by Ivy Layne
A wet paper missile winged Gage's ear, and he looked up again, his eyes going from me to Amelia, then back to me. One dark brow lifted in question. I gave a quick shake of my head and forced my attention back to my lap and the bundle of birdseed I was tying closed.
I did my best to look innocent, but I already knew Gage didn't buy it. I was a terrible liar, and he'd been trained to read people.
Amelia waited a few minutes before her next attack, probably hoping Gage's attention would be drawn back into his work. She should have known better. Her next spitball was aimed right at his face, but it never reached its target.
So fast I thought I'd imagined it, Gage's hand whipped up and plucked the spitball from the air. Picking it out of his palm, he held it between his thumb and forefinger, examining it, before looking at Amelia and saying, “What are you eight? A spitball?”
“I think I should try that on Aiden,” Amelia said. “You two have no sense of humor.”
“And Aiden does?” Gage asked, incredulous. I had to agree with his question. I'd never seen any evidence Aiden had a sense of humor.
“Aiden has a magnificent sense of humor,” Amelia said, “and you know it. Besides, he lets me get away with anything.”
“Seventy-eight and still a brat,” Gage said, shaking his head.
“You know you love me,” Amelia said, smiling fondly at her great-nephew.
“I do,” Gage agreed, “but I'm trying to get some work done here.”
“If you want to work, use the office,” Amelia said. “The library is for relaxing.”
“The office is Aiden's. I can go work at my desk upstairs,” he offered.
“What are you doing, anyway?” Amelia asked.
Finally. I wanted to know, but I wasn't going to ask. Not only was it none of my business, asking Gage what he was doing might make Amelia wonder why I cared.
“I'm trying to get up to speed on the company,” he said. “I've been gone a long time. If I want to go back to work, I have a lot to learn.”
“Aiden's coming around then?” Amelia asked, sounding satisfied.
Gage's eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “No. Aiden's being an ass. Charlie agreed to help me.”
Amelia worried her lower lip in her teeth. “I'll talk to him. You children have lost too much to be at odds with each other, and he's held a grudge long enough.”
“No,” Gage interrupted. “We'll work it out in our own time. I don't want you to talk to him. That'll just make it worse.”
“Stubborn,” Amelia said. I agreed.
Aiden and Gage were both stubborn, though I had to admit I didn't really understand what was wrong between them in the first place. Not my business, I reminded myself.
Amelia spoke up again, “I won’t talk to Aiden if you put that work away for a little while and play cards with us.”
Gage closed his laptop. “Fine,” he said.
Amelia popped up from her spot on the couch, saying, “I'll go get us a snack tray.”
“We just had breakfast,” I protested. At least Mrs. W or Abel would make sure whatever was on the snack tray was allowed on Amelia's diet.
Gage arranged his papers, stacked them on the laptop and set his work on a table near the door. Turning around, he gave me a long look, his eyes scanning me from head to toe, bringing the blush back to my cheeks.
Amelia would be back any second. It was bad enough that there was something going on between Gage and myself. If Amelia found out—I didn’t want to think about it.
Gage crossed his arms over his chest and said laughingly, “Spitballs? You can't control her at all, can you?”
Relief speared through me. Eventually, we would have to face what had happened the night before, and two days before that in the kitchen. But not now. Not in the middle of the day when Amelia would come strolling through the door any second.
I shrugged. “It's not my job to control her,” I clarified. “My job is to keep her healthy and keep her company. And sometimes keeping her company involves spitballs. At least today, it did. Believe me, if you knew some of the ideas I managed to stop…” I shook my head.
Amelia strode in, interrupting me. “Sophie is no fun,” she said, sending me an affectionate smile to soften her criticism.
Gage raised one eyebrow at her. “Sophie is an angel for putting up with you,” he said.
“That's true,” Amelia agreed. “Aside from just being with my family again, Sophie has been the best part of moving home.”
My heart ached at her words. Amelia was a handful, no question, but I loved her. Knowing she felt the same way warmed my heart.
This was why I hadn't moved on to a job more suited to my skills. Amelia was the closest thing to family I'd had in a long time. I wanted to savor it for as long as it lasted. My heart brimming with affection, I watched as Amelia crossed the room and made herself comfortable in an armchair, neatly arranging things so Gage and I would have to sit together on the couch.
Affection turned to exasperation. At the twinkle in her light blue eyes as she observed Gage and I standing awkwardly beside the coffee table, I realized Amelia hadn’t missed a thing.
“I'll get the cards,” I said, resigned. I couldn’t make a fuss about sitting next to Gage or Amelia would call me on it. I retrieved a pack of cards from a drawer in one of the end tables and turned back to the couch to find Gage sitting almost in the middle. If we were going to play cards on the coffee table, I'd have to sit right next to him.
Both of them had expressions of innocence, which was enough to tell me that they were up to something. I had the unmistakable sense of being maneuvered by masters.
I still hadn't figured out what I wanted to do about Gage, so I resolved to ignore the situation for the rest of the day. That proved both easy and impossible.
Easy because Gage and Amelia made it so, picking a card game and dealing the cards, keeping everything lighthearted and friendly. We had fun until lunch, laughing and joking, and trying to catch Amelia cheating. Gage almost always spotted it.
I never did, mostly because I was impossibly distracted by Gage sitting beside me. Every time his hand grazed my arm, I had to fight a shiver. When he tangled his right foot with my left, I started in surprise, only to see the glint in his eye and realize that he was teasing me. I tried to pretend I was unaffected by his presence, but I don't think I pulled it off.
After lunch, Gage disappeared into his suite with his papers and laptop. It was still too cold and drizzly to go outside, so I drove Amelia to Phipps Plaza where we window shopped for a few hours. Well, I window shopped. Amelia actually bought things.
It would've been a completely normal day, if it hadn't been for the presence of Gage, woven through the hours like bright spots. The flash of his smile, a touch of the back of my hand. It was a little scary how much I wanted to see him, the way my heart jumped in my chest when his eyes met mine.
My protests to myself were growing weaker. Getting involved with Gage Winters was inappropriate and foolish.
Every time I looked in his eyes, I was less sure I cared. Something was happening between us, and I wanted to see where it would go.
Yet again, I fell asleep with relative ease and woke gasping for breath, tangled in my sheets, my heart racing as if I were being chased. Which I had been, in my dreams.
Lost in the dark and running from Anthony. That had never happened in real life. In real life, I'd been too scared to run. His anger was explosive when I did nothing to earn it. The few times I’d tried to leave him… I'd learned my lesson.
The thought of actually running in Anthony's presence brought a sense of dread. He's dead, I reminded myself. He's dead, and it was just another bad dream.
I got out of bed and straightened the covers, erasing the evidence of my troubled sleep. My hair had come loose from its braid, and I ran my fingers through it, thought about putting it back up, and then decided I needed tea more than anything.
The house was dark and silent when I left my room. No light flickered fr
om the library fire. I was alone. I tried not to be disappointed. If Gage was in his room, it might mean he was sleeping, and that was good. I didn't want him to be up all night, even if it meant I'd be with him. Neither of us had gotten much rest the night before.
There was no reason to feel let down. We hadn't made any arrangement to meet. That was a step I wasn't ready to take.
My mind on Gage, and on a cup of tea, and whether I wanted a snack to go with the tea, I didn't see the shadow move in the hall between Aiden's office and the library until I was almost on top of it.
I turned in greeting, a smile curving my lips, only to see the shadowy figure stop short in shock. I barely had time to register that whoever it was, they were too short to be Gage or Aiden and not broad enough to be Abel.
The intruder lunged across the space separating us. I opened my mouth to scream, and everything went dark.
Chapter Fifteen
Gage
I needed to sleep. I'd barely slept the night before, though laying on the couch in the library, Sophie in my arms—the sweet and sultry scent of her, the silk of her skin under my hands—had been light years from the punishing insomnia I was used to.
I could've lain with her like that forever, her legs tangled with mine, her body relaxed and languid. She’d drifted in and out of sleep, her fingers stroking my chest, her breath warm through my shirt as she dozed and woke and we whispered about everything and nothing.
If I could have that back, maybe I wouldn’t notice that I was awake. I tried to go to sleep. I did. After dinner, I'd hit the gym in the basement for two hours, trying to wear myself out.
It didn't work. I lay in bed for an hour, staring at the ceiling, before giving up and going to my desk. If I couldn't sleep, I’d get some work done.
I'd rather hunt Sophie down and talk myself into her bed. I wasn't doing that. Sophie hadn't told me much about her marriage, but from Aiden's comment and small things she'd said here and there, I had the feeling she'd had enough of pressure and coercion to last a lifetime.
I wanted her.
After spending the morning with her and Amelia, listening to her laugh and her dry sense of humor, I knew this was more than lust.
I wanted more than her body. I wanted everything that was Sophie to be mine. If I pushed her into something she wasn't sure she wanted, I'd never get close.
I could be patient. Sophie was worth it.
I worked at my desk for hours, watching midnight come and go, hearing Aiden come home. The beep of the alarm being deactivated and then turned back on, the thuds of his feet on the stairs.
He sounded tired. I thought about leaning into the hall, saying something. Anything. Asking him if he wanted to share a beer. How his trip had gone.
I stayed where I was. Aiden was another one who just needed time. My cousin could be a stubborn fuck. No one knew that as well as I did.
I was just as stubborn. Eventually, he would give in and stop being such an asshole. Nothing was more important to Aiden than family. He wouldn't be able to hold out against me forever.
I was studying a spreadsheet and the accompanying report when I heard a sound that had every hair on my body standing straight up.
A scream. Muffled, then cut off, but definitely a scream.
I was on my feet before the sound died out. I grabbed my 9mm and was through the door a second later, gun in hand, my mind calmly sifting through scenarios as I ran down the stairs.
It had been a woman’s scream. The only two women in the house were Sophie and Amelia. Mrs. W slept in her cottage, a few hundred yards from the main house. I would've heard her deactivate the alarm if she'd come in.
Amelia slept like a rock, and it was unlikely she'd be out of bed. If she'd screamed in her room, I wouldn't have heard it in my suite, so odds were the scream came from Sophie.
I ignored the chill in my gut at the thought that something had happened to Sophie. Fear and hesitation wouldn't help. I had to stay focused until I found her.
I didn't have to look far.
Sophie's crumpled body lay outside the door of the wine room, right between the library and Aiden's office, her silvery hair spilling across the dark hardwood floor, her white robe glowing in the moonlight streaming in from the hall windows.
I wanted to go straight to her, but I didn't have time. I flicked on the light and gave her a quick, searching glance. No blood.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she whispered, “Gage?”
“Don't move, Angel. Stay right there for me, okay?”
She blinked again, a look of confusion on her face. She was conscious, which was good, but it was clear she wasn't sure what had happened. I’d deal with that later.
“Don't move,” I ordered, again. I couldn't take care of Sophie until I was sure she was safe. As quickly as I could, I checked the library, wine room and office.
Empty.
I jogged down the hall and checked Charlie's unoccupied suite, then Sophie's room. Both were empty. I carefully swung open the door to Amelia's room to find her fast asleep and undisturbed.
Whoever had hurt Sophie, they were probably long gone, and I wasn't willing to leave her for another second. I'd verified there was no immediate threat. Now, Sophie was my priority.
Kneeling beside her I was relieved to see her chest rise and fall in deep even breaths.
“What happened?” she asked, in a whisper.
“I don't know yet,” I said, running my hands over her body, making sure she didn't have any broken bones or hidden bleeding. She winced when my fingers slid over the rising knot on the back of her head, but otherwise, she seemed unharmed.
I flicked on the safety and shoved my gun in my belt. Scooping Sophie into my arms, I rose and strode down the hall to the stairs.
“Gage, what are you doing?”
“Taking you to Aiden. Do you remember what happened?”
Her eyes squinted up at me as if she were thinking. Speaking slowly, she said, “Someone was in the house. I came down the hall, and there was somebody there. I knew it wasn't you or Aiden or Abel. Too short. And then –” She trailed off and blinked. “Did you find anyone?”
“No,” I said, striding up the stairs with her held securely to my chest. I wanted to run, but I wasn't going to bounce her head around any more than I had to. “Did you get a good look at him?”
“It was dark, and it all went so fast. I saw him; I'm pretty sure it was a man. He wasn't as tall as you, but he was tall. Then I realized there was a stranger in the house and… He must've hit me.”
“It's okay,” I reassured her. “As soon as I make sure you're safe with Aiden, I'm going to search the house.”
“Should we call the police?” she asked, eyebrows pulled together from the pain in her head.
“No. I’ll talk to Aiden, but we don’t want to call the police over something like this. Word would get out, and we’d have the media parked at the end of the drive for weeks. Not worth it.”
I reached Aiden's door and kicked it a few times with one foot, giving him a little warning before we interrupted his sleep. Balancing Sophie's weight on one arm, I turned the handle and shoved the door open.
Aiden was stumbling through the bedroom door into the sitting room, dressed in a pair of boxers and nothing else. Before he could talk, I said, “Go get dressed. Someone was in the house, and they hit Sophie. I need you to watch her while I do a search.”
Aiden's eyes widened in shock, but he'd already turned back into his room to grab clothes. A minute later he reappeared, wearing his discarded dress shirt over a pair of athletic shorts. Staring at Sophie, still cradled in my arms, he said, “Is she alright?”
I settled her onto the couch in Aiden’s sitting room. “Looks like just a bump on the head, and I don't think there was any loss of consciousness, but I’ll check her out more thoroughly after I search the house. He's probably long gone.”
Aiden looked to the door of his suite, at the discreetly placed alarm panel beside it. All the lights were r
ed, indicating the alarm was set. “The alarm is still on,” Aiden said, looking from me to Sophie, and back to the red lights glowing on the wall.
“I know.” I pulled my gun from the small of my back and started out of the suite, saying over my shoulder, “Lock the door behind me. I won't be long.”
That was optimistic. Winters House covered four floors and was over seventeen thousand square feet. I couldn't search the whole thing by myself. At least not quickly.
I didn't bother with the second level or the attics. The only way to get up there was the main staircase. I’d been between Sophie and that staircase after she screamed, and no one had passed me in the dark.
Winters House was built in a square around the central courtyard, but the front side was bisected by the driveway and gate at the front of the house, creating dead ends out of both Sophie's hallway and the mirror hallway on the other side of the house where Jacob and Annalise’s suites were. If the intruder had hit Sophie outside the door of the library and Aiden's office, there was only one place he could've gone without my seeing him.
The basement.
Chapter Sixteen
Gage
I strode down the hall to the library, turning on lights as I went. I had a feeling the intruder was long gone, but I wasn't going to give him any convenient shadows to hide in.
The library appeared undisturbed, neatly straightened since our card game, the pillows fluffed, the blankets carefully folded. Not a thing was out of place and the door in the far corner, carefully concealed to look like part of the wood paneling, was securely shut.
Standing before the door, I examined it for any evidence of tampering. The staircase from the library to the hall outside the theater room below wasn't a secret, per se. It was on the plans of the house and most of our close friends and frequent visitors knew it was there. On the opposite side of the house, a similar discrete door and staircase connected the laundry room to the hall by the kitchen storage room.
Those two staircases were the only ways to enter the lower level, though the staircase on the kitchen side of the house was used more often. It was wider, better lit, and easier to access.