Twisted Empire: Dark Dynasty Book 3

by Hart, Stella

  I carefully climbed out and exhaled deeply as my feet hit solid ground. With a satisfied groan, I stretched my aching muscles and then opened the photo gallery on the phone. When I first came up with the idea to sneak into the Lodge via the Catacombs, Elias had drawn a map from memory and taken a few photos of it for me to use. Without it, I’d be lost for hours.

  I headed across the lake bridge and made my way to the chamber’s main entrance. If I kept following the winding tunnel all the way up, I’d end up at the Catacombs entrance that Tobias and his guards had dragged me through all those weeks ago. That wasn’t where I wanted to go, because it would only lead me outside the mansion. I needed to make a left at a smaller connecting tunnel in about five minutes and make my way deeper into the labyrinth.

  If I followed the first set of directions on the map, I’d eventually reach an exit that came out in a massive storage cupboard in the main kitchen. There were spare aprons in there for the cooks, and I needed to put one of them on to cover my bloodstained pants. After that, I had to keep my head down and quickly dart over to a coatroom near the kitchens. Elias told me there were always spare masks and outfits in the back of that for guests who may have forgotten to pack party clothes.

  It was a risk for me to go through the kitchens and down the hall to the coatroom, but as long as I was careful for those few minutes, I shouldn’t be noticed by anyone. After all, I was a dead girl. No one was looking for me or expecting to see me wandering around the Lodge anymore.

  Once I was dressed and masked in the coatroom, I had to go back to the kitchen cupboard tunnel and head down into the Catacombs again. Even though it was unlikely that anyone would notice me in the mansion, it was still safer for me to walk around the underground tunnels rather than up in the halls just in case someone happened to recognize me despite the mask.

  There was another exit to the Catacombs on the other side of the mansion, in a storage cupboard right near a stairwell. All I had to do after I reached it was head up five flights of stairs and make an immediate right once I got to the top floor.

  Tobias King’s study was there, along with all the evidence we needed to send to Greer.

  I found the smaller tunnel which veered off to the left of the one I was currently in, and I cursed under my breath as I stumbled over a large rock, nearly losing my footing. Once I’d fully regained my balance, I hesitated and knelt to pick up the rock. Elias told me hardly anyone ever came down to the Catacombs, but just in case I did happen to run into anyone, I could use the rock for protection. It certainly made me feel safer than the teensy pocketknife in my jeans.

  After consulting the map again, I briskly continued along the tunnel and made a right. Then a left. I eventually found myself in another large chamber. In the center of it was a long granite table with stone benches all around it.

  I left the room via the exit on the opposite side. Massive rocks shaped like menacing claws towered over me, casting terrifying shadows as I crept along. Gulping down my uneasiness, I picked up the pace and scurried through another connecting tunnel, my heart racing. Moments later, I froze as I heard voices coming from somewhere ahead.

  A girl was shrieking and begging. “Please stop, Master! Don’t make me do it. I hate it down here!”

  “You should’ve thought of that before you refused me at the party,” came a gruff voice in response.

  I turned my phone light off and ducked into a nook on the side of the tunnel.

  The voices grew closer, and soon I could hear their footsteps too. I peered out of the nook. There was a man in a suit holding a bright flashlight with one hand, dragging a terrified girl behind him with his other one. She was clad in a black dress and an ornate golden mask.

  “I’m sorry!” she cried again. “I didn’t mean to say no. Please don’t leave me down here again!”

  My heart dropped. I recognized her voice now that she was closer. It was Pri.

  I clutched the rock tighter and stepped out of the nook. The man stopped and let go of Pri’s hand in surprise. “You’re supposed to be dead,” he said, eyes narrowing.

  He charged toward me. Fear flooded my veins, but I pretended Elias was right behind me. Guarding me. Encouraging me. Whispering in my ear. I’m right here, Doll. I’ve got you.

  I lifted the rock and smashed it into one side of the man’s head as hard as I possibly could. Part of me expected him to be knocked out immediately and hit the ground with a thud like I’d always seen in the movies whenever anyone was hit in the head, but that didn’t happen.

  Instead, the man let out a strangled cry and recoiled from the blow, staggering a few feet backward. He grunted and began to move toward me again, hands shaking and clawing at thin air, and then his knees buckled. Finally, he sank to the edge of the tunnel wall, letting out guttural groans as he touched one hand to his head.

  A few seconds later, he made an attempt to get up again, but he couldn’t. All he could do was lie there and make terrible moaning sounds. He wasn’t unconscious like I’d hoped for, but he was badly hurt and he wouldn’t get up again anytime soon. Good enough.

  Pri lifted her mask and stared at me. “Tatum,” she gasped, eyes wide and limbs trembling. “I… I thought you were dead.”

  “Nope. Still here,” I said, a faint smile on my face.

  “I saw you when Elias carried you in earlier. You really looked dead,” she murmured, casting her eyes over my bloodstained clothes. “What are you doing down here?”

  “I’m here to try and help you and all the other girls. Elias is helping too. He faked my death so he could sneak me in with him. We knew it was the only way his father would allow him to return. With me dead.”

  Pri touched a shaky hand to my shoulder, her eyes still wide and incredulous. “I can’t believe you’re alive. I’m so glad.” She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Can I do anything to help?”

  I hesitated. “Yes, actually. I need to go upstairs, so I was going to sneak into a coatroom to get a less conspicuous outfit, but it would be much easier if you just gave me your dress and mask.”

  “Oh. Of course.”

  We undressed. I gave her my bulky jacket to wrap around her petite body, and then I slipped into her dress. The plastic baggie of white powder remained tucked under my bra band, and I slid the pocketknife beneath the other side of the band along with the other small tools. It wasn’t comfortable and I probably wouldn’t even need them anymore, but it was best to bring them just in case.

  Pri handed me her golden mask a moment later. As I adjusted it over my eyes and nose, she pulled the left jacket sleeve down over her hand and used it to wipe my chin and neck. “Blood,” she murmured, gesturing to her injured master. He’d finally lost consciousness as he lay slumped against the rocky wall. “Some of it sprayed onto you.”

  “Thanks.”

  She stepped back and gave me an appraising look. “Perfect,” she said. Then she motioned toward her master again. “Don’t worry about him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t wake up.”

  I gave her a quick hug and then continued on my way through the tunnel. As I rounded a corner, I turned my head over my shoulder for a second and saw Pri crouching near the unconscious man, one hand reaching for the rock.

  A grim sense of satisfaction coiled around my insides. I hurried onward.

  When I arrived at the Catacombs exit near the stairwell, I carefully poked my head out to make sure no one was around. I didn’t see anyone. Stepping out, I held my head high and began to ascend the stairs. When I reached the second floor landing, I saw two guards talking to each other, but they ignored my presence, presumably thinking I was one of the other girls.

  I kept going.

  On the third floor landing, another guard caught sight of me from down the hall. “Hey, shouldn’t you be at the party?” he called out, a frown drawing his thick blond brows together.

  “I’m on my way. I just have to get something for my master first,” I said in a lilting tone, disguising my real voice.

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nbsp; He shrugged and turned his attention to his phone. Breathing a sigh of relief, I hurried up the final few steps and reached the fifth floor. Just a few feet down the hall was Tobias King’s study door.

  I cast my gaze around again to make sure no one was watching me, and then I entered the ten-digit code on the keypad which hung near the door. Elias had stored it in the phone for me.

  There was a clicking sound, and the door opened as I turned the handle. I quickly shut it behind me and hurried over to the safe. The code for that was also in my phone. I just had to pray Tobias hadn’t changed it recently.

  I keyed in the numbers. A light flashed red as the safe made a buzzing sound. The code was incorrect. Undeterred, I tried it again in case I’d put the numbers in wrong. I had a feeling I’d accidentally switched the order for two of them.

  The light turned green this time, and with a pop, the safe door swung open. I pumped one victorious fist in the air. “Yes!”

  I leaned forward and rooted around in the safe, rifling through files and loose papers and photographs. Right at the back lay a black portable hard drive, nestled beneath a thick blue folder. Bingo.

  I pulled out the hard drive and connected it to the little USB cord Elias had attached to the cell phone. Then I connected the phone to the Wi-Fi using the password Elias gave me and began uploading all the data from the hard drive to a cloud storage folder which could be accessed via email. There were thousands of photos, documents, voice recordings and videos on the drive, comprising over a hundred gigabytes of data.

  I tried to keep my breathing steady as I waited for the upload to finish, but it wasn’t easy. There was a huge clock on one side of the study, and every loud tick reminded me that time was running out. Elias would only be able to keep his father distracted for so long. Eventually, he’d return to his study, and if I wasn’t finished by then, I was screwed.

  Tick tock.

  Tick tock.

  Tick tock.

  Twenty minutes later, the phone vibrated in my hand. The upload was complete.

  I created an email with a link to the online folder and put Greer’s new burner email address into the bar at the top. As soon as I pressed send, my shoulders sagged with relief and a giddy feeling spread through my body. I was close now. So close.

  My pulse quickened as I turned my head and eyed a dark wooden cabinet which stood by the far wall with a large tray of crystal decanters and glasses set on top of it. I slipped a hand under my dress and into the band of my bra.

  There was just one thing left to do.

  19

  Elias

  “Got it!”

  My father gloated as his rifle dropped to his side. Directly ahead of us, a smashed clay target hit the ground, spraying black shards all over the grass.

  He glanced at me. “Your turn.”

  I shot him a fake smile of enthusiasm and lifted my shotgun. Another clay target shot out of the trap thrower. As I pressed my finger down on the trigger a second later, I let my aim veer off in the wrong direction, deliberately missing the target.

  “Another miss,” Dad said with a sigh. “I hope all those drugs haven’t fried your brain so that you can never shoot properly again.”

  “It’s just my hands,” I said, holding one up to demonstrate. “They’ll stop being this shaky when I’m clean again.”

  I was still faking the after-effects of a lengthy pill and coke binge, and missing every second target on the Lodge shooting range as part of that performance had the added effect of building up my father’s mood. He loved winning. Not only that, he loved winning by miles and beating other people right into the dirt. So the worse I performed at this, the better his temperament would get.

  After parading Tatum’s bloodstained body through the house and ‘burying’ her in the Catacombs, I’d suggested we head out to the range to talk while we shot a few rounds. Clay target shooting had always been one of my father’s favorite father-son bonding activities (probably because it reminded him of hunting), so I hoped it would appeal to his paternal instincts and keep him content while I tried to distract him.

  It was the perfect way to avoid being close to the mansion. Also, due to the fact we had to pause our conversation every couple of minutes to aim and shoot at the flying targets, I could easily drag out a half-hour discussion into a two-hour one. That was a bonus because the longer we stayed out here, the better.

  So far, I’d kept him on the range with me for over two and a half hours while we hashed out the details of our cover-up plan. An emergency meeting with the Crown and Dagger council had apparently been scheduled for tomorrow morning to discuss my recent actions, and my father seemed to have most of the excuses worked out so far. I almost had to admire him for his ability to lie so smoothly and thoroughly.

  “Oh, I forgot to mention,” he said, glancing at me. “I called Towne while you were in the bathroom earlier. He’s agreed to tell the others he was in on the whole scheme and that he wasn’t really stabbed. So that’s a win for us.”

  “What did he ask for in return?”

  He paused to take aim at another target, shooting it out of the sky before responding. “Not much, actually. A million dollars and a position at one of my companies for his youngest son once he graduates college. I also had to pay off the guards who found him bleeding out in the forest that night. Fifty grand apiece. Not too bad, all in all.”

  “Nice.”

  I purposefully missed another shot. He scoffed and shook his head, a smirk curling up his thin lips. While he took aim at yet another target and hit it perfectly, I swallowed two capsules from my pocket and surreptitiously glanced at my phone. It was ten to six. Tatum should’ve woken up from her sedated slumber over an hour ago, but I hadn’t heard anything from her yet.

  I’d already been on edge this whole time, for obvious reasons, but now I was seriously getting worried. What if something had happened to her? What if she’d been caught sneaking into my father’s study? The logical part of my brain knew we would’ve heard all about it if anyone had seen her, let alone caught her, but still, I was concerned. I wouldn’t be able to keep my father out here for much longer.

  “So do you remember everything you need to say tomorrow morning?” he asked, turning to me again a moment later.

  I looked over at him. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Our story needs to be rock solid,” he said in a warning tone. “You know the council members can’t just be paid off like regular members. Both Davenport and Van der Veer have been eyeing the position of society president for years now, so if they can prove you actually left with Tatum and tried to murder Towne, they’ll kill you and try to seize leadership from me.”

  “I know.”

  “As you can imagine, they’re already beyond suspicious. Seeing Tatum’s body today wasn’t enough for them. They’ll want details on how and why we came up with this alleged scheme for you to have your own hunt. They’ll also demand to know why we wasted so many resources looking for you when I supposedly knew where you were the whole time. Not to mention Henry Davenport’s execution.” He sighed deeply, then tilted his head in an inquisitive manner. “Where the hell were you, anyway?”

  “Staying at a friend’s place.”

  I didn’t want to tell him the truth about the shelter. If this all went horribly awry and Tatum and I had to escape again, we needed somewhere safe to head to.

  His face was hard and unyielding as a statue. “That can’t possibly be true. We contacted every single friend you’ve ever had and searched all their places with a fine-toothed comb.”

  I waved a hand. “Well, I guess the society isn’t as great at finding people as you think. I was at a vacation cabin down in New York. It doesn’t actually belong to my friend, but I know about it because I went there with him years ago. He was dating some girl whose family owns it. I remembered the alarm codes and knew it would be empty this time of year, so I headed there.”

  “Ah. So your friend wasn’t even aware.”

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sp; “Nope.” I took aim at a target. This time I hit it right in the center, making it explode into a thousand pieces.

  As I lowered my gun, my father shot me a quizzical look. “I’m curious about what you said earlier. What exactly did Tatum say to you to convince you to go against me?”

  I shrugged nonchalantly. “A whole lot of shit. The worst was about Ben. She tried to tell me that you were the secret witness from the beach and that you even admitted it to her. She said you faked the footage you showed me which proved she killed him, just to make me hate her.”

  He sniffed. “How bizarre. That girl has quite an imagination.” Fucking liar. He paused to take another shot. “I can see how that ridiculous story would’ve easily affected you, though. Ben’s death hit you very hard.”

  Not so hard now that I know what he was really like, I wanted to say. Instead I gave him a tight smile. “Like I said, Tatum always seemed to know exactly how to manipulate me.”

  “Yes, that much is obvious,” he said. His brows knitted in a frown. “We should probably pack it in. It’s already dusk.”

  Shit. I needed to keep him out here for longer. I still hadn’t heard a peep from Tatum.

  “Having trouble seeing the targets?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as I aimed a mocking smirk at him.

  His frown deepened. “As I said, it’s dusk. Of course it’s getting harder to see them. In half an hour it’ll be completely dark out here.”

  “Didn’t think you’d turn down a challenge,” I said. “Come on, Dad. One more round. Unless it’s too hard for you.”

  His frown remained, but I didn’t miss the smile creeping up his lips. “Fine. One more. But that’s it.”

  I turned my head to hide my smirk. I knew he’d take the bait.

  He waved to an assistant to help him reload. My phone began to vibrate in my pocket, accelerating my pulse. It was a text message. It’s done. Greer will post the article in five minutes. I’m hiding back down in the Catacombs. Pri is with me.

  Finally.