Or maybe it was fine.
We ran into the house the same time Warden, Judson, and Derrick arrived there, too. Everyone had been sleeping.
Kade was on his feet. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to break the window. I just threw my shoe. I wasn’t aiming for the window.”
I rushed over to him. There was glass but most of it seemed to have been outside and not in. Still, I had to ask. “Are you hurt? Did the glass get you?”
“No.” He was staring at the screen. “I woke up, and I checked the systems like I do whenever I get up, and we were breached. I don’t even know how. There’s one man who could do it in the whole universe, and if they managed to convince Mercer who never wanted anything to do with helping the Alliance other than the bare minimum, we are truly fucked. He’s better than me.”
I didn’t believe that for a second. “Kade, you are the best. Everyone says so.”
“Only because they don’t know that son-of-a-bitch Mercer. He was better than me. I’m not looking for compliments. I’m just telling you the truth. Mercer is in that house with Marcus. They’re like the most obnoxious people with the letter M in their first names ever.”
I blinked. “Mercer is his first name? Never mind. That doesn’t matter right now. Okay, we were breached. What does that mean?” We’d left the door open when we came back inside and a sound caught my attention. I whirled around. “Is that…?”
“Helicopters.” Derrick ran to the door to look out. “Black ones landing on the beach. It’s bad if they’re negating all sense of being seen to land here. Fuck.” He ran into the kitchen and pulled a bag out of one of the cabinets. “Guns.”
No wonder he spent so much time in the kitchen. “There are three helicopters landing. Six of us. And we’re not in Vermont where Judson has the whole place set up like it’s high ground. If they start shooting, we’re all dead.”
Derrick spun around. “What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know what I suggest.”
Kade pounded on his keyboard. “Mercer, that asshat, is sending us a message. If we stay calm they won’t hurt us.”
Warden stalked over to Derrick. “Give me a gun.”
I couldn’t blame him. He’d already been shot. “Do we believe them, Kade?”
“No, fuck. I only believe the people in this room.”
Derrick and Warden raised their guns as a woman walked into the room. “That’s too bad, Kade. That might make the next bit of time very uncomfortable.”
Derrick’s hand shook. That was the first thing that caught my attention. The next was that Judson choked on his breath from where he stood on the other side of the room. It was like my brain didn’t want to work. I stared at this woman. I’d seen her before, but I’d never met her. Sometimes it felt like I’d gotten to know her quite well and other times she was an abyss of misinformation, presented by the men I loved from whatever perspective they saw her.
To Judson she was his beloved twin sister. To Derrick she was the love he’d not been able to satisfy. To Trace she was the reason we were all in this mess. To Kade she was something he’d rather not deal with even in memory. To Warden she was a whispered confession that he’d never liked her.
Alyssa Smythe Norris. Who was apparently not dead after all.
“Sorry to just burst in like this. I was actually hoping you’d all be asleep but Mercer told me that you guys were aware that we’re here. It’s a pity. This could have been a lot more pleasant. Go to sleep in one bed, wake up with another. Oh, Derrick darling, do put down that gun. You’re not going to shoot me. Warden, you might, but please keep in mind the people I have with me now are much better shots than the others that went after you. One word from me or any move from you they don’t like and you’re dead. Painfully. Lower your weapon.”
I could hardly think from one breath to the next. I turned to look over my shoulder. Judson was pale; he held onto the wall. None of my guys had known this was possible and they all looked the most out of it I’d ever seen them.
They were the secret keepers and this was a truth they hadn’t foreseen.
I stepped forward. “Alyssa, right?”
I wanted to make sure. This was all so bizarre it was possible I was about to be in one of those situations where suddenly there would be a triplet I never knew about. An identical sister we never knew about.
She smiled at me. Her grin was cruel. It was a funny description, and one I’d attributed to the Letters when I first met them but wouldn’t anymore. She had no mirth in that beam she gave me. “Everly, right?”
Her response snapped me out of my stupor. Oh, okay, I could do this. She was a bitch and we were doing that thing women did when they greeted others they didn’t like. It wasn’t nice and maybe there would come a time when that wouldn’t be the case. But tonight was not that night.
“Not dead, I see.”
She shrugged. “Sleeping with my husband and my brother together, I see.”
“Everly.” Trace shook his head at me. I wasn’t sure what he did or didn’t want me to do right then. I’d love to take his advice since my trip to Ben’s basement had prepared me to handle all the worst things in the world but not what to do when a woman who was supposed to be dead came back.
She walked past me over to Judson, touching his chin. “Take this as a good thing, Judy. I’ve been wanting to get you back for years. I just had to have things set up.”
“What in the ever-loving fuck?” He batted her hand away.
A muscle ticked in her jaw. “Spending time with trash doesn’t mean you have to sound like them. We’re done with this. We’re all going home. No not to Colorado, once you found that place we moved. Kade, darling, you are making Mercer nuts. It really would be so much better if you’d work together.” She stepped away. “You will forgive me Judson. You always do.”
I couldn’t stand it anymore. I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him, bumping her out of the way when I did. His arms came around me, and she groaned.
“This is just so bourgeois. Okay, I’m done. Knock them out.”
I didn’t know what happened next because there was sudden movement. The men she’d brought with her—I hadn’t even focused on them, maybe there were ten—yanked masks over their faces as they pulled out spray bottles. The room suddenly stunk, and as Alyssa sauntered outside, I found the room spinning.
Judson grabbed onto me, but he was falling to the floor, too.
I hated fainting.
* * *
I woke up with the worst hangover I’d ever had. My mouth was dry and sticky. I coughed, hard, and it only made the sensation worse. What in the ever-loving fuck did I drink last night? I looked around and the reality of what happened rushed back to me.
I rubbed at my eyes. I was in a bedroom. Light streamed in, and I wondered, briefly, exactly how many times this had happened to me. I was knocked out, and I woke up elsewhere. A moment like that started this whole fucking mess.
The bedroom was decorated in greens and browns. Unlike the first time I woke alone in a strange place, I no longer cared to know what it looked like other than the fact that I wasn’t where I wanted to be.
I struggled out of the bed. It was lucky I wasn’t tied up in a basement. I’d count my lucky stars if I thought I had any left. The guys weren’t with me and that was problem number one. A black dress was hung over the door to the room, clearly indicating I was supposed to wear it. I sighed. When was I supposed to put that on? Now, while I felt like I’d drunk a bottle of tequila? No, I wasn’t going to do that.
There was a bathroom connected to the room, and I went into it. The place was fully stocked like it would be in a hotel and a shower sounded heavenly. There were things to be learned in constantly going through this kind of bullshit. There really was no need to rush, at least not yet. I could run downstairs. I could scream. I could make a scene. It was just as likely that I was on another island somewhere and not knowing everything I should would mean I got nowhere fast and just ended up hurt ag
ain.
If any of this had taught me anything, it was that I needed to be the smartest person in the room even when I was surrounded by geniuses.
The truth was that Alyssa might be the smartest person I’d ever met. She’d clearly faked her death, leaving both her husband and brother devastated by her loss. I needed some details I hadn’t pushed for from Derrick and Judson on how she’d died. Or didn’t die.
I put on the shower and waited for the water to turn hot. Hopefully wherever this luxurious hellhole turned out to be had hot water. I wandered over to the window and looked out. There were palm trees and oceans in the not too far distance. Okay, I was somewhere tropical. I’d bet this was an island. The Smythes did like their islands.
Did Alyssa want me to put on the black cocktail dress in the middle of the day? Were we going to wear formal wear all the time while we did whatever this was?
Maybe I’d wander downstairs in my bathrobe just to see what happened. I smiled. I loved that idea. That was just what I was going to do.
I walked away from the window, dropping my clothes on the floor like a petulant teenager as I approached the shower. There was hot water, so already this kidnapping was looking up. I closed my eyes and let the heat move through me. One way or another I’d get through this. I was a survivor, and Alyssa might have fooled the world but now that I knew she lived, she was going to wish she’d never shown her face to me.
One way or another.
15
I brushed out my wet hair and pulled it back. The bathroom was well stocked. Unlike her brother, when Alyssa kidnapped me, she didn’t fill the place with my own stuff, but I could make do with the products she had in here. I smiled. I wondered if there was a place to leave reviews online about how your kidnappers treated you.
Service was great but I’ve had better food… four stars.
All right, I’d really lost it now. After putting on the pair of pajamas I found in a drawer, I wrapped myself up in the white cotton bathrobe and left the room. I was not putting on that dress. It was my passive aggressive fuck you to Alyssa. They could force me to do it, of that I had no doubt, but I wouldn’t make it easy. If Ben had taught me anything, it was that being nice to the person who wanted to hurt me did nothing to improve my situation.
I hadn’t seen a clock, but I guessed it to be mid-morning, which proved to be wrong. The first clock I passed in the hall showed it to be quite earlier than I thought, just seven. Maybe I didn’t know how the light filtered inside here. Maybe it was just brighter.
Men with guns walked through the hall. One of them nodded to me, and I did the same back to him. Yes, I’d seen him, and I acknowledged he had the gun. That was the subtext I got anyway. One gun wasn’t going to take out ten, and so whatever inclination I had to grab it out of his arms and shoot him passed fast. I was going to be smart about this. Quiet and deadly. In the meantime, I’d smile at anyone who smiled at me. I believed the word my grandmother would have used was disarming. Hopefully they’d just think I was a non-threat.
Warden sat at the kitchen table when I entered, a cup of coffee in front of him. He was fully dressed in khaki shorts and a blue collared shirt. He blinked at me before he grinned. “You look comfy.”
“I’m not in the mood for dress up right now.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “You’re okay? Where are we?”
He nodded. “For now, I’m okay. But make no mistake. While we are in Hawaii—I saw a letter on the counter with the address— and, as you said, being dressed up like this is a vacation, we are in Alyssa’s version of Ben’s basement. I did a quick look before the guards stopped me. I’ve seen Trace. He’s still out cold, in the room next to mine. Other than that, I don’t know where anyone else is or if they’re here at all. Enormously glad to see you.”
I nodded. “The dress up basement. Got it.” I had suspected as much myself. I poured some of the coffee. She could make this all look as pretty as she wanted it to be but we were in hell, and hell dressed up was still just hell in disguise. There was no way to make it heaven even if you put it in a pretty black dress and made the residents sit in designer furniture.
I took my coffee and sat down on Warden’s lap. I wouldn’t overthink the need to do so. I wanted to feel him next to me. I was strong; I could handle this. But it was nice to know I wasn’t doing it alone.
He leaned his head against my back and kissed me through my bathrobe. “You okay?”
“Yes. We should assume we’re on camera, right?” I leaned back against him. “That we’re being watched.”
“Considering Mercer is here somewhere, I’d say yes. Kade was always better than him but now maybe they’ve switched roles.”
As though we’d summoned him, K arrived in the kitchen. He was still in his clothes from the last time we’d all been together. He rubbed his eyes and stared at us. “Why do you two look so much better than me?”
“We showered.” I patted the chair next to me, and Kade threw himself down in it before he pressed his forehead straight down on the table. Yeah, he was pretty hard off still.
Warden and I shared a look before I placed my hand on the back of Kade’s hair, running my fingers through it. “You should go back to bed. You’re not missing anything. We’re all on camera. We can’t plan an escape, and if you tell us which room is yours, we’ll be sure to get you if something exciting happens.”
He lifted his head to meet my gaze. My poor love, his eyes were red-rimmed. He looked like he had the worst hangover in the universe. “How are you so good at this?”
“Experience.” I shrugged. “I get kidnapped a lot.”
He put his head back down and groaned. “Don’t stop petting my hair.”
I pretended he’d put a please on that order and went back to doing so. Kade was grumpy. His head hurt. I’d already seen Warden and Trace when they weren’t at their best. So far only Derrick seemed to manage himself nicely when he was in pain and maybe that was because it had happened to him so much.
“Have you two talked about how this is going to play out?” Kade spoke without picking up his head. “Mercer’s watching, for sure. But I don’t give a shit. I’m not saying anything he can’t hear.”
I looked at Warden, and he shook his head. He hadn’t followed Kade’s thinking either. “No. I’m not sure I know how it’s going to play out.”
I rose from Warden’s lap and went and poured Kade some coffee. If he really wanted to talk instead of sleep, he was going to need to be caffeinated. I placed it down in front of him, and he managed to sit up to drink it. Instead of climbing back on Warden’s lap, I sat down across the table from them. I needed to feel the weight of what was happening, and it was best to do that on my own.
He sipped it and then spoke again. “Makes sense why she shot Trace and Warden. You two were always mistrustful of her. Warden you turned her away when she propositioned you at her engagement party.” I gaped at him but didn’t interrupt. The layers of intrigue these guys kept to themselves was ridiculous. Alyssa asked Warden for sex at her engagement party for Derrick? There wasn’t enough coffee in the universe for this shit.
Kade kept speaking. “She’d never hurt Judson. If she’s to be believed, she was eventually coming back for him, and she always wanted Derrick, whatever she did to him.”
I pointed at my K. “And you? She didn’t shoot at you.”
“Mercer is here. He wouldn’t like me dead unless he did it.” He sipped the coffee again. His color was getting better. “I’m sorry about this guys. I missed it. He must have been in and out of our system.”
I shook my head. “Stop it. You don’t control the world. I’ve told you that before. You kept us pretty safe and got me out of trouble. We should be apologizing to you. That wasn’t a one-man job. You needed a team. You and Mercer together.”
A wave of emotion swept over his gaze as he regarded me. “Why are you so good to me, Everly?”
“I’m in love with you, Kade.” It was important to say it, a lot, right now. “And you,
too, Warden.”
He squeezed my hand across the table. “I love you, too.”
Kade nodded. “Me, too.”
“You’re not dead, Kade. Go on. What else?” I needed to hear what he thought I didn’t know, what he was avoiding saying.
He took a moment, and then he did again. “Trace will be with us. We know that. But Derrick and Judson? This is Alyssa.”
I got up to pour more coffee but mostly so I could step away from what he said, putting distance between myself and the words he’d uttered. “You think Derrick could go back to Alyssa and Judson side with her over us.”
I took a long sip of my drink even as it burned the inside of my mouth before I turned back around. Warden lifted his eyebrows slightly. “What Kade said is hard, but I’ll admit to thinking it myself.”
“I’m one hundred percent sure of Derrick’s love for me.” As I spoke the words I realized I meant them. He was as loyal as one person could be to another, and she had betrayed him on what must have felt like a cellular level. “And Judson’s too.”
Trace entered the room. He’d dressed in a pair of jeans with a black t-shirt. I really needed to see if she’d given me anything less fancy than the dress to wear. The guys were neat but casual looking. He stared at me for a second before he shook his head with a grin on his face. “Talk about passive aggressive. What have I missed?”
“We’re discussing whether Judson and Derrick will betray us. Everly is sure of them.” Kade filled Trace in. “I’m less sure.”
Trace winced. “Derrick is secured. It’s going to make Alyssa nuts, but he is one hundred percent devoted to our Everly. I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but Everly makes Derrick solid. He’s back to how he used to be before the Alliance made him a killer. Slightly off kilter, but brilliant and trustworthy. He’d do anything for her. I get that because so would I.” He walked over and kissed my cheek. “But Judson might be a problem.”
Deadly Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #3 Page 17