Page 24 of Resurrection

Chapter Nine

Finn

The warehouse is huge. It’s also empty. Carys’s heels tap-dance on the concrete floor as she searches the few offices off to the right. Jay stands beside me, fiddling with his phone.

“I don’t understand what I’m looking at here.” I put my hands on my hips, and the coat Carys gave me in the car stretches across my shoulders. When she handed it to me, annoyance and gratitude fought for dominance. Just like every single thing she’s done for me since I woke.

“An empty warehouse.” Jay tucks his phone into his pocket.

“Gee, thanks. I got that part. But how full was it? Quarter? Half?”

“Try loaded to the gills.”

I rock on my heels. “Fuck off.”

“I’m not kidding, man. Eric wasn’t wrong to be raging over this loss. It’s huge. A smaller company would have folded for sure. I’m surprised Charles isn’t here reaming her out for incompetence.”

Of course her fathercouldbe the reason the warehouse is empty. Would he do that to his daughter? I can’t decide. Theirrelationship has always been tense. She and I were drawn together by our complicated family structures. She both loved and hated her father. At the time, I understood her conflicted feelings. For me, the hate won out.

“Jesus Christ.” I leave him standing near the main entrance, and I head toward the clicking of her shoes. In the last office, Carys is in the center of the room, her arms crossed, disbelief on her face.

“The robbery is worse than they told me. There’s nothing left. Not a single weapon. We were completely cleaned out.”

I run my hand through my hair and sigh. “Eric is a dick. But if this was my organization, heads would be literally rolling. This took serious resources and massive planning. It stinks of an inside job.”

“The theft happened at the same time you were in trouble.” She leans against the wide desk in the middle of the room. “I delegated. I would have normally handled this myself.” She squeezes the messy bun at the nape of her neck. “I should have done more. The inventory has been gone for weeks now. Tracing it will be tough. And Eric’s correct—our fingerprints are on everything. Depending on who has our products, it could appear we’re making deals we aren’t doing.” Her smile is fleeting. “We do questionable things for profit, and if I got caught on those—well, fair enough—I made my choice. But if we get prosecuted over this…”

“Valeriya. She’s in charge here?” I say.

“Yeah.” Carys pushes off the desk. “Next stop is to her. I just—I can’t believe this.”

“You can’t tell me no one’s ever stole from you before.”

“I mean, of course, but never like this. Never this big. And none of us have a clue who did it. Not my father, not Eric, and I sure as hell don’t have any ideas.”

“Valeriya’s fingers are in the pie.”

Carys laughs. “You haven’t even met her.”

“Don’t need to.”

“Well, unlike you, I’m reserving judgment until I speak to her. That’s what a good employer does.”

“My employees never complained.”

She leaves the office. “When the result of a complaint is a bullet between the eyes, not too many people want to stir the pot.”

“Exactly. Make ’em sorry they even thought about fucking you over,” I grumble.

“Right—again with the murdering.”

“Sounds as if that’s a problem for you, and I know it’s not.” Her heels clack on the floor ahead of me, but I’ve got my head down. “You understand better than most how I was raised.”

When she stops, I have to throw my weight in reverse to avoid ramming into her. When I glance up, her amber eyes are soft with understanding. Stupid. Why’d I bring up the past? We used to confess so many things to each other under the cover of darkness. I’ve worked hard to coat my underbelly with a steely resolve. Sometimes I think she might be the only person who ever realized it existed.

“What happened with Lorcan—it gives you a fresh start, Finn. You don’t have to be the man you were. Your father is dead. You can’t return to your organization.”

I keep my hands in the pockets of my jeans to prevent myself from reaching for her. So easy to loop my arm around her waist, tug her to me, lose myself. “People don’t change. We are who we are.”

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