Chapter 29
Berkley was still riding high, hours after this morning’s fun in Nick’s shower, as she pulled out another dusty box from one of the third-floor bedrooms of the Carmine Mansion. She’d never seen him coming. Literally or figuratively.
Never expected someone like him to walk into her life. They might have gotten off on the wrong foot, that being an understatement, but she really liked him.
And she could admit that it scared her. She’d had ridiculously poor taste in men when she was in her early twenties. Thought she’d made a better choice with Henry, and look how that had turned out.
Nick was different, but in a good way. She liked how driven he was with his job, how he talked to his sister on the phone, and weirdly, she loved the way he’d barged into her life and taken over.
She was used to being the “wild Knight,” the screw-up who couldn’t get her shit together.
And sure, he’d been a jerk to her after listening to Henry’s lies but…
he’d apologized for it. And more than telling her, he was showing her who he was.
She could forgive his first assumption about her. Had forgiven him.
Hell, the man had clearly paid for her lawyer, even if he hadn’t specifically taken credit for it. She wanted to ask him about it, but things between them were… Well, she wasn’t sure what they were.
They’d had sex. Really, really good sex. And she was staying with him until…the lunatic out there was caught. Who knew how long that would be? She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Part of her wanted to overanalyze what had happened between them and what would happen in the future, but she shelved all that and focused on separating the nineteen twenties hats from the random eighties ones that had been shoved into the storage box.
This place really was a gold mine of not only valuable items, but history. The owner had possessed an incredible eye, and if she’d had remotely enough money, Berkley would have bought this place herself.
Living in it was probably impractical since she was only one person, but whatever. She could dedicate rooms to different eras…
She paused at an incoming phone call, felt her heart rate kick up just at the sight of Nick’s name. It was only ten o’clock so she was surprised to hear from him so soon.
“Hey, is everything okay?” she asked.
“Just wanted to hear your voice.”
Oh, damn. Okay, she was clearly not prepared for him because her stomach did a little flip at his sweet words.
Unlike with her ex, they didn’t feel forced or fake, something she could only see now with hindsight.
“Well hello, then,” she said, feeling lighter.
“I’m happy to hear your voice too. How’s work? ”
“Boring. Too long. And I’d rather be with you.” There was a sexy growl to his tone that she felt all the way to her core.
“Is it weird that your whining is kinda hot?”
“Whining?”
She snickered.
“Have lunch with me?”
Normally she just ate on the job, and had been planning on taking a break around noon and doing just that. “You might be able to convince me.”
“How about I eat you for lunch and then we try that Thai place on Iberia Street?”
She swore she could feel his smile through the phone and found herself smiling back. “I love that idea, but I hope you know if I start taking lunches off, I won’t finish this job as quickly.”
“Screw the job.” Another growl.
She laughed. “Pick me up at twelve?”
“Make it eleven.”
She smiled at the impatience in his tone. “Sounds good.”
Even with the threat hanging over her, she felt safer when he was near so she would be counting down until eleven. Only an hour to go.
***
Berkley had been working for another half an hour when her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She paused at the unknown number that flashed on her screen. This was her personal cell, not her work number. Normally she ignored unknown numbers, but just in case it wasn’t spam, she answered.
“Hello?”
“I have your friend.,” a creepy robotic voice said. “And if you don’t follow my instructions exactly, she dies. But it won’t be a quick death. I’ll cut her apart, piece by piece, starting with her pretty mouth.”
Ice slicked down her spine but before she could respond, the call ended. “Oh god!” She started to call the number back but a barrage of texts flooded her phone, buzzing one after the other from the same unknown number.
She froze as pictures of Kendall came through. Tied up, one eye swollen, face bruised. Her friend was curled up on some kind of stone surface, her arms behind her back and her legs bound.
Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god.
She started to call Krystal but froze again as another text came through.
If you even think about calling the cops, or your sister, I slit her throat right now. But if you play along, you might get out of this alive.
Bullshit.
Still, she stopped herself from calling her sister and waited for more instructions.
If you want to save your friend, bring the lynx coat from the Carmine Mansion along with the three-carat diamond necklace.
She blinked. Wait, what? The coat and necklace were worth a lot, but this was insane. And how did they even know about them? And what did this have to do with Henry’s murder? Or James Reed? What the hell was going on? Another text came in even as she tried to wrap her mind around whatever this was.
You will tell no one and leave your cell phone at the mansion. I have someone watching and I’ll know if you deviate from your instructions.
Then the person sent coordinates and told her to be there within thirty minutes.
She plugged the address into her GPS and frowned.
It was the falls she used to hike to when she was younger with…
Kendall and Silvia. Oh god. Everyone in town hiked there in the summer.
It was a hot spot, but in the dead of winter it was desolate, isolated.
Everything was iced over and Kendall was curled up on some kind of rock formation.
She looked at the picture again. Now she knew exactly where this asshole was keeping her friend. The place was so isolated right now, but it didn’t matter. Saving Kendall was the only thing she could focus on.
She was barely going to have enough time to get there.
She nearly jumped when another text came through.
If you leave now, you can make it on time. Leave your phone behind. I’ll be tracking you. And if you tell anyone, she’s dead. Then I’ll go after Silvia next.
The room spun for a moment.
Oh god, oh god, oh god.
Heart in her throat, she seriously contemplated calling Krystal or even Nick, but this person had broken into her house once without her knowing, had drugged her and dumped her at Henry’s.
They’d also done something similar outside The End Zone and dumped her at James Reed’s.
And they knew about the lynx coat and diamond necklace…
She hadn’t told many people about those.
Now they’d managed to abduct one of her oldest friends.
She had no idea what kind of capabilities they had, but it was clear they were deadly and skilled.
So she moved quickly, unlocked her phone and left it on the dresser.
Nick would be here soon and hopefully check her phone.
She couldn’t risk calling him if this person had somehow cloned her phone.
But at least she could give him a message.
If they had the capability to track her, she believed they’d done something to her phone.
She forced herself to remain calm—on the outside at least—and grabbed one of the fur coats. Not a lynx, but one of the mink ones. Clover had already taken the lynx coat and the necklace and put them in one of the company’s storage units until it was time for the official auction.
Not that any of that mattered now.
She had to be cool and calm if she wanted to sneak out without Arlo realizing. She’d seen him input his pin into his cell the other day and had planned to change his ringtone as a joke.
Now, she needed to steal it before she snuck out of here.
It would be tricky but she’d been nicknamed the “wild Knight” for a reason.
When she got downstairs, she saw that Arlo was talking on his cell phone. He mouthed Sorry, gonna be a while, so Berkley simply nodded and went to the refrigerator.
If he was going to be on his phone, she wouldn’t be able to steal it. And Kendall couldn’t wait. Instead of panicking, she grabbed a bottle of water as if that was the reason she’d come downstairs, then hurried back up with a wave.
Once she was upstairs, she wrote a note to Nick telling him to call Krystal and what was going on. He would be here soon enough for lunch, but she couldn’t wait. And she couldn’t risk that someone was actually watching her, had cloned her cell phone, knew her every move.
Not to mention if they knew about the lynx coat… Wait, had they been in this house? She glanced around the bedroom, looking for cameras. No, that was ridiculous. Right? But so was the fact that someone had drugged and dumped her at two dead men’s houses.
So yeah, maybe not ridiculous. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility at this point. Even leaving a note was taking a risk, but she had no choice. She wrote as quickly as possible, jumped when thunder rumbled outside, shaking the house.
Then she put her unlocked phone onto the dresser, next to the note.
She thought about telling Arlo to call Nick but there were too many ways that could go wrong. She knew he wouldn’t let her leave, would physically hold her here until Nick got here.
And that wasn’t happening. Not when she had…twenty-seven minutes left.
She slipped on the mink coat, feeling stupid, but it was the easiest way to get it out of here. Once that was done, she slipped a box cutter and her pepper spray into her pockets, palmed her key fob and crept down the stairs.
Her heart was racing the entire time, but when she made it to the main foyer, she paused. She could hear Arlo still talking so he was occupied at least. The two front doors were heavy and creaked so she opened up one of the windows in the sitting room, only to be blasted by a burst of cold air.
Too late to stop now.
She crawled out the window even as she hoped Arlo hadn’t heard the gust of wind. Then she eased the window back down most of the way and raced for her car.
He was here to keep her safe, not to stop her from sneaking out. That made this escape a lot easier than it otherwise could have been.
Sprinkles of rain landed on her face as she sprinted across the driveway, but she wasn’t stopping. Before jumping into the front seat of her vehicle she shoved the mink coat into the back seat. There was no way she could make the hike to Sanctuary Falls wearing it. Not with the incoming rain.
She didn’t even have to put the vehicle Nick insisted she drive right now into neutral to try to back out quietly. Suddenly lightning cracked across the sky, followed by an ominous rumble of thunder, covering the sound of her starting her car.
As she drove down the street, she looked around for anyone watching or tailing her but the rain was too thick now to see much.
Heart in her throat, she gunned it, hoping she didn’t spin out in the rain. Because there were only twenty-five minutes left and she wasn’t sure she was going to make it in time.