Page 64 of Hidden Ties

With the cold night air hitting his face, he couldn’t manage to say that it wasn’t only a full moon.

But a blue one.

“Keep walking.”

Valerie entered the Horseshoe with the barrel of a gun still pointed at her lower back. She didn’t need to turn around tosee that it was not only Edmond doing so, but that he had the weapon concealed in his coat pocket due to the lack of concern from the people in the Casino Hotel.

Since she was still phone-less, she had been looking for Sal on the casino floor when Edmond had found her. She knew it was bad to do as he asked and walk out of the safety of the Casino Hotel; however, she could smell the stench of desperation. Knowing his words—that he’d shoot to kill—were very much true, she had done as he asked, because as soon as she blew the proverbial whistle, he would do it, too. He was on the brink of having nothing to lose, regardless of if he found what he wanted from her. The only thing saving her at the moment was the fact she was following his orders. The next thing to save her would be to keep doing as she was—walking as slowly as she could get away with and praying to God that Sal would get her message.

“Faster,” he said with a hard shove to her back with the pointy end of the gun.

“Okay,” she gritted out in a slight bit of pain, thinking she needed to distract him into walking slower while they continued through the Horseshoe.

The casino was pretty much dead from the lack of players, probably because of the cyberattack.

“Edmond, I’m not sure what you think I hav—”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Valerie. Once I realized it was missing, I’ve been looking everywhere for that fucking flash drive. I went through months of footage of my office only to find you picked it up right off my office floor. Unfortunately for me, I fired you the very next day. My mistake was letting you get arrested before trying to find it in your house. You can imagine my surprise when I realized it wasn’t there.”

“How’d you know I left it at the Horseshoe?” she asked under her breath.

“I wasn’t for certain till just now.”

Great.

Valerie tried to slow her gait a tiny bit more while she talked. “So, let’s see if I have this right … Obviously, the cyberattack was an inside job. I’m assuming that’s why you didn’t want me to update the firewalls—it would have thrown off your whole plan.” She laughed mockingly for a moment. “I bet you got unlucky when the man before me decided to retire early, and I bet you only hired me as his replacement because you thought my lack of experience would mean I wouldn’t care enough to want to fix the firewalls.”

His silence told her she was exactly right.

“My mistake, however, was when I showed you my simulation. I gave you the perfect fall man.”

“Bingo,” he chastised her.

“I bet the only reason you needed Gerard’s help was not only for him to do your dirty work, but to be the one to pull off the cyberattack. You’re not smart enough to do that, but Gerard definitely was.” Valerie had wondered why Gerard hadn’t agreed with her in wanting to update the firewalls, but now she knew. “If I didn’t take the fall, you were definitely going to let Gerard. He was a goner no matter what, huh?”

“Your time’s almost up.” Edmond pressed the elevator button for the floor her old office was on.

“It’s not at my desk,” she told him as the doors came to a close.

Keeping his gun still trained on her, Edmond stared back at her, not believing that she was telling the truth.

“I promise it’s not. You think I would have kept that at my desk? If I had, you would have found it. I wasn’t expecting to get fired that day, so when I was, I wasn’t able to retrieve it.” She snickered, really hoping she sounded convincing as the elevator doors opened to the tenth floor. If he made her get off here, shewas as good as dead. “Come on, Edmond. At least give me some credit.”

“Where the fuck is it, then?”

Valerie watched his hand waver over the numbers, waiting for her to tell him where she was leading them. Praying to God the man with the baby-blue eyes had heard her, she chose what could be her final resting place.

“The rooftop.”

TWENTY-FOUR

THE VITALES

TEN MINUTES EARLIER…

Running had been the only thing he was able to do when he couldn’t sleep, ever since he had found out the truth of his father.

Family.