Chapter 299

I could feel Victor’s angst, and my heart was breaking for him. He was being sabotaged by an enemy that he couldn’t see or fight against, and it was costing him his life’s work.

Plus, Victor’s views had changed since we met. He now understood the discrimination and injustices that the Betas and Omegas faced, and he was willing to be a solid ally to help create new laws that would make things fair for all.

How could I let the faction win?

But I promised Alex and Cassidy that I wouldn’t say anything to Victor until they returned from Virople, and they were leaving today.

I would tell Victor that I needed to say goodbye and go to the mansion at first light. Alex had to let me warn Victor how the faction was spying on him before it was too late.

Victor took me in his arms. “I didn’t mean to upset you, my love. I sense you want to say something to me, but you’re afraid of something.”

“I love you, Victor,” I said. “I want to help you defeat this enemy.”

He kissed my hair. “I know, sweetheart. I love you, too. Let’s go back to bed. I must try to get a little more sleep.”

We returned to the bedroom and climbed into the king-size bed. I lay in his arms, content for the moment.

But it was almost light outside, and I was done sleeping for the night. After Victor dozed off, I was leaving for the mansion.

By the time the sun started rising, Victor’s slow, even breathing told me he had fallen asleep, and I slipped from the bed.

After getting dressed in the bathroom, I tiptoed to the kitchen to leave Victor a note before silently leaving the apartment.

I drove to the mansion, rehearsing my argument for telling Victor about the passages in my head.

Alex must realize that Victor needs all the information possible to fight the faction against him.

Benson greeted me warmly and led me to the morning room, where Alex and Cassidy were having breakfast before leaving on their trip.

“How sweet of you to come to see us off,” Alex said. Then he saw the expression on my face. “What’s wrong, dearest?”

“The faction is intensifying its effort to remove Victor from the leadership,” I said. “It is time for him to know how he is being spied upon.”

“Sweetheart, you must wait until we return from our trip,” Alex said. “I understand how upsetting it must be for you, but there is more at stake than Victor’s job.”

“I don’t care about ancient relics,” I insisted. “If they oust Victor, our family loses the rights to the leadership. My future son, your grandson, will never have his chance to be the leader of the Association if we don’t do something soon.”

Alex nodded at Benson. He left the room and closed the door.

“Daisy, I want to stop the faction as badly as you and Victor,” Alex said. “But if you tell him about the passages now, the faction will know everything we know by the day’s end.”

“That can’t happen,” he continued. “I believe this faction is larger than we previously believed. They are better organized and funded than I thought, and everyone in our society is in danger if we don’t stop them.”

Alex was right, but how could I keep what I knew from Victor?

Alex saw my pain and frustration and took my hand. “Sweetheart, when I return from our trip, I will call Victor here, and we will tell him everything together. If he knew what I know, he would agree with me.”

I wanted to agree with Alex, but I sat silently, trying to think of an argument to persuade him to let me break my promise.

There was none.

“Daisy, if Victor acts any differently, they will know we are onto them, and they will go deeper into hiding,” Alex said. “That will make it even more difficult to stop them from ruining Victor’s career and everyone’s lives.”

I knew Alex was right. He wouldn’t let anything hurt me or Victor. I had to trust him.

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll wait until you get back before saying anything to him. But I want to check the memory cards on my cameras to see if they caught anybody moving around in the passages.”

“We have four hours before our plane leaves,” Cassidy said. “I’ll go with you to swap the memory cards with new ones. You can’t go in there alone. If you are lost or seen, it could have the same effect as telling Victor.”

“Let’s go,” I agreed.

Cassidy changed into jeans and sneakers before driving us to The Association in her old Jeep.

When she pulled into the parking lot, I ducked down as Victor rolled past us in the Lamborghini. He turned into the private lot, and Cassidy went the other way to the rear of the complex.

She parked near the block retaining wall, and we looked around before disappearing behind the azaleas. Cassidy opened the secret door, and we hurried inside the passageway.

We made it to the long hallway and were almost to the bathroom entrance when we heard footsteps echoing off the granite walls.

Someone was coming our way!

Cassidy grabbed my hand, pushed the stone wolf’s nose, and pulled me into the short passage. We slipped into the bathroom seconds before the footsteps passed our hiding spot.

Then she held the bathroom’s secret door open a crack as we listened to the footsteps fade away.

“Come on,” she whispered. “Stay close to me and be careful not to make any noise. There could be more of them.”

I nodded and followed her back into the passageways.

We stopped at each cross passage to peek around the corner before moving on to the next one.

Slowly, we made our way to the spy’s hallway.

The grate in Victor’s office wall was open again, and I heard him talking about the faction to Findlay.

The stress in Victor’s voice made me want to yell into the grate and tell him this was how they were spying on him. But I couldn’t. Alex had been right. This was bigger than just Victor.

Cassidy pointed at the camera we placed next to the light fixture, and I nodded.

I carefully pulled down the camera and swapped the memory card with a new one. I tucked the used one into my pocket, and we moved on to the second camera.

After I had both used memory cards in my possession, it was time to leave the complex undetected.

But before leaving the spy’s hallway, we heard male voices nearby. I couldn’t make out the words because they were speaking in a language I didn’t understand.

The voices were coming closer, and there was no place to hide. The men were probably faction members coming to spy on Victor’s office again.

We were trapped!

Cassidy peeked around the corner before motioning frantically for me to follow her.

We ran as fast as we could in the opposite direction from the voices. After some turns that had me more confused than ever, we made it to the long, central passage.

We stopped to listen and realized we couldn’t hear the men taking any longer.

“What language was that?” I whispered to Cassidy. “I’ve never heard anything like it before.” It sounded smooth and flowing, almost musical.

“I’ve been learning how to speak the basics of that language for a few weeks now,” Cassidy replied. “I thought it would be useful for Alex’s and my trip. Those men were speaking Viropleon.”

I patted my pocket to make sure I hadn’t lost the memory cards. They were still in my pocket. Hopefully, they would show us who the men were.

“Let’s get out of here,” Cassidy said, and we hurried to the parking lot exit.

“Act calm outside in case a security guard is making their rounds,” Cassidy told me.

I nodded, and we walked casually from behind the azaleas and to her Jeep.

“That was scary,” I said.

“Don’t go into the passages while I’m gone with your father,” Cassidy warned me. “I understood enough to know those men are dangerous.”

I nodded. There was no way I was going back there by myself. The next time the memory cards on my cameras were checked would be after Alex had returned and Victor was told everything.

Cassidy hurried back to the mansion, and we went straight to her laptop. After inserting the memory card, Cassidy’s mouth fell open.

“There’s new footage on it,” she said.

I moved closer to the screen to see what my camera had caught.