Canvas & Keys

7. I'll Just Sneak Around A Bit And Try Not To Get Caught...

Chapter 7

I'll Just Sneak Around A Bit And Try Not To Get Caught...

A week and a half.

The time it took to read through everything the Order had on the Brotherhood and the Knights.

The time Ade Dibra and the other Order members kept their eyes on me.

The time I worked with Flannery and Kenna and got to know them more.

The time Beau was still out of it, only becoming lucid for seconds at a time while we cleaned his wounds before passing back out.

It wasn't the time I'd spent with Ade Dibra and the Order members that was making me antsy. I was hardly in the same room with them, though they kept a vigilant watch just outside the door of Kenna's office. That was where we spent most of our days.

In the first three days, Ade sat in the corner of the room, watching, waiting for me to snap. I averted my eyes most of the time, though I couldn't help but keep him in my peripheral view. He wanted to make sure I wasn't messing with anything of importance, which put a huge damper in my plans. With eyes on me every second of every day, I couldn't do anything but what they wanted.

Reading through everything they had, I realized I already had before. It was what Drake and Cruz had showed me weeks before in Rio when all of this was just beginning. Maybe it was Drake and Cruz who helped them gather more information, too, because there was nothing else. They only had a little bit about Lorraine before and during her time with the Brotherhood, Jesse was still dead, Drake's heritage was not known, and the book was still destroyed.

Something Drake and Cruz didn't have on that hard drive of theirs was a scan of the map the six canvases made when they were overlaid on a backlight. The strange marking, lines, curves, and random letters made no sense to me, but the Order still expected it, too. How they could have gotten their hands on it, I had no idea.

Taking my time with everything wasn't what Ade wanted, though. On day two, he made it known.

"I believe Vince said you knew all of this information already...and a little bit more. I do not appreciate the fact that you are reading it all again."

I gave him a death glare. He only smiled. "I want to see what all you have. You know, those of us in the Brotherhood don't really appreciate being spied on...and neither do the Knights, I can safely assume."

"You do not have the luxury anymore of sitting back, relaxing, and reading. We are on a schedule here."

"I wasn't aware."

Flannery leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Keep your cool, Hattie. You don't want to mess with him when he's in a mood. He'll be quick to grab that knife at his waist and carve you like Christmas turkey."

Maybe I shouldn't have snorted with the glare Ade gave me then. "Yeah, well, same to you, buddy."

Flannery sighed, but Kenna outright laughed, even pointing a finger gun at him and pulling the trigger.

The two girls were there with me the entire time. Flannery kept a close eye on Beau's condition and helped me with navigating through all of the information. Kenna was basically there for moral support...and commented on everything with her flowery language. When it was just the three of us, it was almost like it was normal.

Of course, that never happened, though. On day four, Ade put one of his other men in charge of watch. Luckily, he stood by the open door while the others were in various positions around the house. Kenna had plenty to say about them...again, in her flowery language.