Semua Bab Sunlit Paradise: Undercover Desire: Bab 31 - Bab 40

Cold water slapped my face as I hit the concrete and slid beneath the descending blast door. Pain tore through my shoulder, but I rolled onto my back as Calvin dropped toward the gap behind me. The steel edge was inches from him.“Come on!”He threw himself forward. I caught his shirt with my good hand and pulled. His boots cleared the opening just before the door crashed down, shaking water from the ceiling.“Go!”We ran. Water rushed around my ankles, colder and faster than before. Ahead, one cart wheel hit a submerged crack and jerked sideways. The two men abandoned it. One cut the straps while the other grabbed the black case, and they ran into a wider passage.“We’re catching up,” I said.“Not for long.” Calvin pointed to water pouring through a channel in the rock wall. “Storm surge. The tide’s moving faster than it should.”The men reached a junction where a concrete wall divided the tunnel. They disappeared behind it before I saw which way the black case went.We reached the j

The barrier held. Calvin checked the pressure gauge, then tested the lower hatch. The mechanism clicked beneath his hand but refused to move.“The main tunnel’s blocked,” he said. “The lower passage is still flooded.”“So we wait.”“Until the tide drops enough for the pressure gate to release.”I looked toward the sealed outer barrier. “And them?”“They’d have to clear the collapsed passage first.”My hands started shaking, so I curled them into fists. Calvin noticed anyway.“You’re freezing.”“I’m fine.”“That lie worked better before your teeth started chattering.”Another tremor went through me. My wet shirt clung to my skin, and every draft inside the shelter found its way beneath it. Calvin stepped closer but stopped before touching me.“We need to get you out of those clothes.”I started pulling the shirt over my head, but pain caught in my injured shoulder halfway through.“Let me.”“I can do it.”“I know.”He waited until I nodded, then eased the sleeve carefully past my shoul

The first thing I saw inside the warehouse was fire crawling across a pile of shipment records.A bullet slammed into the shelving above me, knocking loose a tray of bolts that scattered across the floor. I dropped behind an art crate as Calvin came through the doorway beside me. The movement pulled at my healing ribs, but Theo’s shout from deeper inside gave me no time to slow down.He was trapped behind stacked cargo near the center aisle. Between us and him, a masked man stood half-hidden beside a worktable. He held a pistol in one hand while shoving papers into a burning metal bin with the other. Beyond the flames sat a row of fuel drums.Calvin saw them too. “We cannot let that spread.”“Then keep him off the right aisle.”He nodded once. I moved left while Calvin stayed low behind the crate, drawing the shooter’s attention. The gunman fired at him. The bullet punched through a wooden sculpture case, splitting the side panel and spilling packing material across the floor. I cross

By morning, Ward had us back at Central Ridge.The overnight access review had produced one result none of us wanted: Calvin’s executive credential had been used inside his office after Voss was already in custody.Damien stood in front of Calvin’s safe while Ward watched beside the desk. Vic stayed near the door, favoring his injured shoulder. Calvin stood across from me, dressed for work despite the bandage beneath his shirt and our late night.Damien entered the security code and opened the safe and the first thing I saw was Vesper. A sealed pale-blue packet rested on a torn handwritten ledger page. Beside it lay a copied cave-access card and one of the Chamber Seven evidence bags that had never reached central evidence.Ward moved first. “Don’t touch anything.”I stopped beside Damien and studied the contents. The evidence had not simply vanished after Voss’s arrest. Someone had placed part of it inside Calvin Reed’s private safe.Ward looked at Damien. “Who can open this?”“Calvi

“Vic. He’s the one who calls me S.”I set the burner on the terrace table hard enough to make the water jump inside my glass.“Clarisse wants us doubting each other instead of looking for her. He pulled me out near South Service, saved Theo, helped us take Voss down, and this morning helped prove you were framed.”“I know.”“You don’t sound convinced.”“I didn’t accuse him.”That stopped me. Calvin reached for my hand without pulling me closer.“You followed the evidence when it pointed at me.”“And you hated it.”“I hated the evidence.” His thumb moved across my knuckles. “Not you for checking it.”I looked at our joined hands.“Then prove Clarisse is lying,” he said.I called Ward, repeated Clarisse’s exact words, and asked for a quiet audit of anything Vic had handled connected to Eli’s case.“Don’t contact him yet.”“I won’t,” Ward said. “Come back to Central Ridge.”Calvin picked up the evidence bag with the burner, and we left Reed House.By the time we reached the evidence comm