The Rogue Alpha ✔️✅ [Under Edit 5/17/22]

XXIV

::Royal Castle::

Ric hummed to herself as she perused the books in Davis WhiteClaw's personal office. Logically, it would be the most likely place to find proof. His council office would be too public, too high of a risk that he could be discovered.

When the books offered no clues, she moved to the ornate liquor cabinet in the far corner of the room. The upper portion contained an assortment of high-end, exorbitantly expensive liquors on the top two shelves; the bottom shelf had glasses arranged in an eye-catching presentation.

She found nothing but stirring sticks, coasters, and other alcoholic paraphernalia in the two drawers underneath the display of glasses. The cabinet that formed the lower half of the hutch only showed a few books about mixology and bottles of mixers. Ric sneered at the thought of ruining good liquor with a mixer.

The small nightstand that housed a lamp didn't yield any results either. She huffed in frustration before she set her sights on the desk. Two drawers large enough to hold hanging folders formed either side; two smaller drawers sat above those with a wide drawer in the center of the top.

Ric sat in the chair in front of the desk and pulled open the bottom left drawer. A scan of the file names indicated they were all related to Davis's personal holdings. Files can be labeled anything, she reminded herself. I'll have to go through each one.

Thirty minutes later, she replaced the last folder and conceded that they were unrelated to her search. She repeated the process with the top three drawers.

"Well," she uttered to herself. "Nothing related to rogues, or a coup, but I did learn he has an unhealthy obsession with caramel and toffee, and likes to collect pens. Maybe this last drawer has something."

The bottom right drawer had more hanging folders, but there weren't labeled. She pulled out the first folder, set it on the desk, and opened it. A satisfied smile spread across her face as she read through it.

"Jackpot!" she called. "I need a box to put these files in."

"I asked one of the chambermaids that clean his rooms to bring a box. It won't be odd for her to run an errand for a council member," Dallas yelled back. "So far, the living room and kitchen are clear."

Ric pulled the rest of the files out of the drawer and slid them beneath the first. Then, she decided to take the files from the left drawer, too. Davis's personal information and records could be useful in the future.

Two hours later, Dallas had found a few notebooks in the den that were written in code that he added to the box of files. Ric dropped a pile of journals that she found in a nightstand beside the bed into the box.

"I've searched everywhere," Dallas informed Ric as he glanced around the living room one last time. "I found all that I can."

"I have two more places to check," she answered as she headed back into the bedroom. The bathroom didn't have any hidden treasure, which Ric expected, so she walked into his closet.

The tiny she-wolf searched the pockets of the clothes hanging up and pawed through his discarded clothing with no results. In the bottom drawer, underneath rows of uniformly folded socks, she found a letter-sized envelope.

"Dallas!" she yelled. "I found the final nail!"