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Chapter thirty-three

Dane

Watching the beach house every day is like watching paint dry.

Nothing of interest happens here, at least on the first floor.

We were only able to plant cameras outside and on the main level due to the creaking stairs that lead upstairs and to the basement.

If I didn’t already suspect the Guild members being held in the basement for fuck-knows-why after hearing Charles make that comment about Vera hurting Tinsley here, I would now.

The only times I see Vera are when she comes and goes from the basement.

Any time she’s not down there, Holt remains within eyesight of the basement door as if he’s waiting to shock the first person who tries escaping.

Sometimes, Tinsley is with her when she disappears through a portal, and I’m forced to wonder what the hell they’re up to.

The one person I’m meant to watch the most is the worst of the bunch.

He disappears at dusk before my shift ends and Reid’s begins, and then returns before the sun is up.

Reid says he goes straight upstairs, to sleep most likely, and so I spend most of my day waiting for the old geezer to wake up and come downstairs.

“Hey.”

The sound of Raegan’s voice snaps my head around on impulse to seek her out.

She’s wearing her workout pants, sports bra, and a loose tank top, with her hair tied back.

She smiles at me, her eyes a clear ocean blue, and my heart somersaults in my chest.

“Morning,” I respond with a smile, my hand finding hers and drawing her closer.

“How’s your watch going so far?”

I started less than an hour ago, so Royce is still asleep on the second floor and Holt’s preparing his breakfast within view of the basement door.

“Dull, as usual.” I tug her into my lap, wrap my arms around her waist, and bury my face into her neck to breathe in her warm vanilla and cinnamon scent.

She shivers when I trail my mouth along the arch of her shoulder, wiggling in my lap and inadvertently grinding against my excited dick.

Slipping my thumb beneath her top, I stroke just above her hip, obsessed with the feel of her smooth skin and forever giddy when I get to touch her like this.

When we’re not wrapped up in the heat of the moment, but sitting together first thing in the morning.

“What can I make you for breakfast?” I ask, my lips tickling her flesh.

She grips my thigh in a failed attempt to restrain another shiver while leaning deeper into my touch.

“Mm. Maybe after training.”

“Coffee?”

“Please,” she nearly begs on a breathless moan, and my dick throbs in response .

Fuck. I could probably come from that sound alone if she kept talking to me like that.

Lifting her in my arms, I stand and turn, sitting her in my computer chair and pressing my lips to hers in a brief kiss.

“Coming right up.” I spin the chair so she’s facing the monitors.

“Keep an eye on them for me?”

“Sure.”

I already prepared a pot of coffee for the morning, so it only takes a couple minutes to prepare her a thermos of coffee to go.

“Awww,” Kellan calls from the hallway before entering.

“You make one for me, too?”

Scoffing, I shake my head and ignore him, handing the thermos to Raegan.

“I put an ice cube in it, so it’ll be easier to drink right away.”

“Thank you.” She waves at the screen while standing.

“Nothing happening here other than Holt making a mess of the kitchen just to cook some eggs.”

Jackson strolls from the hallway next as Kellan makes his coffee in the kitchen.

I plop back in my chair, checking the screen in a cursory glance before returning my gaze to Raegan.

“I’ll see you when you’re back from training.” I wave her and the others off, then focus back on the computer.

I pull my Board member research up on another screen, getting to work on that as I wait.

Royce finally goes downstairs, alerting me easily by the sharp creak of the wood, making himself a slice of toast with jelly.

His face twists as he takes in the result of Holt’s cooking.

“Clean this mess up. Now,” he snaps, his usually droll voice sharpened with outrage.

The old man’s anal about keeping the beach house clean and tidy.

A portal appears in the kitchen, and the girl controlling it steps through.

“I told you no portals in the house,” Royce admonishes, stepping around it to leave the suddenly-tight kitchen.

The girl—Bea, Reid had called her—shrugs and smirks.

“I forgot. I’m just here for a snack and then my portal and I will be gone.” She rummages through the pantry, piling junk food into her arm.

“See ya.” She walks back through the portal, leaving the pantry door open wide with fallen goods on the floor, and it closes behind her.

“I’ll be grateful to be rid of you both after our next assignment,” Royce mutters drearily, walking slowly to his chair in the living space.

“Clean up her mess as well.”

This isn’t the first time he’s mentioned a “next assignment” as if they’re all here waiting for Charles to give them the signal.

They haven’t said anything about what that assignment might be, though.

“I don’t know why we’re waiting. We should do it now,” Holt grumbles, sweeping his arm over the counter to push everything on it into the waiting trash can.

“All of you are so impatient. The President would not have us wait unnecessarily. Besides, I have to curate more puppets after that feral girl destroyed everything I had. Do you understand how long it took me to gather so many? Decades, boy.”

“I’m not waiting around here for decades, so hurry it up.”

Royce clicks his tongue and eats his toast, not bothering with a reply .

Another hour passes.

Royce’s eyes are closed for most of that time, and I assume he’s taking a nap.

At this rate, we’ll just attack him when he’s asleep.

Morning seems to be the best time after he comes back from wherever he goes at night.

Even mid-morning could work out while he’s sleeping in the living room.

Holt is the only obstacle we’d have to get through first, and somehow without waking Royce.

As for Bea…she pops in and out at random times, but it almost seems like she’s aware of the conversation that had been happening before she shows up as if on cue.

If she can see what’s happening at the beach house, that’ll be more difficult.

She could send a swarm of GE agents at us if she finds us there.

While Royce is sleeping in his chair, Vera appears from a portal outside and stalks into the house.

“What’s that?” Holt asks, eyes narrowed.

I follow his stare to an item in her hand.

My lungs constrict.

It can’t be.

“Are you an idiot? It’s a notebook.” She passes him to the basement door.

It’s a black and white composition notebook.

Just like the one I’d given her, filled with some of our old coded messages and then the letters I’d written her after she died.

The one she’d left behind at Old Red.

“Why would you carry one of those around?” he asks suspiciously, and she pauses with her hand on the knob to glare over her shoulder at him .

“Why does anyone have a notebook? To take notes. Fuck, you’re dumber than I gave you credit for.” She opens the door and slams it closed behind her, and he scowls.

“Cunt.” He whips out a cell phone and taps it a few times.

A portal appears outside within a minute, and he storms from the beach house to leave through it.

I’m still reeling from the sight of my notebook in her hand.

I know it’s mine. Mine was filled to the brim, little colored papers sticking out of it, and worn or dried pages making them wrinkle and puff the notebook out.

Didn’t Aiden say she was sneaking around Old Red the other day?

What if it was to get my notebook?

Why would she want it now?

Because I’d saved her?

She’d been surprised when I’d jumped in front of her.

As if I couldn’t possibly care about her and Raegan simultaneously.

I thought she was lost to me.

She’d been twisted too much by GE, her morals skewed and her hate for Raegan giving me no other choice but to fight her as an enemy.

But what if she’s changing?

What if she’s starting to break away from their influence?

Why else would she have my notebook, unless she wants to try meeting me halfway? Fuck.