Page 66 of Wicked Heiress

A tear slid down my cheek, and I let it fall. “I’m a pawn in a rich man’s game and don’t know how to play it. My entire life has been spent running from a ghost I barely remember.”

“Drake thinks your father has something on Fitzy,” he confessed. “You’re the heir to the Adams fortune, not Bash. This tape proves it. We’ll contact Viktor again and see if he can tell us more.”

My heart hammered in my chest as I considered everything I knew about my father and grandfather. And until Alex Wellington got kidnapped, I had forgotten all about my cousin Bastian and the key.

“I have an old key,” I told Cole. “Bastian gave it to me when I was a little girl. He handed it to me under the table at dinner when our grandfather wasn’t looking and said to hold onto it for him.”

I shot up from the bed and grabbed the skeleton key.

Cole’s mouth widened as he took it from my hand. “It’s an Elders key.”

“Do you know what it opens?”

He nodded. “A door that leads to a vault. Only the five Elders of The Founders Society have access to it. Some of the secrets hidden inside date back to the late 1700s and have kept The Founders in power for centuries.”

I grabbed the old key to inspect the metal with strange markings. “Why do only the Elders have a key?”

“The Founders Society formed not long after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There are five keys, one for each of the original families.”

“Weren’t there seven Founding Fathers?”

He nodded. “But only five of them had their own children.”

“I’m not an Adams anymore. My grandfather changed my name.”

He shook his head. “You were born an Adams. This key is your birthright.” Cole opened his palm. “Let me hold it for you. I have a safe in my room. You don’t want the wrong person getting their hands on it.”

I placed the key in his hand. “No one locks a vault with a skeleton key.”

“The key opens a door. Only one of the Elders could tell you what’s behind it. I’ve heard stories but not much more.” He stuffed the key into his pocket and guided me to the bed. “The Founders are a little old school. Our real net worth comes from the things we’ve acquired over decades. We have a saying in Devil’s Creek. Secrets are commodities. And the more you collect, the more power you have.”

“For most of my life, I have felt trapped.”

“An Elders key changes everything.” He smiled as if this wasn’t the worst day of our lives. “You’re the heir to the Adams fortune because Fitzy thinks your dad took the key. Not you. Grace, this key is your freedom.” His hands cradled my face. “Do you trust me?”

I nodded. “With my life.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

COLE

We had an Elders key. Our winning ticket. The only thing that could free Grace from a horrible life with a man she hated.

With Grace safe, I headed into my bedroom to hide the key. I had secret hiding spots all over the house. Pull on a candlestick and you might tumble down a dark staircase. Tap the right button on a fireplace, and you might open a door. If I ever needed to escape quickly, there were trap doors everywhere.

Hidden safes.

Random doors.

Winding staircases.

Families like mine could never be too careful. Not all our money was made legally, and we had to take precautions. When the Founders of Devil’s Creek built the town, our families were bootleggers and gunrunners, anything to make a buck.

Inside my bedroom, I pushed the oak chest away from the wall and felt around for the groove in the wooden panels. Finally, my fingers caught on the latch. I hit the trigger point, and the door creaked open.

I pressed my thumb to the safe and entered the combination. It contained five handguns with ammunition, stacks of cash, jewelry, and random items I didn’t want to leave out for someone to find.

I locked the Elders key inside, still in disbelief that I had the power to crush Fitzy. Grace was only alive because of this key. Without it, her grandfather had no reason to keep her around.

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