Semua Bab Sunlit Paradise: Undercover Desire: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Morning light cut across the kitchen floor when I entered Reed House. Calvin was already there, fully dressed and painfully sober, keeping enough distance from the doorway for me to leave without passing him.“I owe you an apology.”I stopped beside the counter. A cup of coffee steamed near his hand. Nothing about him resembled the man who had tasted of whisky against my mouth hours earlier.“I confronted you after drinking,” he said. “I let jealousy turn a security argument personal, and I treated your relationship with Vic as if I had any right to control it.”“Wanting me does not give you authority over me.”“I’m beginning to understand that.”I had expected an argument but his agreement unsettled me more.I placed the burner phone on the counter. “Someone inside police headquarters accessed the sealed file supporting Sienna Blake.”His expression changed immediately.“Do you know who?”“My captain doesn’t and neither do I.”Calvin opened his laptop. “Then you need to see this.”Th

The man waiting inside the Grand Pavilion’s private meeting room checked the corridor behind me before pulling the door shut. He locked it, shoved a chair beneath the handle, and turned to me with sweat shining across his forehead.“Your leak is higher than Captain Ward.”Outside, carts rattled through the service corridor as staff prepared for tomorrow night’s masquerade. Inside, he kept his voice barely above a whisper.“You said you knew who was being paid.”“I know where the money goes.” He glanced at the door again. “I approve government clearances for major resort events. For months, inspection requests have been delayed before they reach customs teams. Warrants too. They get redirected, and returned for corrections, anything that buys time.”“Before which events?”“The ones with private shipments. Art auctions and charity functions. The regatta.” His hand shook as he lifted the water glass beside him. “Someone in a senior police command gets paid through a shell account wheneve

The next evening, I entered the Grand Pavilion looking nothing like Sienna Blake.The housekeeping uniform was gone. A light-brown wig changed my hair, makeup altered my brows and mouth, and a black mask covered most of my face. My dark gown hid the dressing beneath it and made me look like another wealthy guest.Calvin and I had agreed to keep our distance until I found a way into the collector’s private lounge. Vic would stay with event security and treat me like a stranger. I only had to learn what the collector planned to take off Solara before his yacht left at 11:45.My disguise survived the entrance and twenty minutes in the ballroom. Calvin lasted less than five.He caught me checking the exits just as the collector’s bodyguard looked my way. Calvin stepped into my path and offered his hand.“Dance with me before someone realizes you are not here for the champagne.”I gave him my best bored-rich-woman smile. “Maybe I enjoy knowing how to escape parties.”“You checked the camer

Vic tapped the reader controls again, but the navigation screen stayed black.“It’s dead.”I moved closer. “It stopped responding. That doesn’t mean it’s dead.”He reset the reader. Nothing. The card stayed in the slot where I had inserted it, suddenly worth far less than it had ten minutes ago.“It loaded enough to prove the data was there.”Shipment records, payment lines, police communication windows, and one unfinished identifier: PA—OCN—7.Vic pressed the release and removed the card.“There’s corrosion on one edge.”I leaned closer despite the pull in my shoulder. A pale stain marked the contacts.“It was inside a waterproof case.”“Seals can fail,” Vic said. “Especially after that much time in seawater.”“It survived long enough to work.”“For a while.”We had risked the chase for answers, only to lose them during the first useful break. Vic sealed the card in an evidence sleeve and logged the time.“I’ll run the full recovery check at security command.”He left with the card w

The concrete wall was sliding shut when I broke from the palms.I made it halfway across the muddy clearing before a hand caught my forearm and pulled me short.“You are not doing this alone.”I turned hard enough for pain to flare through my injured shoulder. Calvin stood behind me, soaked through and breathing harder than usual. A security utility truck sat beneath the trees with its lights off.“You said five minutes.”“You didn’t give me five.”“The truck didn’t either.” I pulled my arm free. “Did you come all this way to stop me?”“If I came to stop you, I wouldn’t have brought this.”He handed me a compact radio and an emergency flashlight, then opened an old utility map on his phone.“Damien has command of the evacuation,” he said. “This is Reed property. I know the official infrastructure, and you don’t know this terrain.”I looked toward the abandoned utility station. The last section of concrete settled back into place, leaving only a dark seam.“You also said that building