Page 28 of Black Hearts

I slumped back. “True. And if we go at night, they’ll see the lights from our flashlights through the windows. We can’t exactly look at photos in the dark.”

“Yup.”

My face brightened again. “Wait, no! I just remembered. Last time I was there, Samara and I packed everything up and took it into the basement. It’s all down there, including the photos. So as long as we can manage to get into the house in the dark, it’ll be fine. No one will see us using lights in the basement.”

“True.” Alex glanced at his watch. “We’ll keep doing this for now, and we’ll head out to Fox Chapel at about eleven.”

“I have a good feeling about this,” I said excitedly. “I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, but I really think it could work.”

Alex smiled faintly. “Good.”

“I can’t wait to get rid of every last one of them,” I said, my heart pumping faster at the thought of the Circle dying in agony.

“Patience, my little angel of death. We haven’t even found the place yet.”

“I know. But you were right earlier. We will. And then we’ll make them suffer. They’ve had decades to run the show and fuck everyone over… but now it’s their time to go down. They’re already crumbling, anyway.” I was beyond fired up now, my cheeks flushing and my pulse racing.

Alex frowned. “What do you mean, they’re crumbling?”

“I mean you’ve killed a lot of them already, and they’re losing power as a result. A lot of it. I don’t think they’re anywhere near as strong and influential as they were ten or twenty years ago.”

“Perhaps.”

I leaned closer. “Seriously, Alex. They’re nervous. I could tell from what Dwyer said. They don’t have anyone on the inside in the police anymore. He told me you killed the last of them years ago. And now he’s gone too, so they don’t have an FBI connection either.”

“Hm. Didn’t know that I got every cop involved. That’s good, though.”

“Yes. They won’t win.”

Alex chuckled. “I like this new attitude of yours.”

I smiled. “Me too.” For the first time in weeks, I felt real hope.

We spent the rest of the day searching fruitlessly on Google Earth. When it hit eleven, we put dark jackets and scarves on and headed out into the snowy outdoors.

We drove to Fox Chapel in silence, our jaws set with determination. When we arrived in the area, we parked about a mile from my parents’ old place and hiked in through the nature reserve that the property backed onto. It was freezing out here, but I was warm from the rush of adrenaline pumping around my body.

“We’re almost there,” I whispered. In the distance, through the trees, I could see glimpses of my old backyard and garden, lit with moonlight.

When we arrived at the tree line, Alex put his hand on my shoulder. “You stay here. I’m going to check out the place first; make sure no one’s here.”

I waited with apprehension as he stepped into the backyard and quietly crept toward the dark house. My heart had never beaten so fast, my breaths had never come so quick. And yet, time had never seemed to move slower. My stomach was a mess of twisting, tightening coils, and the hairs on my neck stood on end, telling me I should stay away from this place.

What if someone was in the house, waiting for us? What if Alex got ambushed? What if he didn’t come back?

But, as always, he did come back for me. I breathed out all my fear and inhaled sweet relief.

“It’s clear,” he said, taking my hand. “But we should stay as quiet as possible anyway.”

“Yes.”

We crept inside in the darkness. The back door must’ve already been unlocked, because Alex hadn’t needed to break anything when he checked it out a few minutes ago. That sent a chill through me—was it still unlocked from when I was last here, just before Alex took me, or had someone else managed to get the keys to keep an eye on things in case I tried to return?

I pushed the thought from my mind. I had to stop worrying about everything. The less stress I felt, the more likely my memories were to stop manifesting as nerve pain and start returning instead.

Taking a deep breath, I led Alex down into the basement on my tiptoes. Then I reached into my pocket and grabbed a small flashlight he’d given me earlier.

“Over here,” I whispered, heading toward a big stack of boxes.

---