Page 109 of Beloved Sacrifice

She drew back, yanking Marek with her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately.

“It’s Lee Hager, the Director of Operations at the library. He’s a member of the Trinity Masters. The other man is his husband, Barry. I’ve socialized with them at the society’s galas in the past.”

“So they’d recognize you?”

“Yes. I’ve been going to the library since I was a teenager. He’ll know me. And he probably knows they’re hunting me. He might even recognize you,” she whispered back.

Marek frowned. “Talking to them could provide a distraction.”

He had a point. They might be able to lure people out from under the library if they started a scene here in the church. But if walking up to Lee and Barry made them lock down their security, instead of drawing people out, Wes might be trapped.

He might be killed.

And then he’d disappear, the same way he had once before. The same way Caden had. Rose’s stomach churned.

“We could wait and sneak out when the service is over.” Marek’s voice was calm and reasonable.

“But Wes needs a distraction now.” Rose looked at the tile. She wasn’t thinking about being a distraction, that was just something to say. It was fear that made her move away from the entrance. Fear that she’d never see Wes again, that she’d found him only to lose him. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going down there.” She dropped to her knees and closed her eyes, feeling along the edges of the tile, doing what Weston had done just minutes before her.

When it sprang open, Rose quickly slid her legs in. “Hurry, and you have to pull it shut as you come down.”

Rose stared down into the darkness. An instinctive fear of the dark warred with memories for a chance to strangle her thoughts.

Marek’s feet hit the ladder, making it vibrate a bit. Then he pulled the trap door closed, sealing them in the darkness.

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