“James, damn it, just...” I stopped as he pressed his finger to the scanner. Would the whole thing just blow up immediately or...? My heart rate was in overdrive, and I braced myself for... I wasn’t even sure what. But then another beep sounded and the screen moved up.

James let out a sigh of relief, and if this weren’t Desmond’s office, I would’ve taken a seat in one of the chairs because my legs were shaky. I dragged myself over to him as an envelope appeared in the opening.

“How did you know that was going to work?”

“I didn’t.” His eyes met mine, and I knew he wasn’t lying.

“Well, that was very, very lucky.”

“I assumed my father would set up something like this in case something happened to him and to his other sons. I remembered that he brought in some people to take those scans from me, but I thought that was just for a bank account or something.” He grabbed the envelope and pulled it out.

“What’s that?” I eyed the envelope, wondering why the hell it was so important that everyone wanted to get their hands on it and that Desmond had been willing to install a bomb on the safe in order to protect it. Well, that wouldn’t exactly protect the envelope, but it would protect whatever secret was inside it.

James opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper that looked like a map of some kind.

“Treasure map?” I teased, but it looked like it was indeed a map that led to something.

“Yeah, actually. A special shipment of some kind.” James’ brow furrowed. “This map shows where it is.”

“Why would your father go through all the trouble to hide a drug shipment?” It didn’t really make much sense, unless there were tons of some drug stored somewhere.

“Maybe it’s not just any drug.”

“Well, if that guy had gotten in here and found this, then he would’ve been blown to bits.” It was unlikely the safe would’ve opened for anyone other than Desmond and his sons.

“We only checked his pockets. Maybe there’s something else on him. In his boots or...”

“I’ll call my men to come and check this.” I got my phone and typed a quick text to Meg, who’d then call whoever was on duty right now. They’d probably be surprised I’d gone off with James somewhere, but that wasn’t what we had to worry about now. “They’ll check if there’s anything on the body and analyze the safe so we can see who else might’ve been able to open it.”

James was still looking at the map. “I think this is coded too.”