Chapter Thirty-Three
Alice stared at the stranger with the face made familiar by the media. Fury shivered through her. “You murdered her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kelbrook said. “Alice, I’m sorry to say that your deranged mother took her own life.”
Energy flared in the atmosphere. She knew he was using his mirror talent to make her see what he wanted her to see—a man who was telling her a sad truth.
Sebastian tightened his grip on her shoulder. She knew he was getting ready to spring. She reached up, grabbed him, and clutched him with both hands.
“No,” she whispered.
She was briefly overwhelmed with the struggle to maintain both her emotional and physical balance. So many potential disasters were manifesting so quickly. She clutched Sebastian, silently trying to tell him not to attack. Not yet.
Beside her, Owen had gone dangerously still. She willed him to stay that way, because the mag-rez pistol in Kelbrook’s hand was pointed at him.
But oddly, under the circumstances, the factor that she found most unsettling in an extremely disturbing scene was Rose. The woman stood quietly, watching Kelbrook with eyes that burned as if lit by a high fever.
“You can drop the talent, Kelbrook,” Alice said. “I know you’re lying. You can’t con me into thinking that my mother took her own life.”
The energy around Dunstan disappeared in the next instant.
“I had no choice,” he said. “She was preparing to file for divorce on the grounds that she’d been deceived.
The difficulty of doing damage control to protect the family’s reputation was the least of the problem.
The real issue was that if she left, she would have taken her inheritance with her.
I could not allow that to happen. I was in a financial bind at the time. I would have been destroyed.”
“Where’s Twitchell?” Owen asked as if he was only mildly interested in the answer. “I can’t see you leaving your fortress without him.”
“I’m right here.” A second man appeared in the doorway.
He, too, had a mag-rez in his hand. “I knew going in that hiring you was a risky move, March. I was right. But you found Alice, and that was the main objective. Things are not going to end well for you, but it’s your own fault.
You could have been free and clear of this situation if you hadn’t taken it upon yourself to play the hero. ”
“He wasn’t playing the hero,” Alice said. “He is a hero.”
“I’m not a hero, but I do not like being used,” Owen said in that same emotionless tone. “A personality quirk.”
Kelbrook grunted. “So you decided to grab her for yourself? Okay, that makes sense. I’ve never trusted heroes, but I do understand the basic motivations involved in business. Well, you had your chance to take the buyout offer. You blew it.”
“How did you know we’d show up here at this horrible hotel?” Alice asked.
“There was never any question about it,” Twitchell snorted.
“We needed to lure you out of the Amber Palace and send you to a location we could control. I knew that sooner or later March would come here to talk to Rose. I arranged for her to hire Sykes. I knew that one of two things would happen—either he would be successful, which was unlikely but would have been convenient, or he would fail, in which case March would do the logical thing and track down the client.”
“Me,” Rose said.
There was a giddy, unstable edge on the single word.
Alice remembered the vibe she had picked up on the two occasions when she had lightly touched Rose while they were sitting at the kitchen table.
Silent screams in the chaos. Glimpses of an endless staircase that spiraled down into unfathomable night.
She had attributed them to grief and anguish, but there had been another, equally fierce emotion—rage.
“You and Kelbrook miscalculated, Twitchell.” Alice watched Rose’s tautly drawn features and glittering eyes. “Isn’t that right, Rose?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “Yes, they did.”
Kelbrook must have picked up on the unstable vibe in Rose’s voice. His brows bunched together in an irritated scowl, but he kept the pistol and his attention on Owen.
“What the fuck is she talking about, Rose?” he said.
“She’s talking about your lies,” Rose said. “They don’t work any longer, not on me. I know now that Twitchell was the one who pushed my son off the roof that night. But he wouldn’t have murdered Travis unless you had made it clear you wanted him dead.”
“That’s not true,” Twitchell snarled. “The video was obviously faked. This madwoman murdered your son.”
“I saw the watch,” Rose said. “I heard Travis’s voice. I saw him alive and well after Alice was unconscious. He was my son. I’d know him anywhere.”
Energy shuddered in the atmosphere. Alice knew Kelbrook was rezzing his mirror talent again.
“Let it go, Rose,” he said. “We talked about this. I told you back at the start that I couldn’t risk bringing Travis into the family, not with his bloodlines.”
“You mean my bloodlines,” Rose said. “You assumed that insanity was in the blood and therefore my son—our son—was tainted. You refused to acknowledge him until you needed him to save your empire. Then you used him and got rid of him as quickly as possible.”
“I told you, you’ll be taken care of for the rest of your life.”
“You don’t have to concern yourself with my future,” Rose said, terrifyingly calm and determined now.
She stepped across the threshold and out onto the porch.
She met Alice’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Ms. Radstone.
There was no other way. Dunstan is too powerful.
You all must play the game. I will give you the clue that my father gave the players.
‘Ignore the obvious. It will lead to your death.’ ”
“Rose,” Alice said, “No. You don’t have to do this.”
But it was too late. Rose slammed the front door shut.
“What the fuck?” Kelbrook rasped. “Get her, Twitchell. Move, you stupid fool.”
A heavy bolt thudded into place. At the same time, the rumble of metal panels reverberated from behind the thick curtains.
“What’s going on?” Twitchell said.
“She’s locking down the whole fucking hotel,” Kelbrook said. “It’s a death trap.”
The disembodied voice of a woman came from concealed speakers.
“Welcome to Survive the Hotel of Horror, the ultimate escape game experience. There are only two rules. Winners will live. Losers will die.”