Mr. Danforth stands and meets my stare. “This is certainly not the time to start pointing fingers,” he says, reprimanding me as though I was one of his misbehaved sons. “This is serious.”
“Are you suggesting that the attacks on my life are not serious?” I question, watching him through a narrowed and pissed-off stare. His lips pull into a tight line as he holds my stare, relentless just like his son. When I refuse to back down, he finally drops back into his seat, but he’s right. I can focus on the topic of my attacks later. One issue at a time.
I let out a sigh and look back at Harding. “I was cleared of Kurt’s murder. The papers disappeared and the issue was put to rest.”
“Yes, the physical proof was gone and your name was cleared,” he says. “But what about the officers who ran your case? What about the memories that circle their minds? You may technically be off the hook, but they have been watching you very closely. After the explosion at Sam Delacourt’s home, the disappearance of Jacob Scardoni, and now your face front and center at the ballroom explosion, they’ve been asking questions—and a lot of them. They’ve been snooping around, and soon enough, they’re going to come across something they shouldn’t.”
My brows furrow as I flick my gaze to Carver and then to King before sending it across to the very few people around this table that I can trust. “So, what am I supposed to do? It’s not like I could avoid the cops seeing me when I came out of that tunnel. They saw us all.”
“Exactly,” Harding continues. “They saw us all. Every one of us are now at risk of exposure. Dynasty is at risk. The whole building exploded and countless first responders rushed in to save what they could, and therefore, our underground world is at risk of exposure. How long do you think it is before they realize the ballroom wasn’t the only underground building we’ve created?”
I run my hand over my face and lean onto the table, propping myself up on my elbows as I consider everything Harding has said, and honestly, I should have seen this coming. There were countless firemen, police, and paramedics there that night. They saw every one of us, they saw our world, and who we are.
Harding is right. We’re all at risk.
I glance back up, looking at some of the older men in the room. “Dynasty has been kept secret for many years, surely something like this has happened before, or we’ve been close to exposure. How did you handle it then? What am I supposed to do to make this go away?”
Carver meets my eye across the table as he shakes his head. “You’re not going to approve of how we’ve handled exposure in the past,” he warns me. “It’s not an option.”
I nod, reading him loud and clear. In the past, when a threat from the outside world presented itself, Dynasty eliminated it before it could become a problem, and in other words, that means Dynasty is responsible for murdering innocent men and women. Carver is right; I don’t approve of that plan. We need something better. Dynasty needs to be better.
“The risk is too great,” Harlen Beckett says. “Yes, in the past we have simply eliminated the threat, however, there are too many witnesses. We cannot draw that kind of attention to ourselves. Elimination is not an option.”
“So, what do we do?” Matthew Montgomery questions.
“Rebuild,” Mr. Danforth suggests. “We all have homes outside of Ravenwood Heights. We disperse. We abandon Ravenwood Heights and keep quiet for a few years while we build a new foundation. We have all the contingency plans in place and the finances to fund it. We could be out of here by tomorrow.”
I shake my head. “No. This is my home,” I tell them. “This is where my father is buried and where our history originated. Rebuilding is not an option.”
“But—”
“I said no,” I snap at Mr. Danforth. “Because of Dynasty, I was ripped away from my family. I’ve spent eighteen years without a home, and now that I’ve got one, I’m sure as hell not about to give it up.”
King meets my eye. “We’re at risk, Winter. We can’t just sit back and do nothing. This is our whole world, our families.”
“Trust me, I’m more than aware of that, which is exactly why we should be fighting to protect it rather than allowing the outside world to trample us. We stay and we fight for what is ours. There have been rumors going around town about Dynasty for years. You’ve laughed them off, and that’s exactly what we will continue to do. If you get questioned, you tell them that they’re crazy and reading into the rumors. If asked about the underground ballroom, you tell them that we stumbled upon it years ago and that we kept it quiet for our own benefit. If the city wants to claim the ballroom as their own, let them. What is one loss in the grand scheme of things?”