She nods and keeps her eyes on me, so if one of the men glances over, it’ll look like we are just chatting instead of talking about them. I do all I can to keep my eyes on her, too, as she talks. “They need to get all this stuff removed from here because they can tell that authorities are closing in. They can’t take it all out at once, though, without drawing too much attention in the restaurant, so they’ll have to take two trips.”
“Restaurant?”
“The other end of this tunnel is heading toward the buildings on the street that runs parallel to this one, behind The Shadowridge. I bet if it weren’t for the trees, you’d be able to see the back of Lantern House from the back of The Shadowridge. My guess is that’s where they’re exiting. And with a restaurant, they’d have deliveries at all times of the day, so they could bring goods in, sneak them down here, and not be too noticed.
“If you think about it, it’s the perfect setup for them. The buildings aren’t too far apart, but because they’re on different streets, people won’t tieanything they see happening there to The Shadowridge. We don’t even have officers watching that street. It’s brilliant, really.”
I nod as I watch the men wrap up and box things. Ancient-looking things. “So, where did all this stuff come from?”
“Archaeological finds, museums, things on their way from archaeological sites to museums, stuff like that.”
My stomach churns as I watch them roll up stolen history in bubble wrap like it’s an eBay shipment. Ancient artifacts—things that belong in public museums, in the hands of people who would honor their stories—are being boxed up to disappear into the vaults of private collectors. My jaw tightens, and anger simmers deep in my chest. These aren’t just objects—they are whispers from the past, the kind of treasures that had survived wars, time, and obscurity, and they’re being treated like contraband.
“We have to do something,” I say. “We can’t just sit around while all this stuff gets sent off to wherever it’s going and doesn’t have a chance. What was that you were saying about what your brothers would do if it were them here?”
“Hang on. He’s telling Shoulders-for-Days to deliver a couple of objects to a buyer who will meet him at his business in Alexandria. That’s a ninety-minute drive, so we won’t be seeing him again tonight.”
Shoulders-for-Days? I glance at the men. Ahh. Okay, that one.
“He’s sending Silent but Deadly off to meet a different buyer. He might be gone a while, too. Giovanni and Man Bun Menace, though, are each taking some of the items—I think ones that they haven’t lined up buyers for yet—to… I’m not sure where. I get the sense that it’s nearby, though. Like, not too far out of Cipher Springs. I’m sure they’re the ones who will be back for the second load.”
“You want all of us to leave?” the man Charlie calls “Man Bun Menace” asks. “And do what with the lovebirds?”
“Do you have more zip ties in there?” Giovanni asks, and the man pulls some out of their packing supplies. “We’ll tie them up. Lock the entrance to The Shadowridge from down here, and we’ll lock the one in the restaurant from the other side.”
I throw Charlie a panicked look. The only thing not making me freak out is the fact that we haven’t been bound. But she gives me a look back that says everything will be okay, so I believe her.
There isn’t much down here to zip tie us to, so they opt for tying our wrists to the shelving where they have the artifacts, moving the remaining objectsfurther away from where we’re bound. The look Charlie had given me had said she was okay with this, but now she’s trembling. I try to position my body in a way to feel like I’m giving her a hug, but it’s too awkward.
Giovanni tells Man Bun Menace to hold back so he can turn off the lamp, but then Charlie says in a voice that’s trembling as much as she is, “Don’t turn it off! Please. I’m terrified of the dark.”
“She legitimately is,” I say, looking at Giovanni and pleading with my eyes.
He pauses for a moment, probably considering the good relationship we’ve had, and then he gives Man Bun a head motion that tells him to leave it. Then the four men head down the tunnel leading away from The Shadowridge. We see the light from their flashlights for a distance before they climb up through a hatch.
As soon as we hear the hatch close, Charlie switches from fear to urgency. “We need to get out of these zip ties.”
“Were you faking being terrified?”
She gives me a head shake that is both a yes and a no, but finishes with a yes that’s slightly stronger. “They underestimate you when you’re small and afraid. I’ve seen it over and over.” She’s turning her hands and wiggling, and manages to pull one hand and then the other free.
“How did you do that?” I ask in wonder. There’s no way I can get my hands through.
“When they were putting on my zip tie, I just positioned my hands in a way that would make it feel like they tightened it well, but wouldn’t actually be tight. Yours is actually tight, though. Okay, we just need to find something to mess with the little tab in the locking part.” She finds a pen on the table and goes to work on mine, and I swear she has them off in five seconds.
“See? This is why I’d choose you over Chuck or Liam.”
She grins, pulls her cell phone out and turns on its flashlight, and then we head down the tunnel in the same direction that the men went. The hatch on this side is wooden, and there is a metal ladder installed against the wall leading up. Charlie climbs the ladder and pushes on the hatch, shining her flashlight around the opening, shifting her position to try to see along its edges.
Then she gets a notification on her phone, looks at it, and says, “My text just went through! So there’s service here.” She immediately makes a phone call and puts it on speaker.
A moment later, a panicked voice answers. “Charlie?”
“Hey, Emerson. Okay, so the good news is, we found out how Giovanni’s guys are sneakinginto The Shadowridge. There’s a secret tunnel. The bad news is, we’re trapped in that tunnel.” She looks down at her phone. “Blake got the text, too, and you can probably see that he’s also freaking out. Can you loop him in to this call?”
She climbs back down while Emerson gets one of her other brothers on the call and says to me, “Pull out your phone and see how far we can get from this opening before we lose cell phone bars.”
I start walking to check it, but don’t have to go far. We can’t even get three feet from it without losing reception.
