If she’d realized anything was amiss, she definitely had a strange way of showing it.
I started to duck back into the stairwell when something on the flat screen over the bar caught my eye. The TV was turned on—a special news report. The sound was off and I could barely make out the words at the bottom of the screen, but my stomach twisted in knots just the same. Local Drug Bust Turns Deadly. The screen showed a live shot of a street surrounded by cop cars, lights whipping in circles, doors thrown open. They were surrounding two cars, one blocking the other in a driveway. The film was being recorded from a helicopter, and when it panned out wide, there was a body on the ground right next to one of the cars, a sheet tossed over it. It was almost impossible to make out through the fireworks going off in my head. Almost.
Even through the rust popping in my vision, I knew what I was looking at: bubble gum, pearl, blue. Bronze, silver, foamy sea green. JSB946. Rebecca Moreno’s license plate. Her car being blocked by a car I recognized. One ringed so yellow I could taste butter when I looked at it too long.
I couldn’t breathe. My hands shook around the bobby pins, and I even dropped one. It plinked against the floor and my heart hammered. Surely the housekeeper was going to hear that and turn around. Would it matter, though? Would I really care if she caught me? Would I still care about Luna if Chris was . . .
I shook my head. I couldn’t go there.
He hasn’t been answering your calls, Nikki.
I had to believe he was safe. It was the only way I could finish this.
He hasn’t texted you even once.
He was a good cop. He knew what he was doing.
He remembered why they wanted him dead in the first place. And they found his storage locker, Nikki.
I sipped in breaths, trying to get my feelings under control. Damn it! This was why I didn’t do feelings. He was fine. And if he wasn’t, it was his own fucking fault for trying to White Knight the entire world.
The housekeeper turned in my direction and I only managed to just barely pull my head back into the stairwell in time. My synesthesia had lied to me before. The TV was far away and there was no sound. The colors could have totally tricked me into seeing something that wasn’t there. One of those license plate letters could be wrong. And who knew how many people drove cars just like Chris’s?
He was alive. He was fine. He would be calling any minute. And I needed to be in a place where I could talk to him when he did.
I climbed to the upper deck and went back to the staircase door. I dropped to my knees, straightened the bobby pins, and stuck them in the lock, wiggling and twisting until it opened.
Damn, I was getting good at this.
I pulled open the door and peered inside. It was dark and dusty and God only knew what kind of bugs might be lurking, but save for a few empty boxes, there didn’t appear to be much in there. A perfect place to hide.
I crawled in, feeling grit under my palms, and pulled the door shut. I fumbled in the dark until I found the lock and swiveled it so that it was shut again, then slithered behind the boxes. I couldn’t sit up straight, so I curled up on my side and closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them again, they would be adjusted to the dark. I slowed my breathing, and my heartbeat followed. I rested my head on my arm, pulling my hair over my shoulder so it wasn’t lying in the dust.
My stomach growled. I ignored it. I had no choice. I had to stay here and wait.
My chest felt tight, filled bumpy gray and black with fear. I ignored it. I had no choice.
I checked my phone. Nothing from Chris. I ignored that, too.
I had a party to go to tonight.
I had a date to wait for.
Two, really, if you counted Luna.
And why wouldn’t I count Luna?
31
I WAS AWAKENED by a deep rumble and the sense of movement. I opened my eyes, confused and frantic. It was pitch dark, and my entire body was cramped from being in the fetal position, and at first the movement and the dark and the discomfort tricked me into thinking I was back in Jones’s van, racing to Tesori Antico. But I could smell boxes and dust and ocean water. It was the last that jogged my brain back into place.
I pulled myself to sitting, pressing my palms flat against the floor. We were definitely moving. I crawled back to the door, which I could make out by a tiny sliver of light shining through the edge. I pressed my ear against the wood, but the engine hum only got louder, drowning out any noise from the room.
I sat back and licked my lips. I was thirsty, and still hungry, and hot, and my shoulder ached. And I hadn’t thought about how I was going to get out of here.
There you go, Nikki, barging into places without a plan again.
Chris.
I shimmied to one side so I could get to my phone. Chris hadn’t texted me back. Hadn’t called me, either. If I’d been able to see anything, I was certain everything would be gray and black. I dialed his number. It rang and rang and eventually went to voice mail. I tried not to think about the body lying on the ground outside Rebecca Moreno’s house.
“Hey,” I whispered. “Just letting you know that I’ve set sail. I have no idea where we’re going or how long we’ve been moving. I’m safe.” I started to hang up, then thought better of it. “I hope you are too.”
I felt the movement slow, the engine noise lowering an octave and getting quieter. Now I thought I could hear a thump of bass. Music was being played somewhere. I also thought I could hear distant laughter. I pressed my face against the stripe of light and tried to see out. I could only see shifting shapes, which was really all I needed to see to know I was completely fucked. There was no way I was going to be able to come out from under the staircase without being noticed.
I eased back, resting against the wall. I could feel the thump of feet at the back of my head, as expensive shoes clomped up and down the stairs. I weighed my options, which seemed few and far between. Come out with figurative guns blazing, try to slip out stealthily, or just stay inside. My leg cramped, giving me the answer for the last option. I was clearly not very good at the second option. Which left just one.
I checked my phone again. Still nothing from Chris. I closed my eyes and bounced my head softly against the wall behind me.
“Think, Nikki, think.”
I turned on my phone flashlight and looked around. Like I’d thought, there was nothing but me, empty boxes, and the pipes and wires on the walls.
Wait. The pipes and wires on the walls.
I ran my fingers down one of the wires. It was thick, white, and I had no idea what it powered. I also had no idea what would happen if someone were to rip a live wire out of a wall. Especially while sitting on water. Probably nothing good. But maybe not anything really that bad. Maybe just enough to cause a disturbance.
And causing disturbances was something I excelled at.
I turned off my flashlight and waited for my eyes to adjust again. They did, and I grabbed a handful of wires. I braced my feet against the wall and said a quick prayer.
“Please, God, don’t let me die in here. But if you do, make it quick.”
Without giving it another thought, I pushed against the wall with my feet and yanked on the wires as hard as I could. Nothing happened. The wires had pulled away from the wall a little, and that was it. I let out my breath and panted, my arms slack at my sides.
Well. At least I wasn’t electrocuted.
But I was still stuck in this place.
Building up courage was a little harder the second time, because I was afraid I’d somehow damaged the wires and just touching them would light me up like a sparkler. But after a few readying breaths, I planted my feet on the wall again, wrapped my hands around the wires, and pulled.
Something loosened, and then a wire pulled free completely. There was a muffled cry of surprise. I opened my eyes to see the strip of light had gone out.