He didn’t phrase it like he was asking her to stay. He was telling her what was going to happen. Tiffany followed behind him leerily. He led her back up the stairs towards the studio. He opened the room next door. Tiffany went in behind him. Luke began pulling bedding out of a wardrobe when Tiffany shut the door behind her. He looked up at her.
“Look, Luke, I’m going to level with you. I heard what you guys were discussing in there. I haven’t hurt anyone, I swear. That bag, it had loose leaf tea in it. I got it from my roommate, and I gave it to Margarite to help her sleep better. I didn’t have anything to do with their deaths.”
Luke dropped the fresh linens on the bed, “I know you didn’t.” He placed his hands on her cheeks. “We just need to try and keep whatever is going on contained. No one is going in or out for a while.”
“Do you think someone in the family is doing this?”
“I hope not, but you need to be careful.” His voice was soft, and concern darkened his blue eyes.
Tiffany stared at his lips, “Careful, huh?”
“Yeah,” Luke leaned in closer.
His arms moved to pin her to the door. Tiffany let out a moan as his lips finally collided with hers. Her fingers found his belt and managed to unclasp it. His mouth trailed across her neck, sucking gently. She gasped and finished unzipping his pants. Luke stepped out of them as she Jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Still kissing her neck, he carried her to the bed and laid her down. Tiffany quickly shimmied out of her jeans as he pulled off his shirt. Laying on top of her, Luke slowly moved back and forth. He pulled down her shirt until her breasts were exposed. He quickly freed them from the cups of her bra, and the fabric resting on them. Her nipples were already hard by the time his mouth closed around them. Tiffany wrapped her legs around him. She could feel him getting harder with each grinding motion.
“Bite my nipples.” Tiffany held his head to her chest. His hot breath paused for a moment before a delicious pressure tugged against her breast. She writhed under him, and her movement turned him on even more.
“Enough of that,” He roughly pulled off her panties and tossed them aside. Sliding out of his boxers, he found her moist center and plunged inside of her.
Tiffany moaned as he filled her. His thrusts made her breasts bounce. She stared up at him hungrily. His muscles worked to bring her pleasure. He pulled out of her, and she cried out in dismay.
“Flip over.” Luke grabbed her hips and rolled her onto her knees.
Tiffany arched her back. The cool sheets felt good on her exposed nipples as he thrust back inside of her again. “Don’t stop.” She could feel the pleasure building inside of her. Every thrust caressed something inside of her that had never been touched before. It increased her desire by tenfold.
Luke grabbed her hair with one hand and held her hip with the other. Her perfect ass slapped against him with a rhythmic sound. He felt her contract around him as she let out a moan of completion. Her moan brought him over the edge. His thrusting slowed until he pulled out for the final time.
Tiffany laid there for a moment. She turned her head to look at him. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep.”
His eyes were closed, but a smile spread across his face, “I wish. Too much to do.” He sat up and started pulling his clothes back on.
“So, I’m just supposed to stay here? For how long?” She tugged a sheet around her body.
“Until we figure out who is trying to kill us.”
“What if Charles is right?”
“Really not something I want to hear after what we just did.”
“I'm serious. What if someone is killing your family in the order that I painted them?”
Luke finished getting dressed, “Well, then I would really hate to be Charles.”
“What if—and this is going to sound really mean—we use Charles as bait.”
“Really now?” He was shocked that she had even suggested it, but his eyes sparkled. “I’ll run it by dad.”
She watched as he left her room and walked back towards the study. Tiffany waited for a minute before she snuck out of the room and down to the edge of the staircase. She strained her ears to hear what was being said.
“What?! Who came up with that crazy plan?” Charles’s voice trailed up the stairs. Tiffany’s heart pounded as she listened harder.
“It’s for the good of the family.”
“Dad, how can you say that? What, you’re just going to serve me up as bait? Two of your kids are already dead, and now you want to put your son up on a silver platter?”
“You’ll do as your told.”
Charles busted out of the study. Tiffany jerked her head back so she couldn’t be seen. Her shoulder bumped into someone. Tiffany gasped, and a hand quickly covered her mouth.
“Don’t scream, Miss Page. We wouldn’t want Mr. Krieger to know you were eavesdropping.” Sergei slowly removed his hand from her mouth.
“What are you doing here?”
“I work here. What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Krieger won’t let anyone leave. He says they are trying to control the situation.” Tiffany wetted her lips, “I heard that they were going to have you look into the brown paper bag that Margarite had. I can save you some time. It’s tea leaves.”
“I know. I already ran the samples. How did you know?”
“I gave them to her. They were just to help her sleep.”
“Try not to give anyone else anything. You don’t want them to be able to accuse you of anything.”
Tiffany nodded. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter Eight: Bait
Luke snuck back into Tiffany’s room later that evening. A silver laptop was tucked under his arm. “Thought you might like to see your plan in action.”
“Only if it works. I don’t want to watch someone die. Even someone as terrible as Charles.”
He balanced the computer on his lap and opened it. On the screen was an image from a webcam. It showed Charles getting ready for bed. “Dad is linked into the feed in his study. Sergei is with him.”
“What’s the deal with Sergei anyway?”
“One of my dad’s old buddies from the war. He poses as a butler, but really he’s more like a special forces bodyguard.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, probably best not to get on his bad side.”
“How’s Charles doing?”
“He’s not too happy about the arrangements, but he’ll do what father says.”
Charles crawled into bed. Tiffany could see his eyes darting back and forth in the darkness as if he were waiting for an invisible enemy.
“How long do we have to watch this?”
“Either until something happens, or until morning.”
Eventually, Charles fell asleep. He tossed and turned in the night. Restful sleep evaded him. Tiffany found her adrenaline fading after about three hours of surveillance. She laid down on the bed and placed her head on Luke’s lap. He caressed her hair until she fell asleep.
The next morning, he nudged her awake, “Time to get up.”
“Did anything happen last night?” She blinked her bleary eyes and sat up. Her palms wiped away the sleep from her eyes.
“He started snoring about two hours after you fell asleep, but he’s still alive.” Luke turned the screen so she could see Charles stretching.
“Good for him.”
“Come on, Isabella will fix us breakfast.” Luke closed the laptop and left it on Tiffany’s bed. The two of them made their way down the staircase to the kitchen.
Ian Krieger was already seated at the head of the table with Sergei on his right. Adeline still looked like she was under the influence of whatever pills she had been taking. She pushed pieces of bacon through the syrup dripping off of her waffles. The girl didn’t even look up when they entered the room.
“This must be Miss Page.” Ian stood up from the table and held out his hand. Tiffany shook his hand and tried to smile. “I’v
e seen your work.”
Tiffany wasn’t sure if he meant it as a compliment or not. He didn’t comment on the quality of her work, merely remarked that he had seen it. “Thanks?” She immediately felt like she was five years old and unsure of what to say.
“Are you hungry?” Isabella held out a plate to both Luke and Tiffany. They each took one and began eating.
Charles walked into the kitchen, still in his robes, “Morning family and street rat.” He turned his head towards Tiffany, “Tell me, are you the one who came up with the lovely idea of using me as bait?” He shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth and chewed angrily. “Because guess what, it didn’t work. I’m still here.”
“Sit down. You’re making a fool of yourself.” Ian glared at his son over a cup of black coffee.
“Am I? I’m sorry, I’m not the one who used my own son as bait last night when someone has been killing us off!” Charles slammed himself into his chair and pulled a waffle onto his plate. He ate furiously as if each bite could somehow inflict pain on his father.
Breakfast continued in silence for a few moments. Suddenly, Charles clutched at his head. He cried out in pain before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed. Sergei was immediately at the young man’s side. Charles convulsed on the floor. Tiffany’s hand instinctively went for Luke’s. Ian stood over his son’s body as it jerked and twisted in pain.
“Sergei, what is it? Do something for him!”
Charles’s body ceased its movement. Sergei looked up at his friend, “He’s dead.”
“What was it? A stroke?”
“Poison.” As the word left Sergei’s tongue, everyone at the table dropped their utensils.
“Everyone stop eating.” Ian turned to Isabella, “Did anyone else tamper with the food? Did anyone offer to help you cook?”
“No, sir.” Isabella’s voice trembled. “Sir, I love these children. I would never—”
Ian held up a hand to stop her from speaking. “Sergei, I need you to test all of this food, immediately. We need to know what we are up against.”
“Are we all going to die?” Tiffany blinked back the tears of shock that welled up in her eyes.
“Luke, get her out of here. Take her back up to her room.” Ian waved his hand to dismiss them.
Luke helped her to her feet as Sergei began taking samples from the breakfast foods. “Come on.”
“I don’t want to die.” For the first time, she saw herself as a potential victim. She had eaten what they had had, what Charles had had. If someone had poisoned the food, they could all be dead within minutes. Tears began streaming down her cheeks.
Once they were in her room, Luke buried her face in his chest, “Sergei is good at his job. If he can figure out what poison was used, he can get us the antidote, ok? We just need to give him some time.”
Minutes crept by, “Do you feel anything?” Tiffany laid on the bed next to Luke.
“No. Do you?”
“No. I feel fine.”
“Maybe ours wasn’t poisoned?”
Tiffany shook her head, “There’s no way an assassin would know exactly which waffle or piece of bacon Charles would have grabbed. No one is that good.”
There was a knock on the door. Isabella’s voice came through the door, “Mr. Krieger? Miss Page? You’re needed in the study. Family meeting.”
“Should I really be going to a family meeting?” Tiffany sat up uncertainly.
“It’s probably more of a Sergei-has-the-results-back meeting. Father just calls them family meetings when he wants to talk to everyone in one room. So, yes, you should come.”
The two of them walked down the stairs to the study. Ian was sitting behind the desk. Sergei was standing beside him. Adeline was in a chair with Isabella behind her for comfort. Luke and Tiffany were the last ones to enter.
“Tell them what you found.” Ian kept his eyes on his remaining children.
“There was no poison in the food.” All of them breathed a sigh of relief. Isabella looked as if she would cry at any moment. Tiffany didn’t think the maid could bare it if she hurt any of the Krieger family, whether it was on purpose or not. “However, Charles was poisoned. As were Alaric and Margarite.”
“But they all had different causes of death? Margarite’s arms were…” Luke trailed off. He didn’t want to get into too much graphic detail with Adeline sitting right there. The poor girl had already been through so much. She was barely keeping her wits together as it was.
“That is because they were all poisoned with different toxic substances. Margarite’s made her feel like there were spiders in her veins, so what did she do? She tried to get them out. Alaric went peacefully in his sleep. We all saw what happened to Charles, so I don’t think there is any need to go into details on that one.”
“So, wait,” Tiffany butted into the conversation, “someone is poisoning the heirs to the Krieger business, and they are somehow sneaking around and doing it with different poisons? How is that possible? Someone must have seen something.”
“That’s what I would like to know.” Ian placed his fingers in a steeple the same way Charles had done when Tiffany had painted him. “You are the only new element, Miss Page.”
“Father—” Luke tried to intervene on her behalf.
Ian’s steely blue eyes turned on his remaining son with ice in them, “You brought her here. Charles was right about one thing, if you had done it my way, at least she would have been properly vetted.”
“So now what, dad? Are you just going to lock her up here? You can’t hold her prisoner.” Luke was screaming at his father now. Tiffany’s legs had gone numb. Mr. Krieger actually thought that she had done this, that she had killed three of his children.
“This is my home, and I can do what I like! Until we get this decided one way or the other, you will take her back upstairs.”
“I’m next.” Adeline’s gentle voice cut through the tension like a knife. Her eyes were staring off into thin air. “They are dying in the order they were painted. That means I’m next.”
Ian looked at his daughter with the most love that Tiffany had seen him show anyone since his arrival, “Honey, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We can lock this girl up where she can’t hurt you. You’ll be fine.”
“She couldn’t have hurt Charles either!” Luke yelled at his father again, starting up the argument all over again.
“And how would you know that?”
“We watched him all night on the webcam. You saw the footage. No one went into his room, and he didn’t leave at any point until this morning.”
“How do we know she didn’t sneak out of her room in the middle of the night? She could have poisoned any of his things, and you would never know it.” Ian jabbed a finger at his son.
“She didn’t leave her room all night, dad!”
“And how, pray tell, would you know that?” Ian Krieger’s eyes narrowed to dangerous points.
“Because I…” his voice grew quieter, “I was with her all night.”
“Get out of my sight.” Ian spat the words at Luke in distaste.
Luke took Tiffany’s hand in his and pulled her behind him. “Come on.” Her numb legs struggled to take the appropriate steps. Embarrassment flushed her cheeks.
Not only did Ian Krieger, hotel tycoon, most likely not like her work, he also thought she was a cold-blooded killer. Tiffany stumbled after Luke. There was no way for her to come back from this in a professional sense. Tiffany scolded herself. She was being accused of murder, and here she was worried about her painting career. She needed to get her head on straight. What if she couldn’t prove her innocence? Would she even make it to the police, or would Ian just have his Russian combat buddy Sergei finish her off? She had a feeling if Ian had anything to say about it, she would be tortured, and then the body would never be found. Tiffany shuddered.
“Are you cold?” Luke pulled her inside her room and moved his hands along her shoulders to warm her up.
“Hey,” he pulled her towards him until her head rested against his shoulder, “I know you didn’t do it.”
“What if Adeline dies tomorrow? Even if I’m still here in this room, your father will think I poisoned her some other way. And if she doesn’t die, then he will think it’s because I was locked up. There’s no way to win here!”
“There’s one way. We have to figure out who the real killer is."
Chapter Nine: Suspects
“Sergei said each death was caused by a different poison, right? So maybe the killer only dosed certain items? Like their toothbrushes or something?” Luke was brainstorming on possible ways to poison people as well as who could have done it.
“That wouldn’t explain the order, though. If they poisoned everyone’s toothbrushes, how could they control the order? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they are dying in the order their portraits were done.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We better. Because if we don’t, they’ll come after you soon, too.” Tiffany stared up at him pointedly.
Luke reached over and took her hand. His thumb traced her palm. “I don’t plan on going down without a fight. Whatever was used had to either be ingested or come into contact with them in some way. We watched Charles all night, so whoever poisoned him would have to of had the poison in place before we started watching.”
“Maybe it’s something in his room?”
“Makes sense.”
“What about his robes? He was wearing them when he came down to breakfast.”
“I think we’re going to need a little backup on this.”
“What are you thinking?” Tiffany was unsure where he was going with this.
“Sergei.”
The Campus Jock: A College Bad Boy Romance Page 63