“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. For right now, all I want to do is figure out a way to keep you safe.”
“And you think Holden’s going to give that to you?”
“Let’s find out.” He kissed the top of my head and returned to Henry. “All right, Danvers. Or Altman. Whatever the hell your name is.”
“Henry, please.”
“Henry, then. What’s the best course of action in your opinion?”
I wandered over to Natasha, who was keeping her distance from the three men. Unconsciously, it seemed, she slipped her hand into mine. I gave it a reassuring squeeze, for her benefit and for mine.
“We can possibly make this work,” Henry began in that gruff voice of his. “The Raptors have a clubhouse under the Waverly library, remember?”
“Vividly,” I said stonily.
“All too well,” said Wes at the same time.
“I’m thinking that’s the best place to gather evidence to extort the society,” said Henry. “Originally, my inside source was going to set me up with an opportunity to get in, but it hasn’t presented itself yet. I’ll reluctantly admit that this speeds the process along a little bit.”
“Hold on a second,” interrupted Natasha, speaking for the first time since we had all agreed to keep Holden hostage. “Not only do you want to go back to the Waverly area, where every dirty cop is probably on high alert for Wes and Nicole right now, but you want to infiltrate the Raptors’ headquarters?”
“If we want dirt on the Raptors and Catherine Flynn, this is how we do it,” said Henry.
“There has to be another way.”
“My dear, I’m open to any and all suggestions.”
Natasha’s lips parted as though she had something else to say. We waited, but a moment later, she closed her mouth and shook her head.
“This is our only option then,” I chimed in. Admittedly, the Raptors’ clubhouse held too many sour memories for me. The first time I had found my way down there, I’d stumbled across the dead body of my favorite professor. The last time I was there, it was because the Raptors had drugged and kidnapped me. But the fact remained that the clubhouse contained too much evidence of the Raptors’ misdeeds for us to ignore it. “Face it, Natasha. When you got rid of those tapes of Flynn hazing younger Raptors—the reason for which remains a mystery, might I add—you ruined a chance for us. We need something else to prove the society exists. For starters, I’m thinking the BRS charter.”
Holden’s eyes widened at my mention of the charter. Henry noted Holden’s reaction with a satisfied nod.
“What’s this charter?” he asked.
“It has the society’s creed in it,” I reported. The last sentences of the Raptors’ original promises still haunted me. “‘That which is given to one brother is given to all brothers. That which is not given to our brothers, we must seize by force.’ Isn’t that right, Holden?”
Holden spat what I could only assume was some kind of dirty epithet through the duct tape. He certainly wasn’t pleased.
“I don’t understand how that would help us,” said Henry. “What’s so special about this charter?”
“Because it has the signature of every Raptor there ever was,” interjected Natasha. “It’s part of the initiation. Once you’ve been deemed fit to join, they have you sign the charter.”
“Everything the Raptors have ever done has been recorded,” I explained further. “I’ve looked through the Raptors’ library. Every time they’ve moved money illegally, or obtained a new painting, or messed with a non-Raptor’s life, they wrote it down. There are literally thousands of written records down there. If we retrieved even a handful of them, the entire society would be at our beck and call.”
“Aren’t written records a little archaic?” asked Wes. He kicked Holden’s boots. The younger man pulled his knees up into his chest.
“Too risky for them to keep all that illegal information backed up on any kind of hard drive,” said Henry. “Even the heaviest security systems are hackable.”
“Flynn has BRS files in her office as well, if she hasn’t gotten rid of them already,” I added. “I’ll bet she has though.”
“How would you know?” asked Natasha.
I shrugged nonchalantly. “I did a little digging earlier on in the semester. When I started to suspect that Flynn had something to do with O’Connor’s disappearance, I broke into her office. Sure enough, that’s how I ended up finding my way into the clubhouse.”
“You broke in—?”
“Enough,” said Wes, cutting off what was sure to be some kind of motherly scolding on Natasha’s part. “We know what we want to retrieve. The question is: what’s the best way to get into the clubhouse without the Raptors knowing?”
“You kidnapped the kid for a reason, didn’t you?” asked Henry drily.
“Good point.” Wes knelt down next to Holden, took hold of one corner of the duct tape across Holden’s mouth, and ripped it off.
“Ow! Shit, you asshole! The fuck’s wrong with you?”
Henry raised an eyebrow. “For a student of such supposed intelligence, his vocabulary isn’t exactly astounding, is it?”
“Fuck you,” said Holden, and he spit a wad of phlegm toward Henry’s shoes.
Henry easily sidestepped the projectile then took Wes’s place next to Holden. “Listen here, kiddo. We’re not playing games. Just tell us how to get into the clubhouse unnoticed. When are the Raptors least likely to gather in the library? Is there a way to draw them out?”
“Go straight to hell,” said Holden.
The sudden click of a gun safety sliding out of place resonated
