Inheriting a SECRET (Corrigan & Co. #7)(36)
“In time for the coronation?”
“That’s my hope.”
“I’m guessing that you don’t have them here with you.”
“No. It would’ve been too dangerous for me to bring them here.”
“Can someone else—one of us—get them for you?”
“If it was a matter of just getting them, I think Tegan could, but I can’t let anyone else have possession of them.”
“Your oath?”
“Yes.”
“It’s not going to be easy to get you off the island, and it’ll be even harder to get you back here, but I think you need to go get them.”
“I do. I want to be ready.”
“Then let’s get you out of here.”
* * *
Brayden
“We have to do something,” I tell Noah and Jen as I pace around my study.
“No shit, but what? It’s not like we have the skills to break people out of prison, and Faith, Ainsley, and Audrey have disappeared right along with Darcy,” Noah says, getting up to pace as well.
“They wouldn’t have gone far. I think they might be helping her.”
“Even though she was thrown out of their Society thing?” Jen asks.
“Which is f*cking bullshit, by the way.”
“Calm down, Noah. I don’t know why you’re so upset, anyway.”
“I just am. It’s not right. You love her, and I think she’s awesome. They shouldn’t be treating her like this.”
“She is a thief,” Jen reminds us.
“Shut it, Jen. Or leave. I mean it. You’re either with us, or not, but you won’t be bashing Darcy in front of me.”
“I’m with you. Obviously. This whole thing’s just cocked up so badly, I’m not so sure we can find a way to fix it.”
“We have to. Darcy and her friends need us.”
There’s a knock at the door, and I open it to find Stella, the guys from Storyside, and Zack Taylor standing there. “Hi,” he says when I let him in.
“Hello. Is there something I can help you with?”
No one answers until I close the door. “Darcy says we can trust you,” Stella tells me.
“We?”
“I’m part of the Society, or I guess currently, we’re the rogue Society.”
“Ainsley’s my fiancé,” Zack says.
“And we’re, you know, with the band,” Kace says with a smirk.
“You all came here undercover to help keep her safe?” Noah asks.
“We did. Now we need to figure out how to get our friends out of the dungeon, and make it so that Darcy can safely return,” Stella tells me.
“She’s gone?” I ask.
“Yes. It isn’t safe for her to be here right now, and she has to make sure her mother is safe.”
“Oh yes, of course. Her safety and her mother’s has to take priority.”
“She’s not going alone to her mother, is she?” Noah asks.
“No. She’s not going at all. They’ll be looking for her. We have others who will take her mother to safety, and then Darcy can do what she needs to.”
“What she needs to?” I ask, afraid to hope at what that means. “Is she getting me the jewels?”
“No. Well, maybe. There’s some oath she took and conditions that have to be met. She couldn’t even tell us everything about it. I do know that she hopes to be able to give them to you in time for your coronation.”
“I told her if she couldn’t, it was alright. I don’t want her to place herself in unnecessary danger.”
“From what I gathered, she’s been in unnecessary danger for ten years because she’s too honorable to break her word. It seems like things are coming to a head, and maybe she’ll finally be free.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen for her.”
“The first order of business is to get us into the dungeon. It won’t be a problem to get everyone out, but we have to be able to get in. Five minutes should be enough time to free them from whatever Derrick has them chained to.”
“He hasn’t been feeding them much, so they’re probably going to be weak. Jake’s mother has been putting pressure on us to release him, so he was offered more food and a nicer cell, but he refused, saying he’d stay with his friends.”
“Of course he did. He’s not one to take any favors if his friends are suffering.”
“I can carry at least one of the girls out,” Zack says.
“I’ll carry the other one,” Noah says.
“Nate and Aiden will be fine. They’ve been in the desert with low rations before from what they’ve told me. They’ll come out of the cell swinging.”
“Do you need to be down there with them, or can you help me distract the guards, Stella?” Jen asks.
“Someone who knows how to work the devices we use has to be there, and it’s too complicated to just train someone on the fly.”
There’s another knock at the door before anyone else can respond. I open it, and am once again surprised. It’s Matt Corrigan standing before me, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I don’t let him in right away. “Hello, Matt.”