Page 53 of Claimed By Shadows

There’s also his safe, which I know contains more, and all of it is only accessible via his office. Nothing remote can touch anything, hence why I’m going against the advice of my men andthat inner voice and making my way to his office, a lock picking kit in my suit trouser pocket.

I pass guards, though they don’t give me a second look, used to me coming and going all over our mansion. I am the heir after all, and I’ve made sure to give the impression that I am devoted to my father and his mission to accumulate more power.

Luckily my father doesn’t have anyone outside his office, something I’ve observed via our extensive camera network—which I’ve hacked into and will not be showing this trip of mine as I’ve looped the footage to show nothing amiss. Dima is on standby if I need him and Andrei is outside my father’s meeting room to alert me when Sergi is finished.

Giving a final check around me to ensure that no one is watching, I slip on black latex gloves to mask any fingerprints I might leave behind, then pull out my lock picking kit and get to work. The small snick sound of the lock disengaging is the only noise as the door unlocks. I hurriedly open the door a fraction, slipping inside before shutting and relocking it, just in case. It will give me a few seconds to hide if need be.

The room is dark, only the moonlight from the open curtain lighting the space. It’s enough for me because there’s no way I’d be putting a light on anyway. Far too risky.

His computer sits on his large wooden desk. So on silent footsteps, I make my way over to it, inserting my USB drive and letting it do its thing. The screen lights up briefly, but luckily isn’t visible from outside the balcony doors to the side of the desk so won’t give me away.

As the files start to copy, I crouch down, knowing the safe is on the left-hand side of the desk, made to look like drawers. Using a master key that I had made, I open the false front to reveal the safe.

A smile tilts my lips at the old-school dial. I wouldn’t be able to easily access it if my father fully embraced new technologyand went biometric, but he likes the old ways, and so all I need to do is crack the code, which isn’t so difficult once you know how to do it.

It takes a few minutes, my pulse pounding the entire time, but finally the clunk of the bolts turning sounds and the door pops open. Reaching inside, I carefully withdraw the contents. On the top of a stack of old manilla folders sits a knife, a switchblade by the looks of it.

I freeze as I recall Iris telling me of the night she was taken, Sergi also taking the blade Rowan gave her and using it to cut away her clothes. My jaw clenches, and even though my mind screams at me to leave the blade, I can’t forget the sorrow in Iris’s face at its loss.

So before I can think better of it, I slip the blade into my pocket, resolving to give it to Iris the first chance I get. She’s been released from Serene Haven as of today and is back on the World’s End Estate with the Shadows. I’ve been keeping tabs, checking in with her progress without anyone the wiser, so I know that she’s worked through much of the trauma from her stay here.

Letting out a breath and refocusing on the task before me, I get back to the manilla files. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I start taking pictures, which uploads to my private cloud storage and are immediately backed up to a second location. You can never be too careful.

Suddenly, my phone lights up.

Andrei: They’re done and heading back, now!

Moments later, I hear voices approaching. Shit. My father is back early, talking with a lieutenant by the sounds of it. My heart races. I can’t be caught here; it would ruin everything I’ve been putting into motion these past few years. Sergi would never trust me. Fuck, he really would kill me this time, slowly.

As the voices get closer, I hurriedly replace the documents and close the safe, my hands steady despite the rush of adrenaline flooding my system. I glance at the computer—the file transfer is at 89%.Motherfucker! I can’t risk leaving the USB, but if I pull it out before it’s ready, I’ll lose it all.

The sound of the door unlocking has my head snapping up towards it and I watch as the door handle turns. My body acts before my mind catches up, and in a split-second decision, I duck behind one of the heavy balcony curtains, barely breathing.

I hear Sergi enter with his lieutenant, their Russian conversation filling the room as the lights switch on. They’re discussing a major deal, one of the many that Sergi is setting up to bring more guns and unsuspecting girls into the country. Bile hits the back of my throat at the casual way they talk of these poor girls and women, who believe they are getting a better life, but instead are sold into the sex trade, forced into a life of servicing the lowest of the low.

I shift slightly so I can see the computer screen from my hiding spot—97%.

Fuck.

Sergi walks around his desk, then frowns, noticing something amiss. He starts to look around suspiciously, and my pulse is like a turbulent river, thundering in my ears as I inwardly curse.

This is really fucking bad.

Just then, as if to tighten the noose around my neck, the file transfer completes. The USB ejects with a soft sound that might as well be a gunshot for how loud it is. Sergi turns towards the computer, his gaze narrowed.

A loud knock at the door has Sergi looking up, Dima standing on the threshold, distracting Sergi and his lieutenant by asking something about the upcoming shipment of girls. My fatherstrides back towards the door, his focus on Dima as is his lieutenant.

Silently, I dart out from behind the curtain, grabbing the USB and then darting out onto the balcony. I don’t stop as the noise of the glass door opening and shutting is loud in the room, my heart pounding as I scale down the side of the house. The door crashes open above my head and I hear my father cursing and ordering a search of the grounds as I slip into the arched doorway that leads to the kitchens, stripping off my gloves and sliding them into my pocket, using the servants’ staircase to head back up to my wing of the house.

“CONTROL” BY ZOE WEES

IRIS

We arrive back at the estate just as the sun sets, and my heart gives a jolt when I step out of the truck and look up at the looming building before me.

“Come on, Peaches, let’s get you upstairs and settled,” Hunt says, coming up next to me and tangling our fingers together. His warm palm fills me with confidence, and I let him guide me to the staircase as the twins grab my bags.

“Still refuse to use the lift I see,” I mutter, but his deep chuckle tells me he definitely heard me. His hand lets go of mine, and just as I turn to ask him why, a squeak falls from my lips when I’m swept up into his strong arms.

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