His Son. Her Secret.

Chapter 11

On some level, Avi was right. Beth knew that. They desperately needed the money. A life depended on it. Still, it left a bad taste in her mouth to think of collecting the reward for returning Kaleth to his father.

Maybe they could just take him back and confess? Surely Santiago Burns would be grateful and still feel generous towards them for saving his son. Beth opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Belle cursed under her breath.

Everyone turned to face Belle, questions written all over their faces. Belle didn’t look up from her laptop screen, but she wasn’t typing. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard like she’d forgotten what they were for. That couldn’t be good. Beth braced herself. It vaguely occurred to her that she seemed to be doing that a lot of late, but who could blame her, the blows just kept coming.

Avi’s forehead creased. “What now?”

Belle blinked. And then her hands started moving. Fast. “s**t. s**t. s**t,” she chanted through gritted teeth, and before someone could try and shake the answer out of her, Belle shut her laptop, flipped it over, and removed the battery. She was breathing hard, as though she had just escaped a rabid dog, her trembling knuckles turning pale around the battery she still held in the air.

Forget bracing herself. Something cold slid into Beth’s chest. She’d never seen her friend like this. Not even when a monitor had caught fire in the cafe last month. “Belle?”

Belle exhaled a shuddering breath. She chuckled, but it sounded panicked and a little hysterical.

Mal stepped closer and put a hand on Belle’s shoulder. “Hey, what’s going on? You are scaring us a little here.”

“Someone tried to hack me.” Belle finally said.

Beth blinked, her brain not sure whether to panic yet. She exchanged a look with the others. They looked just as puzzled as she felt.

It wasn’t that they somehow believed Belle couldn’t be hacked. Belle was good, but they watched their friend break into people’s systems for years and knew a good hacker could return the favor.

So the matter wasn’t about the shock that it had happened. No. They were more concerned about who had done it and what it meant.

“Who?” Avi asked.

Belle shook her head and then dropped the battery and ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know. I was trying to erase the basement footage again… You know… Because if we decided to cash in on the reward, then we had to make sure there was no evidence linking us to having the child.”

Beth gritted her teeth together but didn’t interrupt. Clearly, she was dealing with stubborn, financially starved mules, and they currently had another more pressing matter that needed their attention.

“You said you couldn’t find the footage,” Beth reminded. It had come as a somewhat disturbing shock that there was no CCTV footage of that night on record in the warehouse cloud, but they had figured the system probably was set to delete the footage after some hours and had decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I had to double-check,” Belle said. She dropped her hand. “It still bugged me that there was just no footage. It doesn’t make sense. So I hacked back into the system, but as I was searching, I realized someone was trying to gain access to my computer through the same back door I had used.”

Mal’s frown deepened. “So someone from the warehouse?”

Belle swallowed and shook her head. “I can’t know. I would have had to try and hack them back to figure it out, but that would have left me vulnerable, and I didn’t want them finding something on my computer that would lead them straight to our doorstep.”

Beth’s grip tightened on Kaleth without her noticing. “Do you think it’s the men who had kidn*pped Kaleth?” she asked quietly.

Avi’s eyes snapped to her. “You think?”

Beth nodded slowly. “It would make sense, wouldn’t it? Who else would have a vested interest in making footage disappear and then hacking Belle?”

“Bloody hell,” Mal hissed under her breath.

Beth hesitated a beat, and dread pooled in her gut. “They must be trying to find him and get him back. With the reward, Kaleth must be worth more to them now than before.”

Belle leaned back as though she was suddenly drained. “Well, this tells us what our next move has to be,” she murmured. “We have to get rid of the kid before the wrong people come knocking. And we can’t ask for the reward.”

“Why the hell not?” Avi snapped.

Belle looked up. “If we try to get the reward, the police will get involved. They will need to check that we weren’t the ones who stole him in the first place. Which we didn’t, and that's all good. Nothing traces to us. But our names will become publicly linked to the case and will probably appear in some articles.”

Mal’s frown deepened. “And? I’d figured as much already.”

Belle arched her brow. “But now we know someone has footage of Beth taking the child from the basement, and they are trying to find her. What do you think will happen when these people find out we cashed in and now have five million? I can tell you what they won’t do… They won’t shrug and wish us a good life and be on their way.”

No one spoke. Beth couldn’t even muster up a little relief that the idea of collecting the reward was now fully off the table. This was a disaster. Her eyes dropped to Kaleth. His small hand curled into her shirt, holding on tight even in sleep.

Mal dragged a hand down her face. “Okay. Fine. So we can’t get the money. We still need a decision.” Her eyes flicked to the baby. “What are we doing with him?”

And just like that, all eyes went to Beth.

Of course.

Beth swallowed. “We take him back.”

“Obviously,” Belle deadpanned.

“I’m more interested in the how,” Mal cut in. “We could drop him somewhere safe. Let someone else find him. Problem solved.”

“No.” It came out fast. Hard. Everyone looked at her. Beth shook her head. “No. That’s not happening.”

“Why?” Mal challenged. “It keeps us out of it.”

Beth stood, holding Kaleth in her arms. “What if the people who took him find him again?”

Avi studied Beth. “So what’s your plan?”

Beth hesitated. There was only one option she saw. “I take him back. I started this. I’ll finish it.”

***

Her heart was racing so fast it made her feel lightheaded, which wasn’t ideal considering her current circumstances.

Beth didn’t like plans that depended on timing, which was kind of funny considering their illegal side hustle was all about time. Mess up the time, and everything went up in smoke.

That said, she should have been a pro at sitting still and waiting for the right moment. She wasn’t. Beth couldn’t stay still if her life depended on it. Not with her heart threatening to beat out of her chest and the weight of the child in her arms.

At least she didn’t have to worry about Kaleth squirming and demanding to be put down so he could explore the sidewalk, effectively drawing attention to them. No. The child was drowsy from a little cough medicine the others had insisted she give him to make the drop easier.

So, there they were, Beth dressed in her most inconspicuous clothes, a pair of light blue jeans and a gray tee. She wore a cap pulled low over her face and fake, large spectacles. Kaleth was bundled up in a baby carrier against her chest that she’d barely figured out how to tie properly.

Honestly, who the hell thought it was smart to make things so complicated? At some point, Beth hadn’t been sure if she’d figure out which clip tied where or if she would choke them both. The instruction manual hadn’t been much help. And the thought of a baby carrier coming with an instruction manual just said it all.

Lucky for everyone, Avi had figured it out, and Kaleth was safe. And equally hidden from prying eyes by the back support of the carrier. Just to be sure, Beth had also put a beanie on him just in case someone got too close.

The others still thought this was a bad idea, and maybe they were right. Getting this close to Santiago in broad daylight was a risk. But one she was willing to take to make sure the child was safe. For some reason, that was more important.

She looked around. They were in the busiest part of the city, an hour away from the cafe and apartment, and just as different. Here, high-rise buildings housed billion-dollar companies, boutiques, firms, and restaurants. So it was no surprise the streets were busy, especially given it was just late afternoon and most people were either headed home or doing a last-minute thing before offices closed.

With Belle’s help, they’d tracked Santiago down to his office. Apparently, the man could still work even when his son was missing. She supposed that when one owned a multi-million dollar investment empire, they couldn’t afford to take a ‘Family emergency’ day off.

The Blue Petals' main offices occupied a ten-story building made of glass and steel that reflected the afternoon sun and turned it into a sparkling jewel that towered over everything else on the block.

Beth stood across the street, half-hidden behind a row of parked cars. She adjusted her grip on Kaleth, her hand instinctively pressing against his back, feeling the soft rise and fall of his breath. He was awake but barely, which was okay.

“Right…” she muttered under her breath. This was it.