Page 13 of Bound by Passion (Ravage MC)

“So, we don’t know what the box is? Or if there’s something in it?”

Screech rewound the video and paused just before the screen went black. “Hang on. Let me see if I can enlarge it with this new program I’ve been working on.”

It didn’t take him long, but each second made me want to scream, and it felt like a lifetime. This fucking asshole has been my nightmare since the moment I was conceived. My mother’s long before that.

We hadn’t made much headway, Screech and I, but dammit, we were trying our damnedest.

The screen came into focus. The box was black and in two pieces. A top with some kind of larger bottom, it appeared to be about the depth of a security box.

But the lid caught my eye. A symbol. It was in the shape of a sun with a large H in the center of it. It was embossed black, making it blend into the box, but it was there.

And I knew what it was.

“A crest,” I told Screech. “A family crest, actually.”

One that I thought was gone long before I was born, according to my mom. She showed me once on a drawing and told me that if I ever saw it, I needed to hide it and keep it away from Miles. And here he was with my mother’s name on a piece of paper with a random code and the box in his possession. What did my mother want to protect me from? What did this crest mean to Miles? The questions swirled in my mind.

“Is there any way to find out what’s inside that box?” I asked, hoping like hell Screech had some kind of x-ray equipment to see what was inside and knowing it was a long shot.

Screech chuckled. “I’m good, Nyx, but I don’t have Superman vision. It would make shit easier, but no go. Sorry, but that’s all I have.”

“Fuck.” While I took in the irony of my thought to his words, frustrations pulled at me, and I leaned back in my seat. “Nothing else.”

“For that. No. But I do have a live feed set up.”

I sucked in a breath and looked over at Screech. My eyes were probably so wide they were in danger of popping out of my head. This was… “What do you mean? I thought it was impossible?”

He smiled. “Had a buddy help me out. Didn’t give him any info about why. He really doesn’t give a fuck, just wanted some shit I could get him and made an even trade.”

“How much do I owe you?”

He shook his head. “I’m as invested in this as you are, Nyx. There’ll come a time when I’ll need ya, and then you can owe me.”

“You got it,” I answered quickly. It probably wasn’t best to give someone an open-ended payment for later, but we’d been trying for two and a half months to get eyes, and this was just gold. “Where is the camera?”

Screech smiled wide, making all the pain that was in his face wash away. “Cameraszzzz.” He extended the end of the word, putting emphasis on it. “Give me your laptop.”

Without a thought, I put in the passcode and handed it to him. Screech was on the very short list of those I gave any trust to. Even then, I didn’t have anything on the machine except the information he'd given me anyway.

He plugged in a wire into my laptop from somewhere under the desk and started typing.

“How long will I have before they are detected?” I asked, knowing the first attempts to splice into cameras already there went wrong.

Miles had a team around him that was smart as hell. He paid them a lot of money to do his bidding, making it hard for us to get anywhere.

It felt like once we got a step ahead then there were three steps back. Every damn time.

“These? I give them a while. They are meant to be undetectable with most programs. At least for a while.” He turned the screen to me. “This one is outside the Hamilton Tech Enterprises front entrance.” He swiped. “This is the underground parking entrance. Most likely this one will have most of the views.” Then he showed me the others.

“How did he get these in front of their doors?”

“He’s very good at what he does, and so am I. Even trade.” He smiled, and it changed his face.

“I hope like fuck I’ll see something that will help before they find these. Thank you for this.”

“No problem. And it’ll record up to my cloud. I linked your phone so you’ll have access to the cloud anytime, anywhere.”

Screech handed me the laptop, and I felt enthralled in switching between the cameras. Screech was a good man. I hoped like hell he could get out of this place and be part of the world. No more pain. No more awkwardness.

---