Page 121 of Demise

Understanding passes across their faces and they all nod like it makes sense.

“You all knew about this rumor and didn’t tell me?”

“What’s there to tell you, princess? It’s bullshit, just like half the rumors are in the Brethren.”

“While the other half are truth,” I point out. “I just wanted to make sense of everything. Get some answers on her death. I just…I don’t know. I feel so out of my depth. I’m a pawn on a board I’ve never had the chance to fully study.”

“Well, this is not the way to get your answers,” Ronan says, shaking the journal in his fists as he huffs in anger. “I’m goingto return this and hope to fucking God that my brother hasn’t already figured out that it’s missing,” he says.

“I’ll go with you for backup,” Wesley says. “We’ll come up with some bullshit story if we have to.”

“We’re gonna have to do something because of her stupidity,” Ronan barks as he storms out of the room, his feet thundering down the steps as the front door opens and slams shut.

I wince at the slam and Wesley bends down beside me, rubbing his hand over my knee.

“He’s not mad at you, little one. He’s scared for you. We’ll get it sorted. Did you take anything else?”

I shake my head.

“Alright. Just sit tight. We’ll be back as soon as we can,” he says.

I nod and he cups my chin, squeezing it gently as he presses a kiss to my forehead.

“Good girl.”

With that, he takes off after Ronan, this door slam being a lot less aggressive. Vincent, Asher and I sit in silence for several seconds, and I finally chance a glance to Asher to see him looking at the floor.

“Let’s go for a drive,” he says as he stands up.

“To where?” I ask.

Asher looks to Vincent before back to me.

“To the Salem Witch Museum.”

Chapter Thirty Nine

Wesley

Ronan drives with both hands on the wheel. More like both hands strangling the wheel. He’s fucking pissed, but I know him better than anyone, and I know that he’s just masking right now. He’s not mad at Skyla. In fact, I know a small part of him understands why she did it. No matter how dumb it was.

“It’s gonna be okay, Ro,” I say calmly as he shakes his head.

“Yeah? Have you figured out a way to sneak onto my brother’s property, uninvited, sneak past his security cameras and staff, break into the house and slide the journal exactly where Skyla found it without setting off a single red flag?”

I stay silent for several seconds because no, not really. The only hope is that he’s not home, which means his security team won’t be. As far as the feed goes, that’s one of the easier parts.

My fingers begin tapping away at my phone as I hack into his feed with ease. It only takes me seconds to record a small bit of feed and play it on an endless loop. Or at least a loop that will last nine and a half minutes before it notifies the security team.

“I’ll cut the feed and motion sensors as soon as we get to the driveway. We’ll have roughly nine minutes and thirty-two seconds until I have to turn it back on.”

Ronan frowns as he looks to me before facing the road once more.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m the one who upgraded his system recently,” I say as Ronan approaches Putnam Manor.

I already scanned the feed and thankfully, only the maid is here. She’s currently folding laundry in the laundry room so that should leave us with enough uninterrupted time. I think.

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