Page 70 of An Epic Voyage
“Be careful of the glass,” Griffin warned as they sloshed through knee-deep water.Cautiously, they made their way outside.It was as bad as the interior.
“Have mercy,” Indigo breathed.“It looks like the apocalypse.”
She wasn’t wrong.Palm trees were broken in half or uprooted, and the leaping dolphins that decorated the elaborate fountain were gone.Leaves, litter, and lumber covered the ground.Statues were overturned and broken, and all the pretty, blooming flowers were gone.
Griffin turned and winced at the once beautiful home.It was destroyed.It looked as if a bomb had exploded.“Now that the storm has passed, someone will come looking for us.”
“We have to find the nuke before they arrive,” Indigo agreed.
They picked their way through the demolished house to the elevator.Once they were back inside the bunker, Indigo said, “We’re making an assumption.”
“About what?”
“That the laptop and nuke are somewhere on this island.”
“He didn’t have it on the yacht,” Griffin said.“I checked every inch of that boat, along with his mansion in Los Angeles.I didn’t have time to scour his place in Miami, but he didn’t stop there before boarding the boat.Plus, the meeting with Jabari Abdullahi was to be held here.International waters on a private island.We can reasonably assume the items are here if our intel is correct and he has them.”
“Could he have a safe deposit box or a storage unit?”
“Anything is possible, but I don’t think he’d leave it to chance, especially if someone could break in.None of the island staff know about the panic room.”
“How did you find out about it?”
“I was given the information as the head of security logistics.They conveniently left out the part about the hidden tunnel.”
“Do you think his personal security know about it?”
Griffin thought about it.“I’m not sure.Van Houten is notoriously paranoid.His side hustle amounts to treason.He wouldn’t want many people to know about it.Then again, the three men have been with him for years, and he trusts them.”
“Is Van Houten aware you know about this room?”
“He is.”
“Then we’ve wasted our time.The stolen goods won’t be here.”
Indigo was right.He wasn’t part of the inner circle.So, where did that leave them?Was she right that they were wasting their time?A light bulb snapped on in his head.“There are two places we didn’t check.”
“Where?”
“The elevator at the end of the tunnel and the cave.”
#
Indigo’s phone vibratedin her pocket.“Hold on, Griffin.I need to take this call.”She should’ve contacted Evangeline already, but she’d been distracted by all the mind-blowing sex.
She punched the talk button.“Hey—”
Evangeline cut her off.“Are you okay?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner.”
“We’ve been glued to the weather channel,” Jackson said.“It looked like it was a direct hit.”
“It was.We survived.Except for the panic room, the house and grounds didn’t.”
“Have you found anything?”
Indigo told them about their unsuccessful search and how they discovered the tunnel through the fridge.
