Carly took a look around the elegant ballroom. Not many people had a ballroom in their home, but this Pacific Palisades estate was Patricia’s version of Versailles. Every single detail of the six-thousand-square-foot mansion overlooking the Pacific had been painstakingly selected, from the Italian marble floors to the crown molding to the swimming pool and fountain. Today the house was open to two hundred of Patricia’s closest friends.
“Can you hear me all right?” a masculine voice asked in her ear.
And a few interlopers Patricia didn’t know about. Carly wasn’t used to all the spy stuff. Luckily she was definitely used to having a Bluetooth device in her ear. This one was simply on a different frequency. One of Drew Lawless’s choosing. “I can hear you.”
No one would think twice about her talking. She was constantly putting out fires and trying to make things go smoothly at a party like this.
“And I can see through the camera. It looks good for now.” Drew’s voice was steady in her ear.
She was wearing a small pin on her cocktail dress. It looked like a star with a diamond, but it was actually more spy stuff. It let Drew and the crew outside the house see what was going on from her perspective. Well, her left boob’s perspective, to be more accurate.
She glanced down at the floor below. Guests were flowing in and out of the ballroom, the doors having been swept back and opened to the backyard and its spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. Tuxedoed servers made their way through the crowd offering champagne and appetizers. There was a string quartet playing, and Carly had arranged for the Met’s most popular soprano to sing later.
Carly had organized this party for the last five years and she’d never once been so nervous. Her hands had a fine tremble to them that wouldn’t seem to go away.
This was it. If Bran found what they were looking for, they would be over. Well, she would have a decision to make. She got the feeling Bran wouldn’t mind hanging out a bit longer. He’d even joked about the two of them taking a vacation. He’d offered to take her somewhere sunny for a few weeks.
She wondered if that was his way of saying good-bye. Or if it was his way of setting up their new relationship.
She’d slept with him every night for a week. He would come in late and make love to her. In the morning he would do it all over again. When he made love to her, she felt like she was necessary to him.
But when she tried to talk about anything serious, he found a way to make himself scarce.
What kind of future did she have with a man who wouldn’t talk to her about his past? Who wouldn’t even acknowledge he had a problem? She couldn’t build a real life with him. She would always be waiting for him to explode and wreak havoc on everything they’d built.
She watched as he stepped inside. For now he was sticking close to Patricia’s side, but in a few minutes there would be an emergency he had to attend to. It was all perfectly set up. They’d gone over and over the entire operation at least a hundred times.
The night before, Bran had managed to steal the keycard to Patricia’s private office. He’d had Case standing by to duplicate the card and get it back to her before she knew it was gone. Drew had hacked into the house’s smart functions. He would cover the code that would report that the door had been opened. Bran had a device in his pocket that would download all her computer systems and one that would connect Drew to the safe on the inside. It was electronic and therefore completely vulnerable to Drew’s particular brand of evil genius. Bran would shuffle through her desk, the closet, and anything else in the inner sanctum.
As far as Carly knew, he would be the only person besides Patricia herself who had been in that room since the mansion had been built. She called it her sanctuary, her private haven. Carly had never even seen the inside.
“Is that who I think it is?” Drew’s voice was a low growl over the headset.
Carly looked down and gasped slightly.
Shelby Gates strode into the ballroom like she owned the place. She was wearing a designer gown that showed off her killer curves, and she looked like a woman on a mission.
Her mission might derail theirs, and that would be a disaster.
“I’m going to head her off. Tell Case to wait until I’m in position before he starts the game. Again, keep the football out of play. Do you read me?” Carly started for the stairs.
“I hear you. I can’t read you at all. I think you’ve watched far too many spy movies. You know, the term football typically refers to nuclear codes the president has.” Drew was always so logical.
Sue her for sleeping through Air Force One. “You understand what I’m telling you?”
“Yes, Carly. I’ve already informed Case that we have a slight issue. If you don’t get that woman out of here, I’m going to ensure she never bothers me again. I can have her shipped off to any number of deserted islands where she can’t cause trouble. I own several.”
She didn’t doubt it. She’d learned Drew Lawless never joked about revenge. Of course, the man rarely joked about anything at all.
“What is she wearing?” Drew sounded even more irritated than before. “Is that even a skirt? It looks more like she wrapped a Band-Aid around her ass.”
“It’s a Herve Leger,” she said irritably. Shelby looked gorgeous in the yellow dress. “It’s perfectly respectable.”
“Maybe it is on some supermodel who’s never had a cheeseburger in her life. On that woman it should be a crime.” He sounded awfully prim for a man who looked like sin when he took off his shirt.
She’d walked in on him and Bran and Case during one of their hot, sweaty workout things. There had been lots of high-tech equipment and all she’d seen were incredibly attractive male chests. While he wasn’t as hot as Bran, Drew was definitely not a slouch in the muscle department. No man who spoke geek that well should look like that without his shirt on.
“I will be sure to tell her you disapprove.”
“Yeah, tell her if I ever catch her trying to hack my personal system again, it won’t be a desert island I send her to,” Drew shot back. “It will be jail.”
She had to smile at the outrage in his voice. It was nice to see that someone in the world could get Drew’s goat. “She got on your personal system?”
“She got lucky.”
Carly wished she’d been there. “I told you she was good. Now will you stop bitching long enough for me to find out why she’s here?”
“She’s here to cause trouble.”
Carly worked her way through the crowd. She’d seen Patricia walking out toward the pool area, where several of her biggest financial backers had settled in around a station offering Scotch and bourbon tastings.
Shelby craned her neck trying to see over the crowd. Even in her sky-high heels she seemed to be struggling.
“She’s going to fall in those heels.” Drew was like Eeyore in her ear. “Like she needs to make her legs longer.”
Carly managed to catch her friend. “What a surprise to see you!”
Shelby’s eyes flared but she played along, leaning over for a hug. “I’m so happy to see you, too.”
Carly embraced her, getting close to her ear. “What the hell are you doing here, you criminal?”
“That’s the way to tell her,” Drew said, approval making his voice rich.
Shelby frowned. “I’m not a criminal.”
Carly took her by the elbow and started to lead her to a place where they could talk without drawing attention. “Trespassing is a crime and that’s what you’ll be charged with if Patricia catches you here. How did you get in?”
“My name was on the invitation list,” she replied, still frowning as Carly forced her to the edge of the ballroom.
“I approved that list myself.” She led Shelby down to the hall that took them to the residence section of the house. A security guard was standing close, but luckily he was a McKay-Taggart man and simply nodded them through. “You weren’t on it.”
She hauled Shelby into the nearest room. It happened to be a parlor. There were several throughout the estate. This particular one was Patricia’s more personal parlor. The furnishings were fairly comfortable and the walls were decorated with artwork she’d collected and books she’d likely never once read.
The reality of what Shelby had to have done in order to get her name on that list hit Carly. “You hacked into my computer?”
Maybe Drew had a point.
Shelby turned, crossing her arms over her well-endowed chest. “I’m going to confront her, Carly. I have real questions I want to ask her. I’m not going to let you talk me out of it this time.”
Carly took a long breath. “Sweetie, I know you think this is a good idea, but it’s a bad time. I need you to walk away.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t prove that she killed my brother, but I can still bring her empire down. I want to know what she did with Francine Wells. The woman has fallen off the face of the earth and I think Patricia killed her.”
“Does she know about Francine Wells?” Drew’s voice had gone almost to a whisper.
It was still too much. She ignored him. There would be time later to deal with the mystery woman who had supposedly been Carly before Carly was Carly. “Do you have any proof at all?”
Shelby’s jaw went tight. “I have a lot of coincidences. I need to stand in front of her and see how she reacts.”
“She’s going to react by throwing you in jail, Shelby. She’s going to discredit you and tear you down. I need you to back off from this one.”
“After everything she did to you? After what she threatened to do to your sister? You would deny me my one chance to look her straight in the eye and tell her I know what she did?”
She reached out and put her hand over Shelby’s. “I know what she did. I promise when we can prove it, I’ll let you go at her.”
“Ask her about Francine Wells,” Drew said.
For a person who’d told her to keep the mission secret, he was awfully chatty. How was she supposed to do that without explaining to Shelby that she had a Lawless in her ear?
“I’ll never be able to prove what she did to my brother, but I might be able to do something more.” Shelby leaned forward, whispering, “I think this is bigger than I imagined, Carly. When my brother started looking into her business practices, he found something else. Something that goes back twenty years. I’m worried about you. Someone’s been working hard to ensure I can’t investigate.”
Ah, something finally went right. “Are you talking about Francine? Is she the thing that goes back twenty years?”
Shelby nodded. “It’s weird, but ever since you told me about her, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. She’s a ghost, but she wasn’t always. She was very visible up until about twenty years ago. Then she seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.”
“Keep her talking,” Drew ordered. “I want to know everything she knows about Francine Wells. I think I’ve missed something. Bran mentioned her before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately. If she is who I think she is, she was close to my father.”
“You think Patricia had something to do with her going missing? From what I understand, she was helping Patricia out up to a couple of years back. She was kind of the brains behind the business.”
Shelby took a step back and started to pace. “But the records of her are so sketchy. She disappeared from Dallas the day after Benedict and Iris Lawless died. And she worked for the same company. I find it odd that she cleared out her apartment and left without any kind of notice. She didn’t even contact any of her friends. Eighteen months later she shows up on the payroll of a start-up company called StratCast. She disappeared from there and that’s when it gets even weirder. Right about the time Patricia sold her shares of StratCast, Francine shows up in Florida, but there are no public records of her owning any property or leasing any space here. She wasn’t employed by any company, but apparently Patricia gave her cash.”
A chill went down her spine. No wonder Drew was interested in Francine. “I never met her, you understand. I’ve only heard some stories about her. She never came to the offices, but Patricia would go and visit her often. I got the impression Francine spent time wherever Patricia would go, so I would bet Patricia was paying for her house or apartment or wherever she was living. A lot of people who work for Cain Corp believe she was the creative brain behind the company. Patricia was the face and Francine was the woman with the ideas.”
“Why did she leave? She disappeared completely around four years ago. And Patricia wasn’t paying for her place. I found some correspondence between Francine and a lawyer. I looked up the address she used. It was owned by a woman named Leah Walker. Leah was killed in a car accident roughly the same time Francine disappeared.”
Carly’s stomach sank at the implications. How many deaths was Patricia responsible for? “I thought Francine had probably been an older lady. I thought maybe she’d passed on.”
“She was the same age as my father. She worked for him,” Drew said. “I didn’t remember the name until Hatch jogged my memory. She worked directly under my father. She was quite intelligent and loved to write code. He taught her a lot. What she didn’t do was cook. Hatch remembered the time she tried to bring a birthday cake for my dad up to the office. She’d mixed up salt and sugar. I find it difficult to believe that she was the brains behind Patricia’s Paradise.”
How did he know that? He’d been fourteen at the time. She couldn’t imagine he’d been very close with his father’s coworkers, but then, he was Drew. He’d been serious about code at a young age. He’d also been obsessed with his parents’ murders, so he’d likely done a lot of investigating on everyone around them.
“I’ve got a bunch of records on her,” Shelby explained. “She was a year younger than Patricia herself and there’s no death certificate on her. I’ve been looking into Jane Does in the St. Augustine and LA areas but it looks like a dead end. What I do know is she disappeared after the murders and it seems like she was given safety by Patricia Cain. I believe she’s the woman who entered Steven Castalano’s hospital room before he died. He must have had something on her or Patricia that they wanted to hide. So I want to find her, but I think they’re onto me. When I get enough proof, I’m going to the one man they won’t be able to buy off.”
Oh God. Don’t say Drew Lawless. Don’t say Drew Lawless. “Who’s that?”
Shelby’s shoulders squared. “His name is Andrew Lawless. He’s the son of Benedict and once I can prove that his parents were murdered, I’m going to him. He’s out there and he believes what the police told him. He thinks his father killed his mother. He has no idea there was a conspiracy.”
“Fuck,” Drew said.
Carly turned away and muttered under her breath because it was good to be right about at least one damn thing. “I told you.”
Shelby was busy talking about her plan. “I’ve been careful. I’ve talked to some people on the dark web about this, but I haven’t told anyone what I’m trying to do. There’s this man I’m working with. I’m going to tell him soon and I think he’ll be able to help me, but I have to be sure. I need to look her in the eyes.”
“I’m the man she’s been talking to, damn it,” Drew admitted. “Don’t you tell her that. That’s my confession to make. But we have to bring her in. You need to tell her who you’re working for and then get your ass back out there. Patricia’s on the move. If she calls for dinner early, we’ll be fucked.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Shelby, I’m working for Drew Lawless. He’s actually an asshole and he won’t stop talking in my ear and we’re working this party in order to find something called a burn file that we believe will lead us to information on how Patricia, Steven Castalano, and Phillip Stratton conspired to kill Benedict and Iris Lawless. Believe me, he knows.”
Shelby stopped, staring at her for a moment. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope, he’s also put a video camera on me so he’s likely staring at your boobs right now,” she confessed.
“Carly!”
She ignored him entirely.
“You are working for Andrew Lawless?” Shelby asked, her voice hopeful this time. “Don’t fuck with me.”
“I’m not messing with you. That’s why I need you to not cause trouble today. We’ve got one real shot at finding the information we need and that’s right now. After today, it will be at least a year before we have this kind of access. She throws one huge party like this a year.”
Shelby nodded. “All right. I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
Drew’s voice was a frustrated growl in her ear. “Tell her we’ll contact her soon. Hatch wants to talk to her. He knew Francine pretty well. He’s surprised she would be involved with Patricia at all. We want to see everything Shelby has. She can fly out to Austin with us tomorrow.”
She was so going to be in on that meeting. If only to be able to say she told him so another million times. “Drew says you can go with us back to Austin in the morning.”
Hope lit Shelby’s eyes. “I’ll do it. I’ll bring everything I have. How can I help tonight?”
“Stay out of sight as you leave.” Carly looked over at the clock. They were running late. She needed to get back to her place. This whole thing was a row of dominoes. It wouldn’t work if the first one wasn’t properly placed. “Just go back out and make sure Patricia doesn’t see you.”
Shelby hugged her. “I will. I promise. Good luck, Carly.”
She hurried out the door.
“You are going to have to tell her you’re the man she’s been flirting with online,” Carly said. It would go poorly if Shelby found out, and Shelby would find out. There was no question of that in her mind. Drew could save himself a lot of trouble if he just owned up. Shelby understood the need for undercover work.
Maybe they could talk about it over a nice dinner. She was going to enjoy playing matchmaker.
“Carly, I need you to walk toward the fireplace.”
She rolled her eyes despite the fact that he couldn’t see her. She pivoted and started for the door. “Drew, I don’t have time for any more playing around.”
“Stop and turn back toward the damn fireplace.”
He was the most frustrating man. Now he was interested in art? She obediently turned and faced the wall. It was a beautifully done mantel reflecting the warm tone of the room. On either side of the fireplace was Patricia’s collection of books. In this room she believed it was fiction. There was a whole other library dedicated to cookbooks and tomes on home décor and architecture.
“I need you to get close to that vase.”
In the center of the mantel was a vase. It was pretty but oddly out of place since most of the pieces in the room would be considered true works of art. This, while done well, was obviously the work of an amateur. There were slight discolorations in the glaze. The ombré coloring went from light to pitch black on the bottom. It was large enough to hold a dozen flowers, but Carly couldn’t remember ever seeing Patricia use it for flowers. It had always sat in the middle of the mantel. “It’s been here since I’ve worked for Patricia. Are you a lover of pottery?”
“My mother made that.”
Carly stopped. “Are you sure?”
“It sat above our fireplace until the day she died. I thought it had gotten destroyed in the fire. What’s it doing here? She loved that piece. It was the first time she’d made one work. She told me all the others had folded inward, but this was the first time she’d gotten one to look like it was supposed to. She made cupcakes that day to celebrate and talked about becoming an artist.”
She could hear the emotion in Drew’s voice. “Do you want me to steal it?”
A knock on the door stopped that line of thought. Carly’s heart jumped and she forced herself not to panic. As the door came open, she started talking.
“No, I don’t want the sauce served on the chicken. It needs to be on the side, and I swear I will have someone’s head if it isn’t.” She turned and saw the serving manager had found her.
Good. It looked like she’d stepped away to have words with the kitchen. Carly arched a brow. “How can I help you?”
Mr. Turner frowned apologetically. “I’m so sorry to disturb you but I need to go over how we’re switching from cocktail to dinner service.”
“Just go, Carly,” Drew said, his voice hollow. “It doesn’t matter. Getting into her office is the only thing we should worry about.”
She felt her heart sink but knew he was right. “Let’s take a look at it. I want to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
She prayed she could make the mission go the same way.
—
Bran stepped forward, touching his earpiece. It was go time. Everything they’d prepped for, all the years of sacrifice, and it all came down to this. Patricia was the last person alive who could have the evidence they needed.
Patricia was laughing as some senator finished a joke. She was perfectly icy and cold and held such fascination for the people around her. He didn’t get it at all. All he could think about was one woman wearing a black cocktail dress that hid her curves far too much for his liking.
He’d wanted to buy her a new dress, offered to take her to Rodeo Drive and find something properly bright and shiny. Carly had laughed it off. Apparently she attempted to blend into the background at events like this.
One day she would be the center of the parties she threw. She would be the center of his whole world.
She eagerly turned to him when he reached for her, so why did he feel like he was losing her?
He had to stop thinking about it. It made him edgy. She was coming with them to Austin in the morning. That had to be enough for now. He would ensure she was set up in a new place and he would slowly move his way completely into her life. She would be tied to him and he would do everything he could to make her happy.
He would forget about the past and concentrate on the future. That was all he had to do.
He glanced out and his replacement was on the way. Case strode through the crowd. Like the rest of the security team, Case was dressed in a tux that concealed the fact that he was carrying more than one weapon on his body.
“Ms. Cain, I’m afraid we have an issue I need to handle. Case is going to stay with you while I’m gone.”
She frowned. “Well, fine. I suppose I can handle Mr. Taggart for a time, but hurry back.” She straightened the lapels on his tux. “I’ve got you sitting next to me at dinner.”
That was news to him. “I can protect you better from a distance.”
“What fun would that be? Run along.” She gave Case an icy smile. “Hello, Mr. Taggart.”
The senator raised an eyebrow. “As in McKay-Taggart? My dear, you’ve moved up in the world if you’re using them for your personal security.”
Case gave Bran a nod as he walked by. In the background Bran could hear Case beginning to talk about how proud he was to work for a woman like Patricia Cain.
Yeah, he should have been an actor. His brother-in-law was far better at putting on a happy face than he was.
All he wanted to do was get the information and get the fuck out. He would finish the party and then tender his resignation in the morning. Patricia would still have McKay-Taggart security around her and they would have time to sort through the data and find what they needed.
And he and Carly would settle in. She would take the job at 4L and they would find their way. Oh, she hadn’t agreed to take the job yet, hadn’t even said she would actually move, but she was spending the next week in Austin with him and he would make her never want to leave.
What hope did they have if she refused to talk about the future and he wouldn’t acknowledge the past?
He brushed the thought aside as he took the stairs two at a time. Carly was waiting for him up there and he intended to do his job and get them both out of danger as soon as possible.
She paced in front of the office. The mansion was quiet back here, having moved past the security guards and into what they all called the forbidden zone.
He took a deep breath and strode toward her. One more job and they would be free and clear. That was all it would take. This and they were done. He could hand over everything to Drew and get the fuck out.
If she wouldn’t move to Austin with him, he would move to be with her. He wasn’t ever going to leave her again.
Carly’s eyes widened as he walked up. “Are you good to go? You can’t be in there too long.”
He walked right up to her and did what he’d needed to do all day long. He got his hands on her, covered her mouth with his. And the dark voices that seemed to whisper to him all his days quieted.
She was his peace.
He kissed her for a moment, needing the connection. When he pulled back, he was ready to go. “I’ll be out in a minute. I love you, Carly.”
He kind of liked the fact that her jaw dropped and he was in the office before she could say another word.
Let her think about that for a while.
He fumbled for a moment, his hand moving to his left to find the light switch.
“Did you actually just do that?”
Fuck. He’d forgotten for one glorious moment that his brother was in his ear and could hear and see pretty much everything. Drew was about a mile away, sitting in a rented apartment, probably looking like the world’s biggest pervert because he was surrounded by monitors. He had cameras on the whole team.
“Could you wait until I find the light switch to bitch at me?”
“Once you find the switch and turn it on, you’ll have a job to do, so right now is a great time to bitch at you. And I wasn’t bitching. I was surprised that you would tell her something like that in the middle of a serious job. Move your hand up.”
What did his brother think he was doing? “I’m looking. You know this would be way easier if you would shut up. And I told her because she should know.”
“Are you sure you didn’t tell her so she doesn’t leave you at the end of this thing? I think she’s going to require more than a declaration of love, Bran. I think you should maybe see someone when we get back to Austin.”
Where the fuck was that light? He pulled out his phone and looked for the flashlight function. “I will be seeing someone. I’ll be seeing Carly.”
He managed to get the light on his phone to shine.
“I meant someone else,” Drew said over the line. “Someone who can help you with your issues. Turn back to the wall, it has to be there.”
His major issues right now had to do with his brother’s deep and never-ending control freakiness. And he didn’t want to think about that right now. “You’re right. I need to concentrate on the job.”
He turned the phone around and located a floor lamp. Thank God. He pulled on the cord and the room lit with soft waves of green and blue and yellow. It was one of those stained-glass lamps that looked like it was from another century. He was sure Carly would have a name for it but it did fuck all to light up the place.
“Case knows a guy in Dallas who deals with PTSD issues,” Drew continued. “Hey, there’s the desk.”
“If you don’t stop talking, I’ll throw away this earpiece. Do you understand?”
A long sigh came over the line. “Set the drive I gave you to download and then get to work on the safe.”
He could hear the disappointment in his brother’s words.
He moved to the desk and located the PC, slipping the thumb drive in. The monitor immediately came up and requested a password, which the program on the drive began to find.
It was a specialty of Drew’s, figuring out ingenious ways to get at information. If this particular computer had been connected to the Internet, they wouldn’t have needed this act of breaking and entering. Drew would have done everything remotely.
The screen switched as the program located and used the password and moved on to pulling down files. A lot of files.
He sighed and flipped on the small lamp on the desk. It seemed to actually be more functional than decorative.
“I’m doing fine now,” he said quietly as he began to look through the drawers of her desk. Apparently the woman liked stationery. There was a whole drawer filled with neatly stacked stationery and pens of all colors.
“You nearly killed that man. It didn’t just scare Carly. It scared the fuck out of me, too.”
“This is neither the time nor the place.” He opened the drawer to his left and found some mail. He pulled the first one out when he recognized the mailing address of Steven Castalano’s lawyer.
“There never seems to be one. I have to wonder if you’re punishing yourself or me.”
He ignored his brother because that line of thinking made him anxious. Antsy. He wasn’t going there again. He was going to concentrate on the damn job. He opened the envelope, pulling out the letter. It was done on the law firm’s stationery, typed out and official looking.
“I’m sorry, Bran. We’ll talk about this later. You should probably move on to the safe.”
But he was far more interested in the words on that paper.
We regret to inform you that despite the contents of his will and naming you as the benefactor to all contents found in his safety deposit box, we discovered the box was empty. According to bank records a woman with the key entered and was left alone with the box in question five days before the reading of Mr. Castalano’s will. While we understand your anger at this turn of events, we are not responsible for the contents of that box. We will, of course, put you in touch with the bank manager, but he claims it was you who came in and collected the contents of the box. I’ve attached a copy of the sign-in sheets for the day.
“Are you reading this?” Bran asked, trying to get the camera at an angle where Drew could see.
“Five days before the reading of his will would have been the day of his death. I know it well,” Drew replied. “That must have been where he’d hidden his file. There’s zero reason for Patricia to write his lawyers and get bent out of shape if she’d gotten the file. So there were three burn files that we know of.”
“Phillip Stratton destroyed his and replaced it with something that would help Ellie.”
“Yes, and now Castalano’s is gone,” Drew mused.
“Who is Patricia Cain’s beneficiary?” Bran looked through the rest of the desk, finding nothing of import beyond notes about ideas for her show. “Who would get her file if she died?”
“According to what Ellie believes, the last one standing was supposed to destroy them all. Stratton’s files should have gone to the remaining members on his death. Castalano’s would have gone to Cain at this point. Cain would then have everyone’s file and it would have been up to her to destroy all the evidence.”
“But there’s a fourth party involved.” He moved on to start looking for the safe. According to the records one had been delivered and installed in this room, but he wasn’t sure where.
“Yes. I think I’m going to need to talk to your girlfriend. She’s been holding out on us,” Drew said quietly.
“Holding out?” Bran looked around and then stopped in his tracks. “Do you see what I see?”
Behind Patricia’s desk was a large portrait of a woman with raven-colored hair. She was dressed in white, her hair up in an elegant bun. She stared out of the painting, her lips in a slight smile.
It was his mother.
“Okay, something freaky is going on here and I want to know what the fuck it is,” Drew growled.
“Why does she have a portrait of our mother?” She looked so beautiful. He remembered how calm she was, how perfectly she did everything. When he dreamed at night it was of the house they’d lived in and how it always smelled good and dinner had been on the table. His mother liked to try new things and he’d been such a brat about it. He wouldn’t eat anything. Night after night she’d been forced to make him grilled cheese so he would eat anything at all.
“I don’t know, but I think you should check behind it for the safe. Patricia seems to have been very interested in our mother.”
What did that mean? It turned his stomach to think about the implications. He touched the frame. It was gilded and when he pulled on it, the whole thing swung out and revealed the safe he’d been looking for. “It’s here.”
He forced himself to think about the task at hand.
“Do what we planned.” Drew’s voice had gone deep, calming. “Remember how to attach the device.”
He focused, putting aside the thoughts that threatened to overtake him. His childhood pressed at the gates of his consciousness, rattling his peace. He had to hold it together because his blood was pounding through his system again. He managed to pull the panel off the front of the safe and found the wiring to attach the device that would override the safe’s defense systems. He set it in motion and took a step back.
“I’ve got it.”
“Good. Almost done,” Drew said reassuringly.
“How is Carly?” She would be waiting outside for him. She wouldn’t have walked away. The last thing he wanted was for some stray staff to come along and cause trouble for her.
“Your girl can handle herself. She’s got a guest but she’s managed to move him away from the office. You’ve got a few minutes, but we need to get moving.”
The safe dinged and opened. Bran stepped forward and pulled on the handle.
The safe was completely empty.
“Damn it.” Bran closed the safe again and detached the device, shoving it back in his pocket.
He turned to the computer. They wouldn’t know if it led to anything at all until they went through the files.
It could all be for nothing. They could have worked all this time and failed. They could have absolutely nothing and he was taking Carly out of here before they knew. He couldn’t leave her behind.
He would have failed.
It had to be on the computer. Why else would she have a solitary computer without any links to the Internet?
“Bran? I think it’s time to move. The computer should have finished the download by now.”
It had. He grabbed the thumb drive and moved through the room, turning the lights off once more. He had to keep his cool and get out of here.
It would all be over soon.
“Am I clear?” Bran asked. Drew would have a view of the hallway.
“Yes, but I need you to go out and turn to your left. Go down the back stairs.”
That wasn’t the route they’d planned, but he was game. He’d walked the house quite a bit in the last week and he could easily get to the kitchens through the servants’ stairs. From there he would make his way back to Patricia and take over for the night. In the morning he and Carly would be gone.
He exited the room as quietly as possible and made sure the lock clicked behind him. The idea of Patricia Cain having that portrait of his mother weighed heavily on him. What had she done all these years? Had she sat in that office and smiled over her defeated enemy? Did she keep the portrait as a reminder of her sins? Or was it a trophy?
The trouble was he couldn’t remember that portrait ever being in their house. His father had been a modern man. All the pictures they’d had had been photographs. They’d been taken by Benedict himself or a photographer their mother had hired to get shots of the whole family.
No one had ever sat for a painted portrait.
He was about to turn to the left when he heard it.
“Stop it. I need you to get your hands off me right now,” Carly said in a low voice, as though she was trying not to make a scene.
He turned back.
“Bran, I’ve got another guard coming to her right now. You go the other way.”
He wasn’t listening to his brother. All he could hear was the fear in Carly’s voice.
“I’m serious, Bran. I need you to keep your shit together.”
But he couldn’t. Not when he saw what was happening. Bran’s world went red and he did the only thing he could do.
He attacked.