Julian and Tori stared at each other.
This didn't bode well at all. First, they had been followed, and now their employee was pushed off the balcony.
Yeah, bad shit was brewing.
“No one left through your door,” Tori said, knowing that they had just walked into their room as they heard her scream. There was no possible way that someone could have shoved Christina, and then raced out of the room and not been heard by them, or seen by Kane.
“Oh God, baby!” Kane whispered, holding her in his lap. As he left kisses all over her face, he stared at his boss. “Thank you, Julian. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
Yeah, wait until he found out that he didn't just save her, but their child too.
Both of them stared at Christina. She looked away, knowing exactly what point they were trying to make.
“Are you sure you didn't just slip?” Julian asked, knowing that pregnant women sometimes lost their balance. He’d heard some funny stories from his friends Ethan and Callen about how their wife became extra klutzy when she was with child.
She shook her head. “I’m used to being on alert. You go to a crime scene, you don’t screw around. I was leaning on the rail, my arms braced, and I heard a scraping noise behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I turned fast. There was a blur, and I was falling.”
Kane seriously wanted to be sick.
Julian glanced at his wife. “We need to tell you both something,” he admitted. “While we were out in town, talking to the historian, we were followed.”
Kane was getting angry. “Who? I’ll hunt them down and rip their arms off if they touched my woman.”
Christina curled more into his body, glad that he was there to offer her that protection. Shit, she wished that she told him about the baby already. He was going to lose his mind when he found out.
Damn it!
Talk about really shitty timing.
Tori dropped her voice low, “It was the Snyder couple. They were in town, and then when we figured it out, we detoured. They followed, and he looked pissed when he lost us.”
When Kane moved his neck, there was the sound of bones popping.
Yeah, the big guy was ready to crack some skulls.
Christina buried her face in his chest, clinging to the man as he stood up. The scent of cologne and skin was incredibly cathartic.
“I hope that they try and follow me,” Kane said. “I would love to get them alone.”
“Okay, down big guy. I don’t think that it was them,” Tori said. “We hustled back here pretty fast. If they did manage to get back to their car, they wouldn’t have beaten us here by much.”
Something didn't add up, and Julian’s suspicions were beginning to come together.
“What if there’s a secret passage?” he whispered, as they all stood in the room.
No one moved at first.
They simply listened.
Christina was intrigued as Kane placed her delicately on the bed. The rational person in her wanted to debunk or prove if his theory was accurate.
Tori had an idea. “Does anyone have a lighter?” she asked.
Christina was still shaken up, but she happened to have one in her makeup bag. “I have one for my eyeliner pencil,” she whispered.
Kane grabbed it out of their bathroom and handed it to Tori. “What are you going to do?”
She flicked the Bic on, and began walking the perimeter of the room as close to the walls as possible. When she reached the wall closest to the armoire, where there was paneling, she noticed the flame flickered wildly.
“I found it.”
Julian was both impressed and astounded. “Where did you learn that trick?” he asked, walking to her side.
“It’s something I picked up in the dark, seedy bowels of the Middle East. Sometimes those houses had hidey holes and my sarge taught me how to find them.”
Julian knew that the ‘sarge’ in question was the man who she had once been engaged to. “Good to know,” he answered, trying to keep his voice neutral. Whenever the man came up, it rubbed him the wrong way. Had he lived, Tori might not have stumbled into his life.
Damn!
He needed to let this go, but it was so hard.
The four of them stared at the floral wallpaper above the paneling, trying to come up with a plan.
“There’s a hole,” stated Christina, moving toward the one set of flowers. She was used to looking for the smallest detail in the big picture. It was like a game to her. “In that one flower, if you look at the center piece, it’s slightly more worn.”
Kane ran his finger over it. “If I push, it feels like it’ll give way.”
Julian touched his arm. “Don’t! We need whoever is watching you to think that we didn't find this. First thing we need, is to find a way to get that door open.”
Tori was running her hands over the wall. “I don’t feel anything in the ways of a latch or release.”
“If we’re being watched, you might be too,” whispered Christina. “But why watch us? We’re just two more couples here to see the derby.”
Yeah, that was the big question. The only person there who knew the truth was Jamie, unless she spilled the beans.
“I think our client needs a little visit from us,” Julian stated. “I would like to know who the hell else she told.”
Tori touched his arm reassuringly. “Keep in mind that someone could recognize us from the news. We were all over the media.”
His wife had a very valid point. After all, didn't William Macavoy just say that not forty minutes ago?
“That may be why the Snyders were following you,” Kane said. “You intrigued them and they needed to see what you were doing here.”
Tori crossed her arms and stared at the wall. “I say we cautiously work at trying to get into this passage. If we follow it, we may find out who pushed Christina. I mean, it has to lead somewhere, right?”
“I’m more than a little creeped out,” Christina admitted. “Someone just tried to kill me, and they could have watched us having sex the day we arrived.”
Yeah, Kane’s blood pressure was back up as the red seeped back up his neck to his face and ears.
“Let’s go see Jamie,” Julian stated, glancing over at his wife.
“If it’s okay, I think I’d like to just stay here and rest a little. I’ve had enough excitement for one day,” Christina stated, knowing that Julian and Tori would understand. Yeah, it was creepy to stay in the room, but she really couldn’t take much more today.
Nearly dying or hurting the baby was her breaking point.
Tori patted her on the shoulder. “Feel free.”
“Can I give Julian a hug?” she finally asked. “He did save my life,” Christina said.
She didn't mind in the least and stepped back to make room for her.
Christina hugged the man who saved her and the baby she was growing. “I won’t ever forget this,” she whispered in his ear.
Julian was simply grateful that she was as small as she was, and able to grab onto the lower rail until he could get to her. “Rest up and watch your backs,” he said, nodding at the wall.
Kane opened his arms and Christina went into them. For now, he was going to swap bed positions with her. He wanted to sleep facing the wall where they found the peephole and secret door.
God help anyone who came through it again.
He was ready to kill.
Tori and Julian headed downstairs. In the main foyer, they found a woman dusting the large chandelier. As they stopped at the base of the ladder, Tori and Julian waited for her to notice they were there.
When she kept dusting, Julian cleared his throat.
“Oh, so sorry!” she exclaimed. “I get focused on all these little crystals and I zone out.”
Tori imagined it took a while to dust every single sparkly drop. “Can you tell us where Jamie is?” she asked.
The woman came down and pulled out her walkie talkie. “
We use these since this place is just too big,” the older woman said, smiling. Talking into the device, she found Jamie’s location in the office.
“Thank you, Sharla,” Tori said, reading her name tag. “I appreciate you stopping to help us out.”
“Yes, ma’am. If you need anything, I’m the head of housekeeping. Just come find me, and I’ll take care of it for you. Now, in order to find the office, you go through the dining room and down the long hallway. It’ll be the last room on the right. It’s going to be across from the lounge with the piano.”
They followed the directions and found their client sitting behind a large mahogany desk, doing some paperwork.
Glancing up, she began smiling until Julian slammed the door.
The smile faltered and disappeared. “What happened?” she asked, glancing nervously between both Littlemoons.
“Who else knows that we’re here?” he demanded. Julian was generally a calm person, but when his team’s life was in danger, or a pregnant woman was harmed, his patience was gone.
“I didn't tell anyone,” she said, whispering. “Why?”
Tori took a seat in one of the very old leather chairs and crossed her booted ankles before speaking. Breaking down the entire situation, she explained it all. She began with the people who were following them, to the little shove Christina just received.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry! What can I do to help you?” she asked. “Please tell me that you’re not going to quit and give up on me!” The panic was clearly visible across her face. The woman definitely didn't want to lose their help.
“What can you tell us about the other couple?” Julian asked.
She thought about it. “They paid their donation by account transfer, and then sent me the follow-up email. Other than that, I can’t really tell you much more. We don’t dig into the guests’ pasts. If they can afford the donation, that’s good enough for Lorelei.”
Tori had an idea. “I want that account number.”
She stared at her. “What for?” Jamie asked.
“If they paid by transfer of funds, I might be able to have a friend give me a little help and find out more.”
Jamie scribbled the number down. “Please, don’t let anyone know I’m doing this,” she whispered. “I’m giving you private information, and that could get me fired if their on the up and up.” She stared at them beseechingly. “Please.”
Tori took the number before heading toward the door. “I’m going to go to the car and make a call, Jules,” she said.
Julian was well aware of who she was calling. It was time to use a resource wisely. Tori was going to reach out to her best friend and see what she could dig up for her.
When she was gone, Julian stood. “Something’s going on here at Hesser House,” he warned.
“What do you mean?” she asked, starting to get worried. If her boss found out about them being private investigators, she was getting the boot for sure.
“I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure it out. Get me the information on all the guests, please. I need to make sure someone isn’t playing games while we’re looking for that book.”
“This is a mess,” she stated, closing her eyes.
“Yeah, you can say that again.”
Julian headed to the kitchen to grab a quick dinner for them both. Neither was in the mood to sit down with the entire entourage. They were tired and needed an early night. With snooping around while everyone slept, they barely got a decent night’s rest themselves.
Outside, he found Tori disconnecting the call.
“Well?” he asked, holding her hand.
“Elizabeth told me she’ll have the details for us in the next day or so. She’s going to have to work some magic and do it off the record.”
Which meant that she was going to bury their request deep in Federal red tape to keep all parties involved safe.
“What’s in the bags?” she asked, motioning to the brown sacks in his hand.
“It’s two picnic dinners for all of us. I don’t know about you, but I’m beat and exhausted,” he said, yawning. “I figured we could drop one off for Kane and Christina, and then have ours in our skivvies on our bed.”
Tori started laughing at his terminology. “That works for me, babe,” she said, dropping her phone in her pocket and her arm through her husband’s.
“Let’s get some fuel and hit the hay.”
* * *
Four Hours Later
Early Wednesday Morning
The sound woke her up.
In fact, it freaked her out to the point that she contemplated waking Julian. Then again, if she did, Tori would need to acknowledge that there was something unworldly happening in that house.
Tori wasn’t quite ready to admit that.
She had seen many scary, unusual, and odd things in her life, but ghosts who haunted houses weren’t one of them. Now, spirits that plagued your dreams, those she was damn familiar with nightly.
Again, she heard it.
It sounded like it was getting closer and closer.
There was the distinct sound of singing coming from somewhere. Tori laid there, trying to distinguish from where it was coming.
It sounded like some sad lullaby. The words were hauntingly painful as some female sang for her child.
As she kept her eyes closed, there were cold icy fingers sliding across her skin. Immediately, her heart began pounding in her chest, as she tried to rationalize why she couldn’t escape their grasp. When the chill stopped at her torso, and the frosty touch paused over her belly, it exploded into a heat that filled her. It radiated from her midsection out as the singing became louder and louder, until it threatened to take over.
Tori struggled to resist listening to it, but it filled her ears and permeated her brain until it lulled her too.
Slowly, she slipped into the peace of the music.
Under.
Deeper.
Until she was submerged into the darkness and helpless to think or focus on her one anchor to sanity.
* * *
Julian woke to his wife’s mouth all over his body. Where her lips weren’t, her hands certainly were. The feel of her hungrily devouring him, immediately pulled him from sleep and into the mood to roll around with his woman.
It’s how it always was with Tori.
He was easy. All she really needed to do was look at him, and he was ready to go. But this time, it was different.
It was frenzied, like nothing he had ever felt before, and that was saying a lot, since they had quite enthusiastic sex.
Granted, it wasn’t rare for his wife to wake him up this way, but the way she was desperately attacking him, it was like she couldn’t get enough.
It called to everything masculine in him.
It was husband and wife.
Mate to mate.
Heart to soul.
Before he knew what was happening, she had already slid up his body and buried him deep within the warmth. A startled gasp escaped from his lips as she began the desperate ride.
It was like she was possessed and hell bent on using him to find peace. If they were going to have sex, then he was going to have a little foreplay before the final curtain call.
Julian reached up to pull her mouth down to his. Rolling, he placed her beneath him. The kiss was explosive and so full of lust that it practically overwhelmed him. It was like he was trapped in a violent storm as she overtook him, dragging under wave after wave.
Breaking away, he stared down into her eyes. “I love you,” he murmured, as she stared at him blankly. When she didn't reciprocate his words, his heart began pounding in his chest. That was just wrong.
He could feel it.
Come to think of it, her skin felt cool and clammy too.
When she reached up for him, she violently yanked his hair, returning his mouth toward hers to continue to drink from him.
Alarm began to surface inside him. Whenever they made love, Tori was wild but never vicious. He di
dn't think that she’d ever yanked on his hair either. It wasn’t that he didn't enjoy a little rough fooling around, but this just seemed off for her.
Cautiously, he went along for the ride, focusing on the woman beneath him as he tried to make sure she was okay.
As the kiss progressed, he could feel her nails sliding down his back, and again he wasn’t entirely comfortable with what was happening. Pain tore through him as they sliced into his skin, causing him discomfort.
“Tori! What the hell?”
When she rolled once more, placing him beneath her, his heart finally stopped pounding in his chest when she finally spoke.
“I love you and always will,” she promised.
As his hands went to her hips, the ride began again. Gone was the wave of uneasiness and back was the comfortable familiarity of his wife.
Thank God. Maybe it had been his imagination.
“So amazing, honey,” he moaned, as she slid him fully in and out of her body, making sure to torture him completely. When she would grind down as he was buried in her, he was pretty sure that he was ready to lose his mind.
“More,” she whispered. “I want all of you.”
Julian was more than willing to give his wife anything she asked for, especially when they were in bed. He began pulling her down harder, tearing a gasp from her lips with every slide. It was as if his body was on fire and nothing could put out the flames.
“I need you,” she purred seductively.
The delicious sounds coming from the woman he loved only egged him on even more. His heart swelled as his wife enjoyed his body, and in exchange gave him great pleasure too.
When she moaned, shaking around him, he knew that she was incredibly close. As her body milked his, he allowed himself to prepare to topple into the abyss beside her. As he was ready to tumble, she stared down into his eyes. Gone were the love filled stormy blue ones, and instead they appeared odd.
As if she was vacant.
Lost & Broken (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 2) Page 12