Chapter 17
“Okay, I’ll be here waiting for you guys,” Stone said solemnly. “If anything looks hinky, I’ll text, and I expect you to do the same. Watch your six,” he warned.
Pipe and Owl nodded.
“Six?” Cora whispered to Pipe as they headed for the driveway and the gate they’d used to enter the grounds the previous afternoon.
“Back,” Owl answered before Pipe could.
“Oh, right.”
She was nervous and on edge. She stayed close to Pipe as they neared the gate. This time, as she suspected, it was locked, and the gate across the driveway was also closed.
“As if that’ll keep us out,” Owl grumbled as he headed for the brick wall that surrounded the property. He jumped over it as if it was only a foot high, rather than the four feet that it actually was.
Pipe also cleared it without any issue, then he turned around and held out his hand. “You got this,” he encouraged.
It wasn’t as if Cora couldn’t get over the wall, she just wasn’t as graceful as the two guys were while doing so.
She hopped up and got her belly on the wall, then one leg up and over the edge.
Pipe took it from there, lifting her without making it seem like it was a big deal, putting her on her feet on the grass on the other side.
“You good?” he asked.
Cora nodded. She wasn’t sure she was, but she’d insisted on being here, so she wasn’t going to back down now.
Everything about today felt more ominous than the day before.
The area was quiet, the air still, as if the very environment was anticipating…
something. Which made no sense, but that was how it felt.
They didn’t see anyone on their walk toward the front door, and before she knew it, Pipe was reaching for the knocker. Like yesterday, he slammed it down on the metal plate.
Cora was standing a little behind Pipe and Owl, which, to be honest, she was all right with.
It wasn’t as if she expected Creepy Guy or Ridge to open the door and start shooting, but knowing both Pipe and Owl were armed and more than ready and willing to use their weapons to protect themselves and her, if necessary, had ratcheted up the danger she felt.
It took several minutes, and several more knocks, before they heard the locks clicking on the door. Cora held her breath as it slowly opened.
Creepy Guy stood there staring at them. She supposed she should start calling him by his name, but now that she’d been calling him Creepy Guy in her head, it was hard to stop.
“What do you want?” CG growled.
“To see Lara,” Pipe told him in an equally menacing voice.
“I told you yesterday, she’s sick.”
“Don’t care. We’re seeing her today whether you like it or not,” he countered.
CG laughed. And not in a humorous way. “Yeah?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Pipe confirmed. “We’ve done a little inquiring about Mr. Michaels and his staff.
” He emphasized that last word, making sure CG was aware that the inquiries included him.
“And we were surprised not to see him at the Blue Moon last night. The girls were also disappointed…you know, considering how much he’s spoiled them in the last month. ”
Cora held her breath as she waited to see what CG would say to that.
He looked just as intimidating as he had yesterday.
Had on a pair of black cargo pants, a short-sleeve gray polo shirt that showed off his bulging biceps, and black boots.
He towered over her. His blond hair was cut short, in a military buzz, and his hazel eyes were cold as he looked down at them.
The muscle in his square jaw ticked as he stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.
She felt the urge to apologize for interrupting him and flee, but Cora locked her knees. She wasn’t the kind of woman who was easily intimidated, but this guy? Yeah, he scared the crap out of her for some reason.
“And it’s fine if you don’t want to let us in,” Owl added. “We’ll just call up our contact in the Phoenix Police Department and have him come out with a dozen of his brethren to do a welfare check on Ms. Osler. There’s no telling what else they might find in the house…is there?”
At that, Cora was certain she saw alarm flare briefly in CG’s eyes, and her heart rate sped up. This was going to work. They were going to get in.
“There’s no need to get the cops involved. Nothing untoward is happening here. I’m sure Lara will be glad to see her friends.” With that, CG stepped away from the door, inviting them in.
As happy as Cora was that they were finally going to see Lara, something about stepping across the threshold made her hesitate.
An old poem by Mary Howitt that she’d read in high school suddenly flashed into her mind.
About the spider inviting the fly into his parlor.
And everyone knew what happened to the poor fly.
Right about then, she felt as if she was the fly and CG was the big bad spider.
She desperately wanted to grab hold of Pipe, but he’d warned her that he needed his hands free at all times…just in case. Cora didn’t want to think about what “just in case” entailed, but she could guess.
So she stayed glued to Pipe’s back as he stepped over the threshold behind CG.
Owl was at her back, and she shivered as the door shut behind them with a loud clang.
CG took the time to relock it, which was another thing that didn’t give Cora the warm fuzzies, before gesturing for them to follow him.
Looking around as they walked, Cora noted that the estate was pristine.
There were no dust bunnies on the floor or in the air, there weren’t any knickknacks out of place.
She was constantly putting crap on her counter, dropping bags on the floor when she got home, and she didn’t want to think about how many pairs of shoes were lying around her place.
Her apartment was lived in. Well, before she’d sold everything.
This place was…hollow.
The thought of Lara being here made Cora want to weep. Her friend was full of sunshine. Despite being shy, she was a happy person, always thinking the best of people. Her apartment was even more chaotic than Cora’s, but it was full of love, and she’d always felt right at home there.
Their steps echoed on the tile floor as CG led them down a long hall. Cora noticed that Pipe’s head was on a swivel, just as it was anytime they were in any kind of situation he wasn’t familiar with. He was obviously taking note of their surroundings and the route they were taking.
Just when Cora thought CG was leading them to some back entrance and was going to shove them all out, he stopped. He opened a door and swung it open.
“If you wouldn’t mind waiting in here, I’ll go get Ms. Osler.
It might take a few moments because she’ll need to change out of her sleeping clothes.
There’s a small wet bar on the side of the room and the seats are comfortable.
It’s the most restful room in the house.
Figured you’d want privacy to speak to your friend. ”
Pipe hesitated before he stepped into the room, and that small pause spoke volumes to Cora. But she followed close behind him, not wanting to be more than a few steps away, just in case. If shit did hit the fan, she wanted to be where Pipe was.
The space they entered was some sort of media room.
There were three rows of large leather recliners on gradually elevating platforms, like at a movie theater.
The seats were facing a big screen, and there was a projector on the back wall.
As CG said, there was a wet bar to the right of the door with well-stocked shelves of what looked like an impressive array of liquor.
“Ten minutes,” Owl told CG as he turned to face him.
“Pardon?” CG asked. He might be a bodyguard, but he had the mannerisms and tone of a privileged and snotty staff member down pat.
“You’ve got ten minutes to bring Lara here, before we call the cops.”
An angry look flashed across CG’s face, but he simply nodded. “Ten minutes,” he agreed, then began to shut the door behind him as he left.
It went against everything inside Cora to let the asshole shut that door, but she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their chance of getting to see Lara. Apparently, Pipe was on the same page.
“I don’t like this,” he said the second they were alone.
“Me either,” Owl agreed.
“Me three,” Cora joked uneasily.
“That seemed too easy,” Owl said. “Although he definitely didn’t want us to call the cops. Did you see his face when I mentioned having the police doing a welfare check on Lara?”
“Oh, yeah, there are some secrets in this house for sure,” Pipe agreed. “I’m beginning to wonder if Michaels is all right. I mean, we haven’t seen him yet.”
“No, but the women at the Blue Moon said he was there the night before last,” Owl argued.
“That was before we showed up,” Pipe said with a shrug.
“You think maybe Michaels isn’t the bad guy here?” Owl asked.
Cora’s head swung from one man to the other, like she was watching a tennis match.
“No. He’s in this up to his eyeballs. He’s not innocent in the least, but I do think it’s odd that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him yet.”
“So what do we do now?” Cora ventured to ask when no one had spoken for several seconds.
“We wait,” Pipe said firmly. “And no, we aren’t drinking any bloody thing from that wet bar. We have no idea if they’ve drugged the alcohol. Or the ice.”
“Wait—you can drug ice?” Cora asked.
“Absolutely,” Owl said with a nod. “I know of a case where terrorists were able to take over a plane by drugging all the passengers through the ice in their drinks. Thankfully, there was an astute chemist onboard who realized what was happening, and she informed the Navy SEAL sitting next to her.”
“Holy crap! Were they okay?”
“Yup. The SEAL didn’t drink anything, and he and his two buddies—who were also on the plane—overtook the hijackers.”
“Wow, I had no idea ice could be drugged,” Cora said with a shake of her head.
“It’s why I’ll never ask for ice on a plane,” Owl told her with a small smile.