Page 61 of Ugly Truths
I frown at the phone. “But everything on the cloud was pointing to New Mexico.”
“We’ve been discussing why that might be,” Luis says, “but we hadn’t thought of anything that felt reasonable yet.”
In the holding room, I told Davey and Cillian about the Wells cloud referencing coordinates in New Mexico. They were quick to assume it was connected to a research and manufacturing facility the company operates in Deming. On paper, the place is spotless. Fully regulated, every protocol followed to the letter.
The only red flag was that all of the facility’s most sensitive data is stored locally, so there’s no legitimate reason for any encrypted file on the cloud to point there in the first place. Davey took a closer look himself, but couldn’t get past most of the encryption. He told me it was a miracle Ben and Corey even managed to extract the warehouse location when they did.
What little he could see looked painfully ordinary—standard reports, outdated forms, facility logs. The kind of baseline paperwork he’d expect to be floating around in internal archives, which only made the cloud references to Deming even weirder.
Corey finally breaks the silence, impatience edging his words. “Does Sierra Blanca mean anything to you?”
Silas answers immediately. “No. I’ve barely heard of it.” For a moment, there’s only silence. Then, Silas exhales sharply, controlled but clearly irritated. “Is there anything else useful you’ve gathered?”
Another pause.
“No,” Luis mutters.
Another long breath is audible through the line. “Alright. Let’s wrap up for today, but keep your focus on Sierra Blanca.” With a slight shift in his tone, Silas adds, “Lena, will you stay on the line?”
I nod even though he can’t see me. “Sure.”
Ben, Corey, and Luis mumble their goodbyes before dropping off. Davey makes no move to leave, sinking back into the couch as his hands flick across his keyboard in sure strokes.
Snagging his phone off the table as I place my laptop down, I take it off speaker and press it to my ear.
“What’s up?” I ask, moving to stand from my spot on the floor. My muscles strain after sitting on the carpet next to the coffee table for so long. I stretch my free hand over the top of my head.
“Natalie is on her way over right now. She should be there in a few minutes. You're going to want to get changed into something you can work out in.”
“Work out in?” I repeat, eyebrows knitting together. “Why?”
“Jeff will be there in half an hour to work out with you,” Silas says simply.
Every muscle in my body tenses, and I swear I can feel my system short-circuit. Even as a strange heat blooms in my chest, I’m half-convinced I misheard him.
“Silas,” I finally say, my voice slow with disbelief, “you hired Jeff?”
“He was reluctant at first,” Silas says, sounding slightly amused. “But I told him who it was for and he suddenly changed his tune.”
For months, I’d told myself I’d never see Jeff again. It was better that way. He and Lauren had done more than enough. They let me fall apart in private and gave me the space to exist between survival and recovery. Even now, I never let myself consider it, no matter how much I missed them.
Silas didn’t have to give me this; he doesn’t owe me anything, especially not an olive branch, but he’s offering me one anyway.
I open my mouth, close it, and then try again. “AndNatalieagreed to this?”
“Unhappily,” he admits, though his tone betrays no actual concern.
I let out a breath, pinching my nose to keep emotions back. “You’re unbelievable,” I mutter, voice cracking.
Silas chuckles. “Am I now?” I can hear the smile in his words. “You miss him and need the outlet.”
I swallow hard. Davey isn’t looking directly at me, but the smirk curling his lips tells me he’s silently enjoying my reaction. The knot in my throat tightens.
“Thank you,” I whisper, then laugh. “He's going to kick my ass.”
“I have no doubt you’ll bounce back just fine.”
“Elena? Dave?” Natalie calls out somewhere in the mansion.
