Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
CLOVER
“Madi. Found it,” I repeat, the sinking dread making my entire body tingle.
Oh no. No. No. No.
“Is this what will happen if they can’t get to me?” It’s hard to get the words out through the tightness in my throat. “They’ll go after my friends?”
“It’s good that they know you’re protected here, Honeybee.” Valen’s words aren’t the comfort they were a few moments ago. Not when a stalker got so close to someone I love, and not when he won’t answer my question.
“I’m…going to shower,” I murmur and turn to head upstairs.
The chill creeping up my body freezes my mind in a place where pain and terror don’t exist. I zone out. Hide in the only safe place left—the secret spaces I create to shut out the world.
That shell state protects me thirty minutes later as Roman transforms my family room into something straight out of a crime show. His laptop is on my coffee table. The package—sealed in an evidence bag now—sits beside it with everyone crowded around, waiting.
I’m glad Roman told Madi and Elle to stay home. If they get hurt because of me…
“This one’s different,” he says, pulling on gloves before carefully opening the bag. “No artifact from one of Clover’s stories. No knives or dead bees. Just…paper.”
He pulls out several light blue pages, each one protected in its own clear sleeve. A tiny V interlaced with a C sits in the bottom right corner.
I blink faster but can’t seem to focus.
“Those look like…” Valen leans closer, droplets of water clinging to his hair.
“Journal pages,” I whisper. “Those are from the maple tree journal.”
All eyes focus on me.
“The what now?” Chase asks, running a towel over his hair. I’m not even sure where everyone got cleaned up.
I can’t look away from the pages in Roman’s hands. Valen’s handwriting. Young. Careful. Coded. Entries I remember him writing while I was his lookout, making sure no one was coming.
“We had a hiding spot,” I force through dry lips.
“An old maple tree on the outside of the property. There was a hollowed-out section about ten feet up. That’s where we hid this journal—the real one with most of the evidence we could collect.
This is the one that would have…” My voice breaks.
“I told Miriam we had to go back for it in case Valen couldn’t get to it.
She told me Terra had found our evidence at the beehive and burned it all, so returning to get anything would only put me at more risk.
I assumed if she found anything, she would’ve torn the place apart looking for more. ”
Valen takes a bag from Roman’s hand. “I wrote these?”
“You did. Those were—” I swallow hard, but it doesn’t bring any moisture to my mouth. “They were what we needed for Vivian. The detailed ones. The ones that had proof of everything she was doing.”
“What proof?” Grant asks.
“Anything I could get copies of from Terra’s office. She always underestimated me, but Miriam had been secretly homeschooling me since I was young, so I knew how to use a computer.”
Sterling leans forward. “So, someone has a journal that was confiscated over fourteen years ago?”
“I don’t know. The night I ran, this one was still hidden. Unless—unless Valen went for it after I ran, I don’t know how anyone would have found it. If she’d known what we were hiding, she would have punished us for it. But we were so careful about our tree. It was our only safe space.”
“So that means someone has either visited the compound recently,” Grant says, “or has had copies of it for years.”
“They didn’t just find the journal.” Roman flips over another page wrapped in plastic. “They made their own notes on them.”
He angles a page toward me, and my stomach drops.
Across Valen’s careful teenage handwriting, in violent slashes made with a red marker, someone has written messages.
What you buried isn’t dead.
Roman flips to another page.
Roots run deep.
And another.
Some stories have a…twist.
On the final page, across an entry about protecting me, is a message that makes me dry heave.
The truth is sweeter than honey, but will you survive the sting?
The room is completely silent, but I know the truth.
“They know,” I whisper. “They know everything about…” I look up to find Valen studying me. “About us.”
“Who’s they?” Chase asks.
“That’s the question,” Roman says grimly. “But there’s more.” He pulls up property records on his laptop. “After ROS was shut down, the land didn’t go to the state. It was purchased.”
“By who?” Grant asks, each word like a bullet from his lips.
“By Mom.” Roman watches Valen closely. “She bought it, destroyed everything Terra had there, and then let the property sit vacant in the family trust for the last twelve years.”
Valen is deathly still. “Vivi bought the compound.”
“Not just bought. She watched it.” Roman shows a security system log on his screen.
“It’s a pretty basic system, nothing fancy.
It’s logged the random local teen party over the years, but otherwise, it’s sat empty…
until about seven months ago, when someone accessed the property but managed to maneuver around the cameras.
Local hikers said they saw lights there for a couple of days, then nothing since. ”
“Seven months,” Sterling repeats. “Clover, when did your packages start?”
An answer to his question won’t come. I’m numb, unable to do anything beyond clench my own arms tighter around myself.
“They arrived as letters first,” Valen says for me. “Letters that were supposedly from me, six months ago.”
Grant’s jaw clenches. “So someone trespassed on a property that belongs to us, found Valen’s journal, and started sending cryptic messages to Clover, all without us knowing a damn fucking thing about it?”
“Invitations,” Valen corrects, still staring at the red writing. “These aren’t threats, are they, Honeybee? They’re—”
“Breadcrumbs,” I gasp, understanding dawning. “It’s what I do in my thriller novels. I leave breadcrumbs, Easter eggs that only unveil themselves when I want them to. Someone wants us to go back there. To…find something.”
“The tree,” Valen says. “If Terra found a journal, but not all the—”
“Someone might think you still have evidence out there somewhere,” Grant paces as he speaks. “Hidden, waiting. Terra wasn’t the only one with something to hide, was she?”
I shake my head.
“Tell me about the tree,” Sterling says.
“There was a crevice in the tree that we dug into. Valen created a false bottom with a couple pieces of plywood. We glued tree bark to the top so it would blend in. It would be really hard to find unless you were intentionally searching for it.”
“Exactly.” Roman nods. “My theory is that someone found these pages and got spooked that more journals exist. They can’t retrieve them—or won’t—so they’re attempting to lead you back to them.”
“Why not just search the property and destroy the evidence?” Chase asks.
“Maybe, like Clover said, they can’t find the hiding spots.
” Sterling is staring at a map on the screen in front of him.
“There must be a thousand trees on that property. Only Valen and Clover know exactly where it is. If they think there are more places like this, they’d have to search a thousand trees, and who knows where else. ”
“So, we have two possibilities,” Grant says carefully. “They want you to find them so they can destroy them because they’re afraid of being implicated after all these years. Or they want you to find them for closure, or proof. For—”
“For exactly what it is,” Valen finishes. “Evidence that could finally put away any of Terra’s followers who escaped.”
My insides tremble like a wooden roller coaster. “But Terra’s dead, so who—”
“Former cult members are a given,” Chase says.
“Even if Mom had implicated all the ones at the compound, Terra had outside help. They could fear getting caught, have a guilty conscience, who knows.” Sad eyes meet mine.
“Another possibility is that it could be another child who was harmed there but doesn’t have the means to get closure. ”
I’ve never allowed myself to picture the other children. I was never around them long enough to learn their names.
“We’re still missing something,” Grant grumbles.
Chief’s signature knock sounds on the door, a quick three taps, and Chase lets him in while Roman makes room for him on the couch. Sadness fills his expression as he stares at me, but he says nothing.
He’s here for moral support. He’s here for me.
“So, what do we do?” I ask.
Valen looks at me. Really looks at me. “I think the only option we have is to go to the compound, find the tree, and dig up whatever’s left. And then, we find a way to end this.”
“No.” Grant’s voice is firm. “It’s too dangerous. We don’t know who’s there—”
“No one’s there,” Roman interrupts. “I’ve been monitoring the security feeds since I found it this morning. There’s been no activity for eight weeks. The property’s dark. It’s empty.”
“Then we send a security team,” Sterling argues. “Not—”
“Us?” Valen’s smile is grim. “Sterling, I am security. Roman is security. And this? It’s personal.” He stands. “The property is ours, so we have the legal right to access it, and honestly, it’s time I see it for myself.”
No.
No way in hell.
There’s nothing I want less than Valen returning to the place where he was beaten so badly he can’t remember the first half of his life.
“Roman will go first with a team,” Valen continues. He’s speaking to the room, but his gaze never leaves mine. “He’ll secure the perimeter and make sure it’s safe. Then we’ll go in with a small team. A quick retrieval. Find the evidence and get the hell out.”
“Small team,” Chase repeats slowly. He’s keeping a careful eye on both of us. “What does that mean?”
“It means me and Clover.” Valen’s voice is steady, but my stomach twists into knots.
“Clover’s not leavin’ town without me and Wrecks,” Chief says, bolting to his feet and placing his hands on his hips. “Whatever your plannin’, I’m in too.”