9. Letters from Tessa
CHAPTER 9
Letters from Tessa
Nikki
I tunneled my fingers through Henry’s hair. God, he felt good—his hot skin smooth under my touch, his mouth determined and sure on my lips. Like two pieces of a puzzle, we fit together.
“Henry,” I whispered in between kisses.
“I know.” He dropped his hands to my waist and held me tight. “I feel it too.”
I sucked on his lip and pressed my body against his before I pulled away. This was why I always worked alone. I needed a cool head to focus on Tessa. What Henry was doing to my senses right now was the complete opposite of staying focused.
“Okay. Let’s just go downstairs and not think about this.” I pointed at the two of us.
He nodded, cheeks red as he stuffed his mom’s note in the back pocket of his jeans. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Outside Tessa’s bedroom, a draft floated along the corridor and blew gently on my face. The sudden drop in temperature helped to put out the desire still simmering at my core .
“This place looks exactly how I remember it.” Henry stood by the stairs, his head tilted up, admiring the high ceilings.
“I don’t remember it being this quiet. Where do you think everyone went? I mean, even the housekeeper is gone.” I ran my hand along the hand-carved wooden banister, leaning forward to admire the view of the foyer from up here.
I followed him down the stairs, through the foyer, and into the study on the opposite side. This was where Henry’s dad had spent most of his time, his desk always buried under papers and books. I’d only been in here a few times, but the image of him bent over his work had stuck with me.
Henry closed the door behind us and headed straight to a portrait of his uncle and aunt. “How are you with safes?” He grinned.
I couldn’t help but wonder what he liked more— the fact that we were standing up to his uncle or the idea that he was involved with a criminal. In grade school, the Cavalier boy had been the role model, while I’d been a hot mess—the rebel. It all changed when our parents died within months of each other, and he was sent to boarding school in Tucson when he was ten.
I dropped my backpack on the desk and faced the medium-sized black box. I’d expected something bigger. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
In all these years, I’d never imagined I’d be back in Cavalier Manor to steal again. I was literally back to square one, trying to prove my sister’s innocence and broke. I took out my equipment and laid out the wires on the desk before I plugged the device into my iPhone. Yeah, there was an app for that. I inserted the wires under the dial, shoved the earphones in, and got to work.
Even from across the room, Henry’s scent was a distraction, and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things we could be doing right now if we’d stayed upstairs. Crap. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t kiss him tonight, but he’d looked so broken sitting on his mother’s bed, thinking she didn’t care about him. Then the final blow: finding out she’d been kept in this house against her will, all alone and away from her only son. He’d been through so much already.
“I thought we weren’t thinking about that ?” Henry flashed me a smile from the other side of the study as he thumbed through one of his dad’s books.
“You don’t even know what I was thinking about.” I turned away from him to face the safe box again, listening for the next click.
“You were staring.” He put the book away and picked up another one.
“I’m sorry. I got carried away. I shouldn’t’ve kissed you.” Another click pierced my ear. I tapped on the app on my phone and turned the volume down. Focus .
“Feel free to let yourself get carried away anytime,” he whispered next to me, making my hand flinch and my heart do a backward flip.
As much as I wanted to throw myself at him right now, this wasn’t the time or the place. “I’ll remember that.” I smiled at him.
He stepped back and picked up a paperweight off the desk. “How’s that going?” He pointed at the safe.
I wiggled my eyebrows. “Got it.”
“One day you’ll have to tell me why you had to learn to do that.” He shook his head.
“One day I might.” I reached in, grabbed a stack of bills, and put them in my backpack. The money wrap said five thousand dollars. My favorite denomination.
“What are you doing?” He scowled at me. “We’re not here to steal money.”
“ You’re not here to steal money, but I am. A girl’s gotta eat.” I winked at him. “There’s a lot of money here. Your uncle won’t notice if a few bills are missing.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. But we’re splitting that. And no running off with it at the last minute.” For the first time since our big fight, his tone of voice wasn’t laced with anger when he talked about the night I ran off with Tessa’s money.
“Okay, let’s see what else is in here.” I riffled through the folders and jewelry boxes. This was odd. When we were kids, Henry’s mom kept all her jewelry in her room. I supposed Jonathan didn’t trust the people working for him. Trust and respect weren’t things money could buy. After he sent Henry away, how many years did it take him to figure that out?
“Anything good?” Henry rummaged through the desk drawers across from me. “There’s some receipts here, but nothing out of the ordinary. Look at this, two thousand dollars for a steak dinner at Different Point of View in Phoenix.”
“Nice.” I opened a manila envelope. Inside was a letter folded in three.
“Expensive dinners impress you?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“What the hell?” I mumbled. Henry dropped what he was doing and came to join me. “It’s a letter from your mom to my sister.”
Dearest Lisa,
I know you didn’t kill my husband. And I am so sorry that you’re having to bear this cross on your own. I promise you I will do anything in my power to get you out.
Love, Tessa
“What?” Henry stared at the letter before he took it from me. “Mom knew?”
“I thought you said she’d gotten worse. That she couldn’t move. When did she write this letter?”
“I don’t know. But this is definitely her writing. Way more legible than the note she left upstairs.” He shook his head, biting his lip.
“I wonder if Lisa ever saw it. Why does your uncle have it?”
“Good question.”
“Another good question—if your mom knew Lisa didn’t do it, why didn’t she speak up during the trial?” My stomach rolled.
Tessa had always been kind to me and Lisa. But if Tessa believed in Lisa’s innocence, why had she turned her back on us when we needed her the most? Why hadn’t she stood up for Lisa? God, I hoped Lisa hadn’t seen this letter. Fifteen years of waiting for someone who wasn’t coming would be torture. I crumpled the note in my hand.
“Kill the light,” Henry whispered.
Outside in the foyer, the sound of slow footsteps echoed on the marble floors. My pulse shot into overdrive. We weren’t alone after all. I closed the door to the safe and winced when it shut with a loud thud.
“Is there another way out?” I asked.
“Yeah. Let’s use the service door. It’ll take us to the kitchen.” He wrapped his fingers around my wrist, and I tightened my grip on his mom’s note.
With my free hand, I grabbed my backpack and followed Henry through the hidden door behind the bar cart. Did the footsteps belong to one of the guards doing his rounds, or was his uncle back? Henry barred the panel and held my arm tighter when I tried to move.
“Let’s go,” I said under my breath.
He shook his head, putting a finger up to his lips.
Seriously? My heart pounded in my throat, and he wanted to stay back and play detective? Yes, I was a thief. A good one at that. The risk of getting caught was part of the gig, but something about this scenario put my nerves on end. These guards had orders to shoot Henry on sight.
On the other side of the wall, the lights came on. Suddenly we were more than shadows. I shuffled back, but Henry pulled me toward him, away from the crack between the panel and the wall where a glow bled through. Ice cubes dropped into a glass, followed by liquid pouring. Someone was making a drink. I needed a drink.
I tugged at Henry’s hand again, and he finally moved to follow me. We turned just as a glass smashed against the floor. Someone was having a bad day, and hell if we were staying to find out why. Soundlessly, I rushed down the corridor and didn’t stop until we reached the kitchen.
“We have to get back to the tunnels. If we leave through the kitchen, one of the guards will see us for sure,” I whispered. A small tremble rushed through my arms and legs. Shit. We had to get out of here. Now.
“I know. Let’s go through there.”
The memories of this place were slowly coming back to me. Behind the pantry was another access that led to the garden tunnels. It was the one we’d used to sneak out to Tessa’s gardens.
Henry pushed in the cupboard, making enough room for us to squeeze through. As soon as he closed it behind us, we both took off running. Something didn’t feel right. Goose bumps tickled the hair on the back of my neck, like a warning. I couldn’t shake the feeling we were being hunted. By the worried look on Henry’s face, he felt it too. One thing I learned very early on after I ran away from my last foster home was to always trust my gut.
Overhead, several sets of footsteps raced down the hallway, dropping dust and years of cobwebs on us. Did they know we were here? I covered my mouth to keep from yelping when my boots kicked something across the corridor. A sharp sting made me jolt to a stop to scratch the burning itch on the inside of my elbow. I had spiders on me. They were in my hair and on my clothes.
“I hate spiders.” Henry gripped my wrist and pulled me behind him.
“I hate mice.” I kept up the pace, swatting at my head and legs.
When we reached the exit, I gestured for him to stay put. The tunnel was pitch black, but through the cracks along the threshold, beams of light darted across the garden. Did they know Henry was here? Or did they think this was just a random break-in? The manhole to safety was at least fifty yards away from us.
“What do we do?” I whispered.
Henry snaked his hand around my waist and pressed my back against his chest. His breath blew ragged near my temple. This was the spot where he’d found me after I stole Tessa’s money; the money she always kept in her room and never made any effort to hide from us. As if she’d wanted us to know it was there. Had she known something terrible was coming for us? If she had, why hadn’t she done something to stop it?
“This is where we first kissed. Do you remember that?” Henry asked.
I nodded. “We made plans to run away to Paris.” Up until a couple of weeks ago, that had still been my plan.
His chest rumbled with a suppressed chuckle. Our lives were probably about to end, and he was amused. “Your NYU boyfriend wasn’t your first con. I was.”
I froze. Even if it hadn’t been on purpose, I stole from him the day I ran away with his mom’s money. “I’m so sorry, Henry.”
“There’s only one person who’s responsible for everything that happened that day.” He squeezed me tighter, burying his face in my hair. I slid my hand up his forearm and let my head fall back on the nook between his shoulder and neck. We stood in the dark, holding on to each other as we waited for the guards to return to their posts.
When the noise outside quieted down, I pulled away from him to fish my night-vision goggles out of my bag. Darkness was the only advantage we had. I sat on my haunches and pushed the small door open. Tessa’s chuparosa shrubs prickled my legs as we climbed out of the tunnel and leaned against the brick wall. The rain fell in sheets, keeping pace with the thudding in my chest. I donned the goggles and looked for signs of movement.
“Looks clear.” I turned to face Henry.
“Let’s go.” He nodded.
I swallowed and moved along the edge of the house toward freedom. Keeping a low profile, we made a run for it. When we were close to the manhole, Henry ran in front of me and lifted the steel cover for me to go through. My mind went blank, driven by self-preservation. With no time to think or grab the ladder, I jumped into the hole and dropped six feet. Henry did the same, falling next to me with a loud splash.
We stared at each other for what felt like hours. If they had seen us, they would be on top of us by now.
“You think we’re good?” I panted a breath.
Henry winced and rubbed the inside of his wrist. “I think so.” He braced his hands on his knees and blew out air. “Fuck. Make no mistake, if they had seen us, they would’ve shot us.”
“I know.” I swallowed. “Let’s go home.”
Back at the hotel, I changed out of my suit. Scratching the tiny red bumps on my arms, I stepped into the shower. Within minutes, the hot water and scented soap washed away the crawling feeling on my back. The tremble in my hands didn’t quite go away though, but at least, I didn’t feel so on edge.
As soon as I shut off the water, Henry knocked on my bedroom door.
“Come in.” I grabbed my bathrobe off the bed and donned it.
Henry strolled in, wet hair, wearing plaid pajama pants and a white Henley and carrying two beers in his hand. “I figured you might need one of these.”
“You have no idea.” I reached for the bottle he offered me and took a long, satisfying pull.
He sat on the bed and drank. Tonight, had been a complete bust. I hated being on the losing end. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought—break in, grab Tessa, and steal his dad’s will. What was I thinking?
“Okay. So this is going to require a bit more planning,” I said.
“You think?” He met my gaze and tilted the bottle until the beer was all gone. “What happened tonight?”
“I’m not exactly sure. Either your uncle found out you’d seen your mom, or he has really good intuition. The man stole millions from you. He must have a proper criminal mind.” That had sounded funnier in my head. “I’m sorry. I know you were hoping to have your mom back tonight.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder and glared at the wall to our right with the last fifteen years of my sister’s life and the pictures of his dad’s last moments pinned to it. The answer to this mad puzzle was on there somewhere.
“So what do we know?” Henry followed my line of sight. His eyes filled with tears when he saw the murder board. “It’s all connected, isn’t it?”