Page 183 of Deceived Wrath

Scout bounds over to me. “Come on, Fiona. Let’s go and show Uncle Brennan how fast I am, because I’m super-fast!”

I smile, though it’s more from muscle memory than anything else. “I know you are. You’re the fastest astronaut I know.”

Scout beams up at me. And seeing his eyes,Cormac’seyes, light up makes my chest feel like it’s being cracked open.

As Brennan heads for the back door with Scout in tow, I feel the moment slipping away. This is it, the opening I’ve been waiting for.

“Hey. I’m just going to run to the bathroom real quick. I’ll be right back,” I say lightly, forcing my voice to stay steady as my heart slams against my ribs.

Scout stops and turns. Pouting, he puts his hands on his hips. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

When I look away, I find Brennan watching me.

His gaze is sharp, all traces of the usual humor that dances in his eyes gone.

For half a second, I’m convinced he knows, that he can see the truth written all over my face. But then Scout tugs on his sleeve, and Brennan’s attention snaps back to where it’s been all morning.

“Don’t wander off,” he tells Scout. “We want all parts of Uncle Brennan intact, okay?”

Scout is already halfway out the door. “I won’t!”

I exhale a shaky breath.

Once the door shuts behind them, I dart up the stairs, the quiet of the house pressing in on me from all sides.

I pause outside the door to Kieran’s office, my hand shaking as it hovers over the doorknob.

This is completely reckless. Kieran likely has cameras everywhere.

I’m not naive enough to think that he doesn’t know exactly what is going on in his house at all times. But I suppose it doesn’t matter.

The game will be up soon enough. All I need to do is make sure I can get whatever is on that file to Cormac before Lorcan decides to make his move.

With one last quick glance over my shoulder, I open the door and slip inside.

The office smells faintly of leather and whiskey. Countless files lay strewn over the table alongside a few empty glasses.

My eyes scan every surface until they land almost immediately on the laptop.

I almost sob with relief.

It’s been left almost carelessly on the desk, as if someone was hoping I would find it.

My pulse kicks up another notch as I quickly glance around.

There are no obvious cameras in sight. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there.

“Okay,” I whisper, more to slow my breathing than anything else as I cross over to the desk and open up the lid.

The screen lights up, and it seems like whoever the Sullivans brought in to break through the security barrier did a good job, as there’s not even a login code needed to access the desktop.

There’s a handful of files on the screen, and I immediately spot the one Lorcan told me to erase.

27VSX3.

This is it, the key to making this nightmare with Lorcan end.