Page 106 of A Secret to Die For

“Shit!”

My time with Garrett had changed me in many ways—my language had certainly gotten fouler.

“What’s up?” Luca asked.

“EJ will be back in a half hour.”

He stood, screwdriver in hand. “That’ll be cutting things mighty fine. Stay or go?”

Why did I have to choose? Each decision I’d made lately turned out to be a bad one. But everyone was staring at me. And the clock was ticking.

“Stay. If we leave this room a mess, nobody will notice.”

Practice makes perfect. The men went to work with a vengeance, Luca and Aaron lifting floorboards, Colt and Deck replacing them. They’d made it almost as far as the en-suite when Luca stilled.

“Hey, what’s this?”

I practically climbed onto his back in an attempt to look. It was a hard drive. A small, portable hard drive, definitely not something that should have been lurking under the floor in my dumbass cousin’s room. Luca handed it to me, then slotted the board back into place and grabbed an electric screwdriver. If speed carpentry ever became a thing, my money would be on this team. They were a well-oiled machine.

“Easton the Turd should get another ten years for the state of this room,” Blue muttered. “It’s a crime scene.”

My phone rang again, and this time, it was Jack Morrow. “A black Toyota just turned into the driveway, ma’am. Looks like a middle-aged gentleman behind the wheel.”

I threw the last pile of clothing in the direction of the nearest window. “EJ’s home. Run.”

“Head for Sara’s old room,” Blue ordered. “We’re helping her to pack the last of her belongings, understand?”

EJ opened the front door as I reached the bottom of the stairs with an armful of books. The others followed carrying clothes, knick-knacks, a nightstand, and the comfy little overstuffed armchair that I loved to curl up in and read.

My darling uncle just scowled. “Don’t take anything that doesn’t belong to you.”

“I won’t.”

That hard drive had absolutely been meant for me.

Parker meandered past as I crossed the hallway. “Any luck?” he murmured.

“Yes, and thank you.”

“Don’t be a stranger.”

Then he was gone, and so were we.

36

SARA

“At least she didn’t use a flash drive,” Blue said. “The data would be degraded for sure. How close was the hard drive to the hot water pipe?”

Luca considered the question. “A couple of feet away? There were two joists in between.”

“So we stand a chance. One time, I did a job for an old guy in Reedsport, and I remember him bitching and moaning because he wanted to show me a document on his portable hard drive and it wouldn’t work. They just don’t make things like they used to, he said. So I asked how old the drive was, and he said he’d bought it the day after his granddaughter’s twelfth birthday. When I asked how old she was now, he said she’d be thirty next month.” Blue rolled her eyes. “Of course, even if the drive opens, we might need technical help to read the actual files. It depends on what format Claire used.”

We’d regrouped in Aaron’s apartment, all eight of us. When I’d quietly questioned whether it was appropriate for Deck to stay, Luca had shrugged and said Deck wasn’t a gossip. Even so, his presence left me uncomfortable.

“So what do we do next?” I asked.

“We find the oldest laptop we have that still works, plug the drive in, and pray.”

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