“No.” Dylan said shortly, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one noticing his weird attitude.
“What about information on gifts Katelyn received?” I pressed.
“Graeme is blocking all access to his family and the police files,” Jasper answered this time, and the stark contrast between him and Dylan made the tension skyrocket. “But we’re working on sneaking in through … let’s just call it a side access.”
Which was probably a good idea since we now knew this “rose killer” was an actual killer.
“Poor Carl,” I said softly, my chest aching again. “He has kids and grandkids. I mean had. He had…” I broke off.
“For what it’s worth,” Beck said gently, “his family will be compensated.”
It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was something at least. I had no idea how Beck was going to manage that without tipping Delta off to our involvement, but he’d figure out a way.
The bright lights of the city hit me as we finally left the back streets where the Wells building was. Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, there were people everywhere, and I blinked at the sudden noise and activity. I’d been sitting in a dark murder bubble for too long, and I almost couldn’t correlate the two worlds.
“What’s your plan?” Beck broke the silence, and I jerked in my seat.
“Shit, you scared me,” I said, pressing my hand to my chest. “Sorry, I must have been in my own world.”
His thumb brushed across my cheek. “You’re in shock still. Give yourself a break.”
I nodded, my head bouncing up and down even though I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was feeling. “So the plan.”
I took a deep breath, wondering if they would think I was a fucking idiot or not.
“I think we should vote Huntley into Delta.”
I let that sink in for a moment, wondering what their initial reaction would be.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Jasper asked, sounding almost amused by my crazy suggestion. “Beck, you need to get your woman checked. She’s fucking crazy.”
I held a hand up, even though Jasper was watching the road and couldn’t even see me. “Hear me out before you dismiss my brilliance.” My attempt at a joke fell very flat. “There’s more to it than just voting them in and hoping that the board goes to war and kills each other.”
Evan snorted, shaking his head. “That actually might not be a bad idea. Wars within Delta would weaken them a lot.”
“That’s not enough for me,” I said, letting some of the dark anger that had been simmering inside since I was first brought into this world spill out. “I want them to suffer. I want them alive, stripped of their money and power, at the mercy of the criminals in whatever horrible jail we arrange for them to be at.”
They had destroyed so many lives. It was time to pay.
“And how do you propose letting Huntley win the final seat will ensure that?” Beck asked, sounding like he was taking me seriously.
I cleared my throat. “We need access to the vault. That’s where all the evidence is. Decades of fucking evidence.”
My body was tense as I waited again. “No one knows where the vault is,” Dylan said, pensive and still doing the weird stare out the window thing. “No one. It’s the highest guarded secret Delta has.”
“Someone has to know,” I told him just as thoughtfully. “Someone deposits the evidence in there.”
Beck’s hand gripped mine, his thumb brushing over my skin. “One of the elders is the secret keeper. There is always only one and no torture would make him give up the location—upon his death, there’s a fucking ceremony and everything where they use his thumb to open up a safe that gives direction to the next secret keeper.”
Jasper snorted. “That old fuck wouldn’t break. He’s not human. But I suppose we could knock him off and remove the thumb.”
I shook my head. “No, we aren’t there yet. Plus, I’m guessing he’s pretty heavily guarded.”
The grim silence told me that I’d hit the nail on the head there.
“Okay, so he’s the only one that knows. Is he unguarded when he puts the video in the vault though? Like … when he put mine in there?” I was trying to piece it all together.
Beck shook his head. “Nah, he hires a runner who he kills after the fact. Promises someone money, and then when they do their task, he gets rid of them.”
