Love's Redemption (Chris and Maddie)

Chapter 823

I rolled my eyes so hard they almost got stuck. Hayden really had way too much time on his hands. Decorating an urn and stashing a data sync device in a jewelry box? Was this some kind of cosmic joke? Then again, maybe he'd done it to throw people off-make them think it was just a random trinket and not something insanely valuable.

"What the hell is this?" Cole snapped, reaching for the box.

I smacked his hand away. "Chill, Drago. What's the rush? Don't you afraid there's a scorpion inside or something?"

He gave me an annoyed side-eye. "Just open it already. Hayden's brain must be a circus to come up with this nonsense."

Ignoring him, I pulled the tiny red box from its fluffy nest of white feathers.

It was way too light. No way it held the device.

Still, I flipped it open-and, of course, my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

"A ring?" Cole said, his voice somewhere between disbelief and irritation.

the size of that rock, it could probably

those weird high-tech

but Cole snatched it before I could, holding it up like he expected it to

and focused on the jewelry box itself, poking

turned up nothing, he grabbed the box and started ripping it apart. Lining, inserts, every layer-it all got

vanished, replaced with a

dumped its contents onto the ground, sifting through the mess

the

refused to give

Chapter 823

+25 BONUS

jagged shards. But even broken into pieces, it revealed no hidden compartments, no secrets. Cole's fists clenched at his sides, the tension rolling off him like a storm. Months of chasing me, following leads, and this was all he had to show for it? I almost

Almost.

to accept the truth, no matter

Hayden had told me the urn held the