Chapter 19
‘What the hell?’ Alice asked, but I was already moving, gathering up the jewelry, returning it to the case and shoving it into my bag.
‘We need to go,’ I said.
I didn’t know who the message was from, and I didn’t know who to trust right now, other than Alice.
A sick, frantic feeling had tied my stomach in knots, and I was well aware that I didn’t make my best decisions when I was panicked.
I felt like prey being hunted. But there was no time to slow down. No time to do anything except run.
I grabbed Alice’s hand and took a precious second to squeeze it reassuringly.
‘I don’t understand,’ Alice said, a little desperately.
‘Do you trust me?’ I demanded.
Alice’s big blue eyes blinked at me. ‘Yes. Of course.’
I walked us over to the apartment door and opened it, then did the same for the door that led us outside. But as soon as I pulled it open, I saw Wilson standing there in a navy business suit, smiling genially, a gun dangling from his fingers.
‘Hello, Kendra,’ he said with a snake-like smile as he raised the gun.
In an instant I slammed the outside door in his face and shoved Alice back into the apartment.
‘Holy shit,’ she shrieked.
I had no idea how the hell I’d just pulled that off – Wilson clearly wasn’t expecting me to immediately go on the defense. He yelled something that I couldn’t hear properly from behind the heavy door, and a second later he started banging on it.
He wouldn’t be able to get through, especially not after I activated the two barricaded locks that would take several attempts with a battering ram to break.
I pushed the bolts in place to secure them.
It would take Wilson a minute or two to realize he wasn’t getting in that way – minutes that would buy us precious time.
‘Did you just lock us in?’ Alice asked breathlessly.
‘Yeah. Can you call 911, please? Report a break-in.’
Alice grabbed her phone and dialed while I led us through the door that went downstairs to the shop. I unlocked my mom’s office door and let us inside. A plan was already starting to form in my head.
‘Hello? … Yeah, I’m on West Eighth Street … There’s this guy … I think he’s trying to break into the antiques shop. Walker Antiques. Can you send someone over there? … Thanks.’
I walked over to my mom’s desk and twisted what looked like a decorative wooden rose, but wasn’t.
A drawer popped out, and I hooked my finger into a tiny hole to lift up the cover and grab the key.
Closing the drawer reset the whole secret set-up, making it impossible to know it had even been touched.
Alice slipped her phone into her pocket and watched as I threw back the large Persian rug on the floor and unlocked the trap door.
‘What the hell! What’s down there?’ Alice asked.
‘Secret tunnel,’ I said with a grin, hoping to ease some of the nerves I could practically see wafting off her, while holding in my own. ‘We need to get out of here, and fast.’
Alice glanced down at the wide-open trapdoor, then gave me a look that I needed no help interpreting. She was fucking terrified and putting on a brave face.
‘This really sucks,’ she said frankly.
‘Agreed. I’ll go first.’
When I’d first started doing jobs for my mom, she’d shown me the tunnel.
It had been built at the same time as the shop, and had been used extensively for fifty years or so as a smuggler’s route.
It came out behind a tiny patch of land that had recently been turned into a small park that only had half a dozen trees and two benches in it, but it was great cover for a secret tunnel, meaning if there was ever an emergency we could use it.
I’d never had to before. Neither had my mom, as far as I knew.
But this was definitely an emergency.
The first drop down into the pitch darkness made my stomach turn, even though it wasn’t as deep as it looked. I crouched, since you couldn’t fully stand up in the tunnel, and used my phone’s flashlight to check that it was clear.
‘Come on,’ I called up to Alice.
She let out a little shriek as she dropped down. ‘Are you sure this is safe?’ she asked.
‘Mostly. Hold this for me?’
I handed her my phone, so I could reach up and pull the rug back over the trapdoor. Then I pushed the trapdoor closed from underneath, and the lock automatically clicked back into place.
‘Where does this lead?’ Alice asked as I took back my phone and hunched over as far as I could.
‘Just along the street. It’s not far.’
My bare arms scraped along the walls of the thin tunnel that were damp with condensation, and I tried to take slow, even breaths to calm myself down.
I could hear Alice shuffling just a few inches behind me, and wished, not for the first time, that I was better at being a reassuring presence.
I reached out behind me and waited until her fingers slipped into mine.
‘Nearly there,’ I murmured.
When the tunnel turned sharply to the left, I knew we only had a few more steps to go.
I angled my flashlight up and felt relief wash over me at the sight of the manhole cover.
The tunnel widened out here and I stretched as I straightened up, working out the ache in my back.
I grabbed Alice and pulled her closer to me, so she could stand up too.
‘I hate this,’ Alice said. She looked even more pale than usual.
‘We’re getting out now.’
‘Are you sure no one will see us?’
‘No,’ I said, offering her a bright smile as compensation. ‘I am sure no one knows about this exit, though. Hold this,’ I said, passing her the bag and my phone so I could climb the few rungs and release the manhole cover.
The cover was heavy, and it took me a second to balance it right and summon enough strength to push it to one side. As soon as it was clear, light flooded into the tunnel, and I could see Alice’s shoulders visibly relax, knowing she was seconds away from getting out.
‘Come on up,’ I said once I’d scrambled out.
Alice climbed up with surprising dexterity, and as soon as she was out I shoved the cover back in place and checked around the little park, making sure no one else was here.
New York continued on, paying no attention to us.
‘Can I be honest with you?’ Alice asked, brushing her hands off on her knees.
‘Always.’
She straightened up and fixed me in place with a wide-eyed stare.
‘I’m shitting myself right now.’
I nodded. ‘Me too.’
‘Good. I’m glad you’re a sane person.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ I said, managing to coax a small, tight smile out of her.
I knew I had to make decisions quickly now. One wrong move could get me killed or Alice hurt. The pressure was straining at my skull, and it felt like my head was about to explode.
I looked over at Alice. ‘You’re not going to like this,’ I said. ‘But I really need you to trust me.’
‘Go on,’ she said wearily.
‘I need to get you and the jewelry somewhere safe,’ I said, and even I could hear the desperation etched into my voice.
Alice was already shaking her head. ‘I’m not leaving you.’
‘Please,’ I begged. ‘Please, Alice. I’ve got an idea … to draw out Wilson and take him down, like we said. But if he manages to catch up with both of us, then it’s all over.’
‘You have a plan?’
‘Yes,’ I said, grabbing her hand. ‘I do. I’m going to call you in a couple of hours, okay? Please trust me.’
‘What if the worst happens? He could kill you,’ Alice said. She swallowed hard then clenched her jaw.
‘He won’t,’ I said confidently. ‘As long as he doesn’t have the jewelry, he can’t afford to kill me.’
‘Okay, I trust you,’ Alice said, conceding at last. ‘Who sent you that text, though?’
‘I have no idea,’ I said.
I had an ally, somewhere – someone who had potentially just saved my life. Marcus? If he wasn’t dead, it was possible he’d finally grown a spine. How the hell he’d known Wilson was on his way to me, though, I’d never know.
‘Be safe for me, Kendra? Please?’
I leaned in and kissed her hard, but Alice was the one to soften the kiss and turn it sweeter, gentler, brushing her hand over my cheek.
I wanted to pull her in close and keep her right next to me, so I could be sure she was safe and nothing bad would happen once she left.
Knowing I had to let her go hurt all the way down in my gut.
This was the best option though. The safest option.
I pulled the metal briefcase containing Abigail’s jewelry out of my bag and pushed it into Alice’s hands.
‘Get in a cab as soon as you can,’ I said.
Alice nodded, and I didn’t want to look at her broken expression any longer – I needed to move.
She’d made me soft.
I couldn’t afford to be soft right now.
After exiting the park and glancing up and down the street to decide if it was safe, I took off for the closest subway station at a jog.
Right now, having lived in the city all my life was my greatest advantage – I had a map of the New York subway system practically imprinted on my brain. The quickest way to get to where I needed to go meant heading west for a few blocks to 8th Street Station.
Wanting to keep moving, I got on the next train and accepted that I’d only have patchy signal underground as I moved the thirty-something blocks uptown.
That meant I’d lost contact with Alice until I left the subway.
She wouldn’t be able to call me if anything happened, but I had to trust that she’d get herself somewhere safe.
I spent most of the journey turning my phone over and over, picking at my cuticles, and working really hard to suppress the panic that was crawling up my throat. Things had been dangerous before, but never as bad as this. I just had to hope I could get a grip before it got any worse.
Alice would be safe at Sienna’s apartment, and I needed to find somewhere to put my plan together.
My grandfather’s safehouse apartment in Harlem was my best option right now, since no one other than me knew it existed.
But just in case there was someone still following me, I diverted to Grand Central first. I really, really didn’t want anyone to follow me to the safehouse.
It was pretty much the last place I had that was truly protected, and wandering around the terminal for a bit would allow me to get lost in the crowds, making me hard to keep track of.
When I walked out of the subway at Grand Central I made my way along the familiar pathways to the main concourse.
It was approaching rush hour, so the station was getting steadily busier, which meant I could hide even more easily among the crush of bodies while observing my surroundings and firming up my plan.
Now that Wilson knew I had the jewelry, I wanted to completely drop off his radar, certain that this would drive him to desperation and deep fury.
I knew first-hand that people who were desperate made mistakes.
I wanted him desperate, and angry, and wound as tight as possible so he’d make the worst mistake at the worst possible moment.
I was going to bait him into his own prison cell.
I wandered around for a while, lost in thought, then paused by one of the ticket desks, and that’s when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Even without looking I knew who it was, and I wanted to cry. Despite my best efforts, he’d found me.
Except it wasn’t who I expected.
Lucas had a bandage across his nose and bruises blooming under his eyes from where Alice had headbutted him. He gave me a look which told me to stay quiet and do what I was told. Unfortunately, those were two things I was famously bad at.
‘Let’s go for a walk, hmm?’ he said.
I had a split-second to make a decision – kick and scream and create a scene, hoping that someone would come to my rescue. Or try to talk my way out of this.
Before I could decide, Lucas leaned in close.
‘I’m armed, Kendra. Don’t do anything stupid. I really don’t want to have to shoot you.’
For a second I was frozen to the spot with fear, just long enough for Lucas to loop his arm through mine and lead me out of the station.