Page 107 of Stolen Temptation

Once I find my way to the surveillance video feeds, I isolate the time frame to the hours leading up to the fire, increase the playback speed, and watch. Unfortunately for us, the exterior cameras—the few attached to the outside of the building to keep an eye on people clubbing out on the terrace—were destroyed bythe fire. And most of the cameras inside seem to be disabled for the same reason.

I narrow my focus to the couple of cameras that escaped the flames. Immediately, I notice something strange.

The time codes keep repeating.

“Fuck,” I mutter, clicking to a few other feeds.

Yep, it’s there in digital black-and-white. The cameras stopped recording around eight this evening and just kept recycling the same footage for hours.

I switch to a live view. Though the air still has some lingering smoke, it’s finally starting to clear, and I can see Madden’s vault, where we keep drug shipments and, occasionally, cash. After squinting at the image, I rise to my feet again.

Finn is the first to glance my way. “What did you see?”

“You’ll want to check this out.”

Finn, Shane, and Donal flow my way, crowding behind my chair as I blow up the image on my screen.

Finn braces one hand on my desk. “Is that the vault?”

“It’s empty.” Donal’s voice is nearest to my left ear.

“Exactly.” I turn to look at Finn. “But I’m pretty sure there should have been a shipment or two in there before the fire started.”

“So what?” Thomas interjects. “Must’ve burned the fuck up.”

“If that were the case, where are the ashes?” If the contents of the vault really had burned up, we’d be able to see the smoldering piles of evidence.

Not to mention the fact that the cameras were tampered with. Which I am not mentioning in front of Shane. I don’t have a death wish. I’ll just make sure I beef up the internal security systems.

I honestly didn’t think anyone could get into them besides me. Guess I was wrong. I’ll have to fix that ASAP.

At my shoulder, Finn straightens with a curse. “The shipment wasn’t destroyed.”

“It was stolen.” Shane’s voice silences the rest of us. His comprehension makes this situation seem more real somehow.

“The fire must have been a theft cover-up.” No matter how hard I scrutinize this footage, that’s the only thing I can think of. “Some look-right, run-left bullshit.”

Finn huffs. “Got us again…”

The atmosphere in the room changes when Shane’s fury starts to reach a fever pitch. His rigid posture, tightly clenched jaw, the veins popping out of his neck… He’s more furious than I’ve ever seen him.

And he’s utterly silent.

Fuck,that’s scary.

“Aren’t you forgetting that Leo promised us more trouble?” Thomas paces the short side of the room. “He’s pissed that we stole from him, and now he’s getting his revenge. Or worse. Maybe he’s just getting started.”

“Fuck that.” Shane’s seething fury pervades the room.

Thomas pauses his pacing. “If we ship the little bitch back, we might actually get some peace.”

I bite back a snarl. If Thomas Brennan doesn’t stop talking about Kiara, I’m going to deck him in his ugly mug.

Unaware of how close my temper is to snapping, he continues yapping to Shane. “Think about it. If she’s returned, it’ll be one less thing on their plate to worry about.If we keep her, even after Leo and his forces have just razed one of our clubs, then all we’re doing is tempting that bastard into doing something evenmorederanged to get her back?—”

“Why are you so certain Leo’s behind this?” I shove to my feet, challenging the general head-on.

Thomas’s dark brown eyes widen as they clash with mine. In the past, I’ve never used that tone of voice on him or questioned his intentions. “What?”