Page 80 of Forged in Secrets

The room was large, though unlike the public-facing areas of the ship, the aesthetic was purely functional. The sink was completely empty and wiped clean. “Well, that’s no help,” Ben said. “Check the fridge.”

Before Asher could do so, however, Ben heard the sound of footsteps in the hall. They were close. “In here!” he called out, yanking open a door that led to a walk-in pantry. Asher ducked in beside him just in time for them to hear the metal door to the kitchen swinging open.

“Let’s hope they don’t need any flour,” Asher muttered.

Ben shushed him and pressed his eye against the small crack he’d left between the door and its frame, waiting for whoever had entered the room to step into view. Despite his lack of recent practice in the field, his body was tense with anticipation, as though muscle memory had kicked in.

He forced himself to take a few quiet breaths. There would be no use in taking the kidnappers by surprise if he dove in without a plan.

“It’s just about time,” said a male voice.

Ben squinted as he peered through the narrow space. Jade Gorsky stood several feet away, leaning against acountertop. In front of her was a handsome man that he recognized from his research into Lumen to be her father, Craig.

“Whatever.”

“I told you, Jade,” Craig snapped. “It’s all arranged. I have a local guy on shore to make sure the Hintons send the money to an untraceable, offshore account. Once we have confirmation, we send Grace over in the dinghy, and we’ll be on our way.”

Asher made a low scoffing sound next to him, and Ben jabbed him sideways in the ribs. His brother didn’t have to make a sound for him to know what he was thinking.

Gabe was no amateur. He’d never give the Hintons the go-ahead to transfer the 1.8 million without seeing that Grace was alive and well. But the less Craig and Jade knew about who they were dealing with, the better.

“Great,” Jade said, tossing her dark curls back as she rolled her eyes at her father. “And what if Grace tells everyone who we are, Dad? Ever think of that?”

Craig’s jaw tightened. “I keep trying to tell you. It doesn’t matter. We’ll be gone.”

“What if we aren’t? What if we don’t make it out of here fast enough?”

“Everything is going to be fine.”

Jade laughed without mirth. “You’re grasping at straws. We both know it. Even if those new-money bumpkins actually give us the funds, which I doubt, the whole reason we kidnapped Hinton was to stop her from getting any closer to the truth.”

“She doesn’t–”

“She knows everything now, thanks to you!” Jade snapped, not allowing her father to so much as finish his sentence.

“Jade.”

Craig stepped forward, resting a dark hand gently against her shoulder. “I know how people like Robert and Isla Hinton act,” he continued. “They don’t care about money. They just want their daughter back. We can all walk away from this with at least some of what we want.”

Ben waited for Jade to argue, but instead she pouted like a toddler, crossing her arms over her chest. His mouth twisted in disgust at her behavior. He had been right to trust his instincts about her from the beginning. She was a snake.

“Once we get Grace out of here, we’ll dump Katie Fairman off on the streets of Tampico, and then we’ll keep running. I have it all figured out. Who cares who finds out about us after that? We’ll be free! It’s not perfect, but it’s going to work. You need to trust me.”

Jade’s expression only hardened, but Craig pressed on, pacing back and forth between the countertop and a serving cart.

“It’s the only option we have left. I’m not going to follow along as Lumen spits on your mother’s grave. I won’t do it.”

Jade hesitated.

Ben watched her face, trying to read what lay behind the pained expression that he found there. He had looked into Amira Gorsky’s untimely death, but his research had mostly been focused elsewhere. What was it he had missed?

At last, Jade spoke again. Any hint of possible gentleness disappeared in an instant.

“This is insane,” she said firmly. “I should have handled all of this from the start, right when Katie figured out what was going on.”

Craig said nothing, but Ben could see tears shining in his rich brown eyes as he looked over at his daughter. He was a broken man if he’d ever seen one.

“The plan was perfect,” Jade continued. “Donald would have kept paying. We would have escaped all of this in less than a year. But no. You had to ruin everything with your cowardice.”

---