I pushed the door open and entered, switching on the lights. What once had been a lavish home was now just a bunch of empty hallways and rooms. My footsteps echoed on the white marble floor as I made my way across the foyer. Glancing over my shoulder, I realized James was still at the door, as if he couldn’t decide whether to enter or not.

I supposed it was weird for him to see his home like this, bare and cold. Maybe he’d been hoping he could grab some of his things, but those had mostly ended up in our storage. We’d cleaned out everything, at least until we could find a new purpose for this place. In the meantime, we didn’t want anyone to snoop around here and steal something, even if it was just a random statue or a book that had belonged to the Ezzatis.

In fact, books were especially dangerous, and I’d told my men to check them for any hidden messages or code, but they hadn’t found anything so far. I’d sent some of the stuff that belonged to James’ sisters to their new residence, though. Even the blankets and teddy bears had been thoroughly checked first to ensure there wasn’t anything hidden in them.

“Are you coming or not?” I finally said when I realized James wasn’t moving.

“Yeah.” He hurried toward me, his shoulders tense.

“Where’s that secret compartment?” I didn’t want to waste too much time. We’d have to get what we came for and then decode that message before our enemy made their move.

“This way.” James went down one of the hallways, and I followed him. Just as we reached a stairway, he stopped and placed his hand on the railing, trailing his fingers up and down. When he seemed to have found what he was looking for, he pushed lightly on it, and one of the stairs seemed to pop out.

He hurried to the opening that had formed, and then wiggled the stair until it came off. I expected for him to reveal a hidden compartment, but there was actually only something that looked like a really small button. He pushed it, and something beeped under the stairs. Well, that was one hell of a complicated system.

James rushed down and pressed his hand against the wall under the stairs. I was about to ask why he thought there was something there, but then the part of the wall beneath his hand came off, revealing a hole with something white inside. Well, who would’ve thought? There was actually something in here and no one had taken it, which wasn’t a surprise, considering how well it had been hidden. James flipped through the papers.

“Is that what we need?” I asked, coming to stand next to him.