Page 13 of Contested Crown

“Maybe he left alarms inside or cameras,” Cade pointed out.

I grunted, not quite agreeing. “I need to get the money at least.”

“You were the one who said we can’t go anywhere we’ve ever been before! That’s been the whole point of staying at motels that I’m pretty sure have STDs in thewater.” Crossing his arms, Cade sniffed when I looked over at him. “You can’t tell me that most of the places we’ve been staying don’t rent by the hour. And now you want us to risk our lives on a hunch.”

“Yeah.” There was a reason I hadn’t gone back here when I had initially been on the run. Partially because it was too far out of my way but also because there were things here that I didn’t want Declan to know about.

I rubbed my thumb against the ring I was wearing on my right ring finger. At this point, I didn’t even need to look at it.Lupus Imperator.Werewolf Emperor, my mother’s dream of uniting the wolves of North America under a common throne so that we could finally stand up to the mage houses.

“Wearedoing this, aren’t we?” Cade’s question was annoyed, but I heard the exhaustion in his tone. “Well, I suppose this is as good a place to die as any.”

“We’ll get the money, we’ll look for any cameras or alarms. We’re still pretty far away from Los Santos. If Declan is going to send someone, it will take at least an hour or two for them to get here.” I started the car. “We’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know who’s more foolish in this situation: you or me.” Cade sniffed.

The area was mostly unused, a series of storage spaces that had failed to get rented out when the town of Windward failed to develop into anything more than a gas stop for people on their way out of Los Santos. For a while, it had looked like a fabulous location for businesses that couldn’t afford Los Santos rents anymore, but most of those businesses had moved east rather than south, leaving Windward a town of unused office space with commercial real estate companies looking to dump all of their holdings.

When I pulled around back, I got out and walked up to the keypad. It was covered in a fine layer of dust, although that didn’t mean that Declan had never been there, just that he hadn’t sent anyone recently.

Still, I hesitated. Cade was right. This was foolish.

“Well?” Cade came up beside me. He looked at me, eyes narrowed, then shook his head.

As he extended out his hand, his magic moved over the keypad. Nothing happened.

Something cold clenched in my stomach. Was that nothing because the spell had worked or because Cade didn’t have enough power to make it work?

“No one has touched this in over a year,” Cade said.

I exhaled. “That’s the spell you used after Keith died?”

“Yes,” Cade said. “Now, are we going in, or are we staying out in the open?”

I keyed in the code, pressing the button to open the bay door. As it rolled up, I returned to the car, pulling it inside the unit. Cade walked behind me, looking around.

“Spartan,” he observed. “I’m not sure what else I expected from one of your safe houses, but I suppose comfort was out of the question.”

I got out of the car, stretching and then walking over to close the doors. “Thisiscomfortable. There’s a couch, books, canned food. What more do you need?”

“A bed? Food that isn’t preserved for the apocalypse? Something to read that can’t be purchased at an airport layover?” Cade said archly.

Waving my hand Vanna White style, I gestured to the bookshelf in the corner. “Have your pick.”

With narrowed eyes, Cade stalked over to the bookshelf as I retrieved our bags from the car. I dropped them on the coffee table in front of the couch, and they landed with a plume of dust. Rearing back, I sneezed, my eyes watering.

First order of business was to check for cameras and bugs. Second was to clean.

I started in the easy places. Using a multi-tool from the chest in the corner, I unscrewed every electrical socket, searching for bugs. Cade was still standing at the bookshelf, with one volume in his hand. I tried not to be too obvious about reading the title when I brushed past him.

He was examining my copy of theIliad, the leather one I’d picked up on a job. My cheeks heated, and the multi-tool slipped off a screw with a wrenching twist. Shaking my head, I refocused.

When the last of the electrical outlets turned up clean, I started on the lighting, but that was a dead end too. Finally, I used my fingers to run along every crack, every crevice, and found nothing out of place. No obviously repaired drywall, no paint that didn’t match the rest.

“I think we’re good,” I said finally.

“You sound disappointed,” Cade said from the couch. He’d settled there, the book on his lap, his brows drawn together, and his mouth sounding out the words.

“I guess I thought that Declan would have been paying more attention to what I was doing,” I said.