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“I had a flashback of the day Bastian gave me the key.”
He partially released me from his grip and brushed the hair away from my face. “Does this happen often?”
I shook my head. “I used to have terrible night terrors and flashbacks from the past. So the Colonel took me to see a specialist, a Marine doctor he knows.”
He nodded. “Dr. Beck is a friend of my dad’s.”
“After I saw him a few times, the nightmares lessened. And now, I sometimes have trouble remembering anything from my past. It’s like Dr. Beck blocked my bad memories.”
He held me at arm’s length, his chest rising and falling faster than usual. “What did you see?”
“Bastian stole a key for me, and I never saw him again. But I never forgot him or the key. I just didn’t know what to do with it.”
“Fitzy must have suspected you stole the key.”
I bobbed my head to agree. “He tore the house apart the morning after the dinner. I remember him waking me up before sunrise, ripping the sheets off my bed. Even had the staff flip over every piece of furniture. They searched the house for days. He would have found the key if Bastian hadn’t told me where to hide it.”
I shot up from the bed and entered the closet, searching for the key. It was tucked beneath a stack of folded T-shirts. Cole moved behind me, his warm breath on my neck. The second I retrieved the skeleton key from the velvet pouch, Cole took it from my hand.
He held it up to the fluorescent light. “It’s an Elders key.”
“Do you know what it opens?”
He nodded. “A door that leads to a vault. Only the five Elders of The Founders Society have access to it. Some of the secrets hidden inside date back to the late 1700s and have kept The Founders in power for centuries.”
I grabbed the old key to inspect the metal with strange markings. “Why do only the Elders have a key?”
“The Founders Society formed not long after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There are five keys, one for each of the original families.”
“Weren’t there seven Founding Fathers?”
He nodded. “But only five of them had their own children. Your grandfather is the head Elder because the Adams family is the only bloodline that has remained untainted after all these years. Most of us are not directly related to the Founding Fathers, at least not in the same way you and Bastian are.”
“I’m not an Adams anymore,” I told him. “My grandfather changed my name.”
He shook his head. “You were born an Adams. This key is your birthright.” Cole opened his palm. “Let me hold it for you. I have a safe in my room. You don’t want the wrong person getting their hands on it.”
I placed the key in his hand. “No one locks a vault with a skeleton key.”
“The key opens a door. Only one of the Elders could tell you what’s behind it. I’ve heard stories but not much more.” He stuffed the key into his pocket and guided me to the bed. “The Founders are a little old school. Our real net worth comes from the things we’ve acquired over decades. We have a saying in Devil’s Creek. Secrets are commodities. And the more you collect, the more power you have.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “What do you think is in the vault?”
“Who knows what Fitzy is hiding?” Cole deadpanned.
“Probably dead bodies.”
“I’ll keep it safe for you,” Cole promised, stroking his thumb over my cheek. “Bastian saved your life. You are expendable to Fitzy without this key, and he knows that.”
“At the Salvatore Estate, Bastian said he would show me what the key opens when the time is right.”
We sat turned toward each other, and my heart beat a little faster with him invading my space. My life felt like it started the day I met Cole. And it sucked to want something I could never have.
“Grace, I wish you would have mentioned the key sooner.” Frustration dripped from his tone. “If I had known you have an Elders key…”
“Cole, what are you not telling me?”
“This changes everything.”
