Page 104 of Three

“Serena, check if what she said is true.”

“On it.”

“I think she’s being bloody honest,” Lori says.

I look down and see a column on the left of the baluster I can use to slide down. I sheathe the knife again and leave my phone there on the ground. I grab the railing. With a vault my body goes over it, twists to the left, and dives down. My knees and arms wrap around the column as I slowly glide down. The friction hurts my palms and my inner thighs—the worn-out fabric of my jeans doesn’t shield me much. The column trembles slightly but holds my weight until I land as silently as I can on my feet.

“I’m on the ground floor,” I whisper into the bracelet mic to let Hunter know I’m close.

“I see you,” Gabe states.

“You’re like Batman.” Lori lets out a whoop.

I keep myself hidden behind a wall while I look around. Every surface I see is coated in dust and dirt. I can still clearly spot the large, dark, dried blood stain on the floor where the priest fell from the pulpit.

“Bones and Bully Boy found the diary!” Lori suddenly exclaims. He’s talking on the phone with Michael and Raph. “They are saying thatthe diary is bloody thick, they need some time to go through it. But Loretta wrote about two people molesting her. The priest and the other man who liked to watch.”

What the fuck?

“No,” I hear Hunter breathe out.

“No? Why did you ask Jasper to meet you here?” Opal asks Hunter.

“I—” Hunter stops talking and spins around.

“I didn’t know this was a family reunion.” Jasper Penn is ten feet away from them. He’s holding a gun, pointing it right at Hunter’s chest.

Terror infiltrates my chest and spreads like a horrific disease, taking my sanity and my breath away, rushing through my veins, infecting all my organs. A pounding fills my ears, and a sick feeling takes hold of my gut. I nearly lose my shit and reveal my presence when Hunter moves slightly to the right to shield Opal. It makes me love him even more and want to punch him in the face for putting himself in harm’s way.Stupid motherfucking hero complex.

“Where the fuck did he come from?” Uri snarls.

“Not even Serena detected him,” Gabe says. How the fuck is that possible? Opal must have been in the church already, but Jasper? Was he hiding?

“Jasper, what are you doing?” Opal sounds shocked.

“What I should have done a long time ago,” Jasper scoffs. “Raise your shirts and show me there are no wires underneath.”

“I can take him out.” Uri is ready.

But Hunter moves his head slowly, signing a no while showing his cousin his bare chest and back. Fuck!

I need to trust him just as he did me. I grab the handle of the knife at my back and slowly take it out. I should have let Gabe come inside, he’s a robotic fucker, but the king of tossing blades.

After Opal pulls her shirt down again, Jasper orders them to slide their phones and guns toward him. They both do, and Jasper kicks the weapons away and stomps the hell out of the phones until I hear a crack.

“That was new,” Opal groans.

“How did you get in?” Hunter asks him, using the coldest tone I’ve ever heard from him.

Now I know what Opal meant when she talked about anugly smirk. Jasper’s lips curl into a cruel sneer. “A tunnel.”

A tunnel?

“There was no tunnel in the blueprints, we checked,” Uri says. “Serena look for older blueprints of St. Joseph’s Church.”

“How do you know about the tunnel?” Opal asks, an ominous feeling falls among the cold walls of the church.

Jasper huffs with annoyance. “Always too curious for your own good, sister dear. You had to put your nose where it doesn’t belong. I told you to let it go, but no, you had to check the hotel camera feed, didn’t you?” He clicks his tongue in disappointment. “I never understood why our father acknowledged you.”