Risky Obsession (Wolf Security #3)

29. Kane

CHAPTER 29

Kane

I leaned over the cliff face, trying to find a way down to the stairway. Easing back, I frowned at Lacey. “How did you find them?”

She wriggled her eyebrows. “Told you I was good at this treasure-hunting business.”

“Okay, genius, how did they get supplies down to those steps?”

“My guess is they had a steel ladder that was connected to these.” She pulled back a shrub to reveal a rusted metal anchor attached to the rock. “I guess they sabotaged it, at the end of the war.”

“Huh. That makes sense.”

“So,” she said, “you can easily lower me down to those steps. But I’m not sure how you’ll reach them.”

“I can get down there, but once we do this, we won’t be able to get back up.”

She shrugged. “We’ll figure it out.”

She stood and repositioned the beanie on her head.

Shit. She’s serious.

“If the ladder was sabotaged,” I said, “then the entire area could be compromised.”

Her eyes sparkled as she faced me. “I signed up for danger when I agreed to work with you. So, are you ready?”

I huffed. “Sure.”

“I know we’re onto something. I can feel it. Just don’t drop me, okay? ”

“I’m not an asshole, Lacey.”

Her smile vanished. “I know you’re not, Kane.” She lowered to her hands and knees and guided her legs over the edge so her torso was on the ground.

“Careful,” I said as I lay on the rocks, ready to take her weight.

The wind whipped around us as if warning us not to do this. But Lacey showed zero apprehension, and in a demonstration of incredible strength, she eased the rest of her body over the cliff until just her left hand and two fingers on her wounded hand were on the top.

“Grab my wrist on my right hand,” she said, looking up at me with an expression that was both resolute and just a fraction crazy.

I gripped her wrist, and as I lowered her down with my heart hammering in my chest, I decided that Lacey must’ve been just like this when she ran away with the bikie gang leader–blindly determined.

“I’m here. Let me go.”

I released my grip and peered over the edge.

She swept her gaze up at me. “Your turn.”

With my heart hammering, I followed her move over the cliff, carefully controlling my descent.

“I’ve got you,” she said, gripping my ankles.

“Get back,” I yelled down to her.

Her fingers released me, and I dropped the final section onto the small platform.

“Nicely done,” she said.

“I hope this is worth it.”

“It will be. I’ll lead the way.” She strode down the steps that were barely two feet wide.

As I followed her sexy ass down the steep and uneven stairs, I tried to picture men carrying supplies down to the ocean on these during the war. It would have been damn hard.

She turned a corner ahead of me in a switchback and when she waved up at me, she showed zero fear. Clearly, she wasn’t scared of heights. Maybe her comment about her claustrophobia was also bullshit.

The cry from a pair of seagulls drifting in the updraft nearby was the only sound.

Ahead of me, Lacey stopped. Shit, the stairs had ended.

“We’re lucky this ladder is still here.” She pointed over the edge .

Below us, an ancient rusty ladder clung to the cliff face.

“Do you reckon it’s safe?” She scrunched her nose in that cute way that distracted me more than I liked.

“You try first and let me know,” I said.

“Yeah. Funny. I’m serious.”

“Well, how the fuck should I know?”

“All right, ya cranky ass.” She kicked the bracket attaching the ladder to the cliff face. It didn’t budge. “I guess we don’t have a choice, do we?”

“Nope. We can’t get back up that cliff.”

She huffed and peered down at the ocean. “At least we are closer to the water now. If we fall, I mean.”

“True.” I examined the water below, searching for wrecks concealed beneath the swell. If there was anything there, it wasn’t visible. “I’ll go first.”

“Oh no, you don’t.” She waggled a finger at me. “You’ll probably rip the whole bloody thing away. I’m going first.”

I swept my hand toward the top rung. “Fine. Don’t blame me if you splash down with a metal ladder on your head.”

She stepped onto the ladder with so much confidence I couldn’t decide if she was brave or reckless. Working quickly, she climbed down the ladder, showing little respect for the age or condition of that rusty metal.

Then, she stopped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Some of the ladder is missing.”

“Is there another way down?”

She shifted around to the back side of the ladder.

How did she do that if it’s connected to the rocks?

Lacey vanished.

“Lacey, are you okay?”

She returned to the ladder and looked up at me. “You are not going to believe this. Get your ass down here.”

My heart boomed in my chest as I climbed onto the ladder. Rust flaked in my hands as the metal creaked and groaned against my weight.

A massive chunk had been taken out of the cliff, like an entire section had carved off and dropped into the ocean, making the ladder seem to hang in mid-air. If the cliff had been blasted away, that was probably what had taken the ladder with it. I reached the bottom rung which was still about twenty feet above the waterline but couldn’t see Lacey anywhere.

“Come on,” Lacey said, appearing to my left. “You won’t believe this. Climb onto that ledge.”

She pointed at a narrow section of rock. I shifted around to the other side of the ladder, and using the metal for leverage, I pushed back onto the rock.

“This is amazing, Kane.” She held her hand toward me.

“What is it?” I gripped her tiny palm in mine, and she led me through a narrow gap between two giant boulders.

A massive man-made chasm came into view below us.

“Ta-da!” She spread her arms wide.

“Holy shit.”

Carved deep into the cliff was a cavernous opening that stretched like a giant tomb and disappeared into the darkness in the distance.

“What is this place?” Lacey’s eyes were enormous.

“It’s a submarine pen,” I said. The immense structure housed four long pens, running parallel to each other that were obviously deep enough for a submarine to exit straight into the ocean without detection from above.

A massive swastika flag against the far wall confirmed who had built it. Light speared through the roof and walls at intervals that suggested the skylights weren’t natural and had been designed on purpose to provide light.

“The Nazis went to great lengths to hide this place,” I said. “And by collapsing a section of the cliff, they concealed the entrance.”

“It’s been hidden all this time. Nobody would have found this place unless they came through the way we did.” Her face lit up. “This has to be where the gold is. Don’t you think?”

“It’s very promising, that’s for sure.”

The air was thick with an eerie silence, broken only by the sound of water dripping somewhere nearby.

I moved closer to the edge. The submarine area was shrouded in shadow, yet some structures were visible: bunkers, docks, and what looked like the crumbling remains of a U-boat in one of the watery pens.

“This is incredible.” She stepped to my side. “It must’ve been one hell of an effort to make these down here.”

“And then some.”

“We need to get down there.” She pointed to a concrete platform that ran the length of the first pen. A matching one ran the length of the fourth pen. And three narrow concrete platforms serviced the interior walls of the pens.

“These pens must be the four lines on Pops’ map that I couldn’t work out,” I said.

“Yes.” Her eyes lit up. “That has to be it. Do you really think we are the first to find this after all these years?”

“Yeah, I do.” The network of concrete docks and support structures was extensive. “Look at the size of those pens. They must’ve sheltered multiple U-boats at once down here.”

Lacey nodded. “How do we get down there?” She pointed at the concrete platform on the left.

“Let’s try this way.” I inched across the jumble of rocks, checking each step as I went. “Careful, Lacey, you don’t know how unstable this area is.” My voice echoed against the cavernous walls.

The curved roof was made of reinforced concrete, explaining why the entire area didn’t cave in when the detonation took down the entrance to the submarine pens.

The sheer scope of the hidden facility was mind-blowing, and the silence was so profound it felt unnatural.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Lacey said.

I slid down about five feet of loose gravel and turned to help her.

She reached for my hand. “Do you think they got everyone out before they sabotaged this section?”

“Who knows.”

The air was thick with scents of dampness and rust, a stark contrast to the salty sea breeze that had accompanied us down the cliff face.

Working together, we picked a path down the rocky landslide. When we finally planted our feet on the far-right concrete platform, she laced her fingers with mine. Her grip was tight, showing just how spooked she was by this place.

I didn’t want to voice it, but I had a feeling some truly rotten things had happened here. The water in the pens wasn’t moldy and stagnant, confirming that the ocean wasn’t completely cut off.

We strolled past the U-boat in the pen, and the entire top was covered in rust.

“I’d give anything to have a look inside that,” I said.

That vessel alone would be priceless.

“I can’t believe they abandoned it.” Lacey squeezed my hand.

“I’d say they had no choice. Looks to me like they left in a hurry. And by sabotaging the entrance, they hoped this place would never be found.”

Items were strewn everywhere. Tools, some rusted, some barely recognizable. Decaying timber boxes, tables with upturned chairs, toppled lamps, and even a few uniform pieces that would also fetch a fortune with an unscrupulous collector of Nazi paraphernalia.

As our footsteps echoed around the chasm, Lacey’s hand trembled slightly in mine. Maybe it was the chill in the air that intensified the farther we went. The spears of light filtering through the domed roof overhead added an alien-like atmosphere to the vast space.

The first building we came to had a roof, back wall, and two sides, but the entire front was open. Inside was a mechanic’s wet dream. Tools and equipment were scattered everywhere.

“Look at this stuff. Some of it would be worth a small fortune.” Releasing her hand, I picked up the biggest wrench I’d ever seen.

Lacey crouched at a metal suitcase-sized box that was under a table. The lid screeched as she opened it. Inside were journals, paperwork, and black and white photographs. “I can’t wait to go through this.”

I squatted at her side and we each pulled out a photo.

“Wow.” She frowned at the photo. “I can’t believe all this stuff is still here.”

“Shows how much of a hurry they were in to leave.”

“Do you think the gold is still down here?” She tossed the photo back into the box and reached for another.

“I think it’s promising.”

“Me too. So, where do we start looking?” She peered into the dark recesses at the back.

I followed her gaze to a series of buildings lined along the back wall. “Let’s start there. The gold has to be hidden somewhere out of view.”

The dripping noise grew louder, and I hated how the Nazi flag hanging on the back wall fluttered in a breeze. It was like the distressing moniker was celebrating its survival even after all these decades.

“How much space would that much gold need?” Lacey asked.

“One hundred bars would fit into the boot of a small car or a suitcase. It’s the weight that would be an issue. One person could lift say four, maybe five bars. They wouldn’t be able to lift a suitcase filled with a hundred bars.”

We reached the open doorway of an office with papers strewn everywhere like a tornado had blasted through it. On the dusty table was an open ledger, with a pen wedged in the crease.

I headed for the rusted filing cabinet, while Lacey aimed for the desk.

“Yasmin’s father would have loved to see all this stuff.” She leaned over the journal. “Looks like some kind of shipping manifest.”

I yanked the handle on the top drawer of the filing cabinet, and the drawer opened just three inches before it got stuck. It was crammed full of paperwork. I moved onto the next drawer. “Nothing in here,” I said as shoved the bottom drawer shut. I exited that office and strode toward the next.

“Shall we split up?” Lacey asked.

“Sure, you take this one. I’ll do the next.”

We moved from office to office, each time marveling at just how much stuff had been left behind, but not finding any clues to the gold.

Lacey was still going through an office when I strode into the last one. This room was larger than the others and the massive oak desk gave a don’t fuck with me vibe. This was the commander’s office. As I strode around the other side of the desk, I shoved the chair back. The stiff wheels scraped over the bare concrete, and I wondered if that asshole Goering had sat in this very chair.

Unlike all the other offices, this one had been cleared out. Every drawer on the desk was empty. Same with the filing cabinets along the wall.

Lacey strolled into the office. “Kane, look!”

She pointed over my shoulder, and I turned around. On the wall behind a row of filing cabinets was an oval-shaped frame with a yellowed photo of a woman.

“That’s Emmy Sonnemann.” Lacey reached my side.

“Holy shit.”

She pulled the photo off the wall and flipped it over, but there was nothing written on the back.

“What’s behind these cabinets?” I said. Working like a man possessed, I hauled a cabinet forward, and the steel base scraped over the concrete like it was screaming at me to stop.

“There’s a secret panel!” Lacey cried.

“Fuck yeah!”

The panel was disguised as part of the concrete wall and was barely visible. My heart thundered in my chest as Lacey helped me move another cabinet.

“Watch out.” Lacey pointed at a rectangular hole in the floor that had been hidden by the cabinet. It would break my ankle if I fell in it. Lacey would probably fall right through.

We moved a third cabinet out of the way to give us more room and a pile of copper pipes fell off the top and clattered onto the floor. I shoved them out of our way and turned back to the wall. The outline of the hidden panel was low like it was built for a child.

“There’s no handle,” Lacey said. “How do we open it?”

I kicked the panel, and my boot went right through the wall.

Lacey cheered and working together, we broke through the fake wall.

I shone my phone light into the space and found an empty room that was long and narrow and about the size of a semi-trailer. The curved ceiling and the walls had all been reinforced with concrete.

“Looks like a security bunker,” I said as Lacey and I stepped in. While she could stand upright, I had to duck my head to fit.

“What’s that?” She pointed to the far side, and we strode to a circular hole in the floor.

With our shoulders together, we looked down the shaft.

“Another tunnel,” I said.

Her eyes dazzled in the light from my phone.

A ladder was attached to the wall of the shaft, and the bottom was about ten feet down and looked like bare concrete.

“This is so exciting,” Lacey squealed.

“I know. Ladies first,” I said.

“No, I want you to.” She draped her hand over my wrist. “This is for your pops.”

A swell of emotion washed through me, and my fucking heart felt like she just made a crack through it.

“Thanks,” I managed to say.

Before I pulled her gorgeous lips to my mouth, I climbed down the rusty ladder. At the bottom, I shone the light up for Lacey and got a spectacular view of her ass as she scurried down to me .

“This has to be it.” Her words gushed out with a breath as she rubbed her arms.

“We’re about to find out.” I panned the light around us.

We stood in an arched tunnel that had been carved into the rocks. My heart thundered in my ears as I followed the beam of my light deeper into the tunnel.

If my bearings were right, we were heading underneath the office we’d just left.

My assumption was confirmed when the square hole that had been in the floor above, became a shaft of dim light that lit up a small room.

Lacey stepped into the room with me. A row of metal-legged chairs was stacked against one wall. A small wooden table with two seats sat near them and on the table was a dinner setting with two metal plates, cutlery nestled on cloth napkins, and two copper mugs in position.

“That’s weird,” Lacey said.

“Maybe it was the last supper setting,” I said.

On the far side of the room, a series of large wooden crates were stacked neatly against the wall.

Lacey and I both hitched a breath.

She squeezed my hand as we walked to them.

“I can hardly breathe,” she said.

“Me neither.”

Each of the dozen or so crates had a serial number stamped on the outside and all had rusty padlocks. I rattled the lock, but it was too solid to break.

Lacey ran to the table and returned with the two dinner knives.

“Moment of truth.” Her voice was thick with emotion as she handed one of the knives to me. I drank her in, the excitement in her stunning blue eyes, her lips that I desperately wanted to kiss.

She was the perfect partner to find this gold with me.

Maybe this was Pops’ idea all along.

I gave her the phone, and she shone the light on the lock.

Rather than try to break the steel lock, I wedged the knife into the latch connected to the metal crate and yanked it hard. The latch flew off, taking the lock with it, and clattered to the concrete floor.

My fingers trembled as I opened the lid. Lacey shone the light inside, lighting up four gold bars .

She squealed.

“Yes!” I ran my finger over the gleaming surface and picked up one of the bars, to reveal another row of bars beneath. The weight confirmed this was pure, solid gold. On the side of the bar was the lion emblem I’d been tracking for a decade.

“We found them.” Lacey let out a breathless laugh and the sound echoed in the confines of the secret chamber.

I put the gold bar down. “We sure did.”

Our eyes locked for one heartbeat before I crushed my mouth to her gorgeous lips.

She gripped my shoulders, pulling me to her. Her tongue thrust into my mouth, and I cupped her boob beneath her thick coat, trying to squeeze her glorious flesh that I’d been eyeing for days.

Her hips nudged into mine, and she clawed her fingers under my beanie, flipping it off, to drive her nails through my hair.

Her tongue was hot and slick and eager, and she tasted amazing.

This wasn’t a sweet kiss. This was needy, rough, and fucking awesome.

Blazing lust raced through my veins as I lost myself to her kiss. Hating her was no longer an option. I wanted her. Needed her.

I curled my hand around the back of her neck, possessing her with my kiss. She moaned onto my tongue and the vibration was like a trigger, sending shockwaves right down to my cock.

She ran her hand over my groin, and my cock was so hard it hurt.

Our kiss was a fiery tangle of tongues and lips, and it was so hot I felt it in every cell in my body.

The tiniest of gasps left her lips, and she tilted her head back, offering me the slender length of her throat. As I threaded kisses from her earlobe down her neck, she tugged down the zipper on her jacket.

I reached into her coat and grabbed her boob. A moan escaped her lips.

In the back of my mind, a fleeting whisper told me to push her away. She had hurt me, nearly ruined me.

But I can’t.

Somehow, despite her lies, I wanted her. All of her.

I undid the button on her jeans, pulled down the zipper, and slid my hand into her panties. She parted her legs, and when I pushed two fingers into her hot zone, her warmth wrapped around my fingers .

She tilted her head back, and in this light, this gorgeous woman had nothing but hunger in her eyes. Hunger for me.

My cock throbbed like a jackhammer as I drove my fingers into her slick wetness. Driving two fingers deep into her core, I stroked her little bud with my thumb, and she bucked against me.

Her entire body trembled as she gripped onto my body like she was holding on for life. As her orgasm spilled around my fingers, she cried out and her passion echoed about the tiny room.

We kicked off our shoes and stripped off our clothes. She curled her hand around my cock, stroking along my shaft. It felt so fucking good.

She clutched my cheeks, demanding that I kiss her.

As I crushed my lips to hers and sought her pussy with my hand again, she raised her knee, giving me access, and I thrust my fingers into her. Her lips were soft, yet somehow hard, and her tongue dueled with mine.

She cruised her hand along my cock, making me so hard I could barely breathe, yet I forced my mind to concentrate on her, the hottest woman in the world. I pressed my thumb to her sensitive spot, rubbing her nub until she sucked in a sharp breath and cried out as her entire body shuddered again.

There was nothing fake about her orgasm. It was every bit real.

I couldn’t hold back a moment more.

Turning her around, I guided her to the table and bent her over, finally giving me a full view of her glorious ass. Her toned butt was everything I anticipated and so much more.

My hand trembled as I glided the head of my cock along her velvet folds.

Her moans were electrifying, and I had never wanted a woman as much as I wanted her. But she also scared the fuck out of me because she had the power to break me.

She eased her ass toward me, silently demanding me to fuck her.

I gripped her hip and with my heart pounding, I shoved my cock into her, fast and hard, taking control. But she matched my thrusts, releasing a gasp that lit a firecracker inside me.

I slammed into her again and again, setting a brutal pace.

The delicious friction was like a drug, and I was so addicted I wanted to do this forever.

Lacey seemed just as needy, and when she pushed up on her arms to match me thrust for thrust, I tipped over the edge and pounded into her like there was no tomorrow.

We remained together, gasping, as reality slowly seeped back in.

I pulled myself out of her, and she turned around and wrapped her arms around me. Her hug was fierce, and I hugged her back, holding her in my arms until our breathing settled.

She tilted her head to look up at me. Lust still simmered in her eyes, but there was something else in her expression that wrapped around my heart and squeezed so tight I could barely breathe.

I eased away from her and redressed. As Lacey did the same, an awkward silence settled over us. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to storm away from her or clutch her to my chest and kiss away the distress blazing in her eyes.

She yanked up the zipper on her jacket and studied me with her lips parted in a silent comment. Whatever she wanted to say terrified her.

She closed the distance between us and placed her hand over my heart. “Kane . . . please don’t let this be the end of our journey together.”

I swept a slip of hair away from her eye.

“I am truly sorry for what I did. You are the most amazing, caring, fascinating man I’ve ever met, and I know I hurt you. I will hate myself forever for doing that. I promise I will never lie to you again. I meant it when I said that I really am falling for you, and I truly think we have something special. Can you ever?—”

A bone-rattling explosion echoed through the tunnel. The walls around us shook violently.

“Fuck! What was that?” I pushed Lacey behind me, desperate to protect her from an attack.

The air grew thicker.

Water gushed into the room from the tunnel.

“Oh fuck!” I yelled. “We’re trapped.”