserves you.
I know I never did. Take care, Audi.” She looked up from the letter at me.
“Signed it with his usual em dash and Hell.” She handed the letter back to Ryder.
“He was right about one thing: He didn’t deserve you,” Ryder said under his breath as he folded the letter. “So, we good?” he asked Gray.
“He didn’t have evidence on POTUS’s SEAL teams, either. Just Stratos. But it’s all here. Everything my dad will need to take them off the map for good,” Gray confirmed before closing the laptop.
“We’d assumed Mitch might have intel on the teams because of that lie Beth had originally fed us. Since it wasn’t him behind this, looks like the only one who had any evidence on the teams—”
“Already handed it over to us by Beth,” I finished for Ryder. And that reminded me, would I still be keeping up my end of the deal by visiting her in person? One thing at a time.
“What do we do now?” Audrey circled her brother to get back to me, looping her arm around my back, pinning herself to my side.
“We take you to Chase, and we put all this behind us,” Ryder told her. “And then I pick up the love of my life in New York.”
I turned toward Audrey and leaned in to set my mouth to her ear. “And I also tell you what I said to you in Spanish last night.”
I ignored the eyes and awkward throat-clears around me, prepared to translate, but she beat me to it.
“I remembered some of it.” She pulled back to tilt her chin up at me, smiling. “I looked it up on the way here.”
“Oh, did you?”
“Curiosity got the best of me.” Hand to my chest, she whispered back what I’d said in Spanish, but added one word at the end: “Crazy or not, I’m falling in love with you, too.”