A number of hands went up, but before Flynn could assign any duties, the patter of footsteps on the basement stairs caused the Raptors to fall silent. Lauren looked around. From what she could tell, everyone was present and accounted for. Except for one person.
Holden Hastings stumbled into the basement, his hands zip tied behind his back. As he fell to his knees in the midst of the Raptors, he was overwhelmed by a coughing fit. His breath wheezed through his chest, but barely anyone noticed. A woman with dark hair, light eyes, and an air of tenacity had followed swiftly after Holden, lifting her chin as she met Flynn’s gaze across the room.
“Catherine.”
Lauren glanced at her aunt. For the first time in her entire life, Flynn seemed dumbstruck. She stared at the woman, her lips parted slightly in shock or incredulity. Then she gave a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of her head, as if to clear whatever paralysis the woman’s presence had cast over her, and pasted a pernicious sneer on her face.
“Natasha.”
“Oh, shit,” muttered Olivia.
“What?” hissed Lauren.
“It’s Nicole’s mother,” Olivia whispered back.
“Oh, shit.”
“What have you done with our dearest Mr. Hastings?” questioned Flynn.
“He’ll live,” replied Natasha, ignoring another bout of coughs from Holden. “I’ve come here to offer you a trade.”
Flynn’s smile widened. “You have nothing I want.”
Natasha deposited a black backpack on the ground, unzipped it, and drew out the Black Raptor Society’s original charter. “I think you’ll find I do.”
It was Lauren’s turn to feel shocked. Beside her, Olivia tensed, and Lauren knew that she was thinking the same thing. Henry, Wes, and Nicole had gone to great lengths to retrieve the charter; why would Nicole’s mother sacrifice it to Flynn?
“Much to your chagrin, I imagine, my daughter managed to free your self-proclaimed bible here from the burning remains of the Raptors’ clubhouse,” said Natasha.
Once again, Flynn looked as though she had been hit over the head with a brick, stunned into silence.
“She’s ruining everything,” whispered Lauren to Olivia. “Flynn didn’t even know Nicole was still alive.”
“Shh.”
Flynn cleared her throat, finding her voice again. “What is it that you want, Natasha?”
“I want to end this,” declared Natasha, dropping the charter. It came within an inch of Holden’s nose before landing with a thunk on the basement floor. “That’s what you’ve wanted all these years, wasn’t it? My silence? This is your chance, Catherine. Here I am. Enact your revenge on me. And in return, I don’t want you anywhere near my daughter or my husband or anyone else I know and love.”
“And how am I to know that your precious daughter didn’t liberate additional files from the Raptors’ private library to condemn us with?” asked Flynn, arching an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t be here if they did,” declared Natasha. “Believe me, Catherine. I know you well enough. You would never rest if Nicole had something else on you.”
“Yet that does not ensure our society’s safety from Miss Costello’s intrusive investigations,” countered Flynn. “She has gathered back up, has she not? And if I recall, your darling girl pried into our history long before she understood the true nature of our existence, thanks to that damned George O’Connor. What makes you think she’ll stop digging into our business simply because she no longer has hands on our charter?”
“I can stop Nicole from further interfering with the Black Raptor Society,” replied Natasha. Her hands had balled into fists at her side, clenched so tightly that her knuckles protruded grotesquely from their standard positions.
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“You have deprived me of contact with my daughter for nearly thirty years. Now that we have been reunited, she is quite emotional. Malleable even. At present time, she does not understand the sacrifices one must make in order to keep those you love safe. I can teach that to her with your assistance.” Natasha kicked the charter toward Flynn’s folding chair. It skidded across the concrete floor. “I am your bargaining chip, Catherine. Threaten my safety, and Nicole will back off. Our vicious cycle continues, but from this point onward, you and I spin the wheel from the same side.”
As Natasha’s proposal echoed through the basement, Lauren felt as though she had been slapped in the face. Everything she knew about Nicole’s mother, she had learned from hacking into digital copies of the diary that Natasha had kept while attending Waverly. The dark-haired woman standing before Catherine Flynn now did not reflect an ounce of the confidence or wherewithal of the young woman who had penned page after page on her own attempts to challenge the Raptors’ corruption. How had it come to this?
Flynn studied Natasha unblinkingly. Then she snapped her fingers at Logan Wickes, who immediately sprang forward to snatch the charter up from the floor.
“Lock the charter in my office,” ordered Flynn, her eyes never leaving Natasha as she tossed a set of keys at Wickes. “Brooks. Untie Holden and take him to the campus clinic. Everyone else, you’re dismissed.”
Chairs scraped as the Raptors obeyed Flynn’s instructions, shuffling up the basement stairs without question. Lauren and Olivia idled near the bottom of the basement stairs, unwilling to leave Natasha alone with Flynn.
“Out, Lauren,” ordered Flynn.
Olivia took Lauren’s elbow, guiding her toward the main floor of the church. As Lauren reluctantly followed Olivia up the stairs, she glanced back at the two women. There was a rich satisfaction in Flynn’s dark eyes as she smiled coldly at Natasha. Lauren swallowed the bile that had risen at the back of her throat, wondering how the hell they were all going to get out of this one.
34
Henry paced back and forth at the rear of the living
