28. Rook

28

ROOK

A fter Melanie ended the call, I got in my car and drove recklessly to the manor. When she described the person who answered the door, it didn’t match anyone I knew to be working there, so I called Paul.

He didn’t answer.

Not on his work phone or his personal phone.

He never didn’t answer. Even if it was just to snark at me or tell me to piss off.

I wasn’t taking any chances, so once I parked behind the manor, I called the police and gave them a quick rundown of the situation. In a town this small, there were only two officers at the station this late at night, so they would have to call further afield to get enough men to safely check the mayor’s manor.

Luckily, I had experience doing more with much less.

And if Kitty was in danger, then I wasn’t going to wait.

I hopped over the back fence and landed on soft, frost-covered grass. The manor was shrouded in darkness, with only a few lights gleaming along the first floor—not uncommon for this late at night. I glanced at my watch and held my breath, waiting for the regular nightly patrol to pass by. The usual time for movement arrived and passed without a single person appearing.

The chances of the property patrol being late were slim to none, and it was another clear sign to me that something wasn’t right. Especially since I had just hopped the fence, which should have raised the perimeter alarm that I set up. Had it been turned off?

Kitty had snuck out to see me yesterday. Did she turn it off?

I reasoned that if she had, it would have been turned back on when she returned and the fact that it hadn’t created the haunting suggestion that Kitty had been in danger since the moment she returned.

That was over twenty-four hours ago.

My heart beat slowly and powerfully as I crept toward the manor. I kept to the shadows, moving lightly over the paving stones and around the hedges while keeping a keen eye out for any movement.

I saw nothing other than a shadow pass by one of the closed curtains. I think the room was a bathroom, but from the outside, it was a little trickier to calculate which window belonged to which room.

Reaching the wall, I pressed against it. The rough stonework caught against my finger, and my feet slid slightly in the cold mud. Following the wall, I reached the glass doors leading to the kitchen and peered inside. It was pitch black and my own reflection was the only thing staring back at me in the glass.

If I walked in here and everything was fine, I was going to look incredibly foolish.

At least it would give me a chance to talk to Samuel.

By some stroke of luck, the kitchen doors weren’t locked. I pushed down slowly on the handle and opened the door, bracing for the blare of the alarm.

Nothing came.

There was only silence.

Something was definitely wrong.

Inside, I crouched by the island counter and drew one of the steak knives from the sheaths. Everything pointed to a threat, and I wasn’t going any further unarmed.

The longer I was in the kitchen, the more my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. I was able to make out the outline of the door leading further into the house. I stepped around the island counter, and my foot immediately lost all traction on the tiles. It flew out from underneath me, skidding across the floor, and I hastily grabbed the counter for balance.

Did someone spill something…?

I used my phone to turn on the small flashlight, keeping it aimed at the floor so it wouldn’t catch any attention.

Blood.

There were streaks of blood all over the floor leading to where I’d regained my grip with my foot.

My heart sank and tension stabbed through my gut.

Please, please, please don’t be…

I’d never be able to admit to the relief that flooded through me when I followed the pool of blood and found Paul’s face and not Kitty’s.

“Paul?” I dropped to my knees and touched his cheek. It was cool but not completely void of warmth. When I pressed my fingers against his neck, a faint pulse fluttered underneath. He was clinging to life. It was far too dark to work out the source of the bleeding, but he was alive, currently, and that was all that mattered.

I sent a quick text to Melanie, telling her to call the police again and inform them that several guards were injured. That would stoke a much faster reaction.

Then I stood and crept toward the door with the knife in my hand.

Nothing and no one else mattered except Kitty, and I wasn’t stopping until I found her.

I crept out into the hallway, squinting under the yellow light after spending so long in the dark. Luckily, there was no one in the hallway and the manor was eerily silent. In all my months working here, I’d never heard it like this. There’d always been someone bustling about, staff or family members, even guards just going about their business.

Now, there was nothing, and each creak of the wooden floor as I moved sounded like a gunshot to my ears. I moved as slowly as I could, hugging the left wall. I’d need to sweep the lower floors before heading up.

If Kitty was here, I’d find her.

The first few rooms I checked were empty. The bathroom, a closet, and a staff break room were also empty. A few of the doors were locked, and without the key, all I could do was knock lightly on the door. No one answered.

Until I made it to the study and a soft murmur of voices rose up from inside. The study still had the iron key hanging from the lock. I twisted it slowly, and the lock clunked, silencing the voices inside. Brandishing the knife, I threw open the door and charged inside to find Samuel and Mrs. Morgan huddled together on the couch.

“Rook!” Mrs. Morgan gasped.

“Hugo!” Samuel’s face went wide. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Does it matter?” Mrs. Morgan snapped. “He’s here, isn’t he?”

I closed the door softly after glancing outside to make sure no one had appeared in the hall and spotted me, then I hurried closer.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Mrs. Mogan surged up and unexpectedly took one of my hands. “I said, I said if you had been here, then none of this would have happened.”

“We don’t know that,” Samuel replied gruffly.

I glared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

Samuel made a few noises but had no argument worth a reply.

“Tell me,” I insisted. “Where is Kitty? Where is everyone?”

“It’s terrible,” Samuel said tightly as Mrs. Morgan sank back down onto the couch and dropped her head into her hands.

“These people came in last night,” Samuel said. “Kitty brought them.”

“Hardly,” Mrs. Morgan snapped, lifting her head. “They grabbed her in the garden and forced her to come inside. They held a gun to her head and forced all of the security and staff into the basement. I know some of them argued because we heard gunshots…” Her hands shook terribly.

I thought back to Paul. Of course he fought back. That man may be a dick, but he was good at his job.

“People. What people?” I pressed. “Quickly, just tell me.”

“Those protestors Kitty is working with,” Samuel said, and for the first time since I returned, he looked old. Like the stress had deepened the lines on his face and the weight of the situation was finally hitting him. “They grew impatient, I guess, and now they want me to sign some papers that would end the highway construction.”

“And did you?” I demanded. Kitty’s absence already told me the answer.

“No,” Mrs. Morgan snapped. “He didn’t, and then that tall man dragged our little girl away!” She dissolved into sobs, crying into her hands.

“When?” I demanded again. “Where did he take her?”

“I don’t know,” Samuel replied. “Maybe about twenty minutes ago? As soon as they took her, I told them I would sign, but they told me it was too late and I…”

Anger surged up like a wave and I gripped the hilt of the knife until my knuckles ached. “Tell me you didn’t put this deal before Kitty’s life .”

Samuel looked at me with pathetic eyes. “I didn’t intend to?—”

I grabbed him by the collar, shoving him backward a few steps and silencing him with a growl.

“Wake up man!” I hissed. “Your fucking daughter could die, and all you care about is that stupid fucking construction?”

“No!” Samuel gasped.

I released him with a snarl of disgust, and he stumbled backward into the bookshelf. Then I pointed at him with the knife.

“If anything has happened to her or my baby, I will be coming back here,” I snarled, barely able to contain my fury. “Do you understand?”

I didn’t wait for an answer. I turned and hurried from the room, resuming my search of the ground floor. Each room continued to come up empty, and the longer I searched, the harder my heart raced in my chest.

Was I too late? Did that fucker harm her already? What if he took her away from here?

Louder and louder thoughts clouded my mind as I searched through the house until finally, by some insane stroke of luck, I caught the soft, sharp tones of Kitty’s yelling drifting through the ceiling above me.

She was upstairs!

I sprinted down the hallway and took the steps two at a time. As I reached the landing overlooking the front of the property, the garden bloomed to life with flashing red and blue lights from the arriving police force.

The sharp tones of Kitty’s voice grew louder as I hurried down the upper hallway until finally, they were crystal clear through the door to her father’s office.

“How many times!” she snapped. “There’s nothing here for you to find. Are you thick, Anton? Do my words just bounce off the fucking ten-inch thick barrier between you and sense? He doesn’t work here. He works in town, so anything important will be there!”

“Bullshit,” snapped the familiar tones of Anton. I’d only met him briefly during the protest a few weeks ago, but I’d put his face to memory. “We searched his office. We didn’t find it.”

“Well, it isn’t here,” Kitty remarked. “I don’t know where it is, and I’m not helping you!”

“You will,” Anton barked. “Or I’ll?—”

“What?” Kitty yelled. “What more can you do, huh?”

Flesh struck flesh, and Kitty yelped, then she cried out as the sound of furniture scraped across the floor. I threw myself at the door as rage flooded up me like an exploding volcano, but the doors were locked from the inside.

With a roar of rage, I kicked at the door near the lock. Wood cracked and splintered under the force of the blow, and I briefly heard Anton voice confusion inside. I kicked again and again. On the fourth kick, the door finally splintered free of the lock and crashed open, causing both Anton and Kitty to jump.

Anton had Kitty down on the desk, a hand on her throat and a palm strike blooming red on her cheek. Anton leaned up slightly, paling when he saw me.

“The fuck?” Anton gaped at me, but my distraction was enough because Kitty used that window to grab the large ornate clock from her father’s desk and smash it right over Anton’s head.

Anton yelled out in pain and stumbled backward away from Kitty, raising a hand to his skull. I charged forward with a yell, and when I was a foot away, I leaped and raised my leg. My knee slammed hard into Anton’s chest, and he fell flat, taking the brunt of my weight as I landed on him and likely broke a few ribs in the process.

He gasped and wheezed, his eyes bulging up at me.

“Remember me, you little fuck?” I snarled, then I punched him as hard as I could in the face, knocking him clean out.

“Rook?”

Kitty’s voice brought me to my feet instantly, and I turned to where she stood on shaky legs, watching me through tear-filled eyes.

“Kitty!”

“Oh, my God,” Kitty sobbed, and she staggered toward me. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Of course I am.” I caught her within half a second and swept her up against my chest. “I’ll always come and find you, Kitty. Always. The blood. Did he hurt you?”

“No, no, I fell in the kitchen and then… oh, God, I–I was… oh, my God. I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just trying to get him to leave, to go to Dad’s office in town, but he just wouldn’t…”

“You did amazing, okay?” I hugged her as tightly as I dared, and then I stepped back and cupped her damp cheek. “You did absolutely fantastic.”

“What about the others?” Kitty asked, just as the sound of a broken door and loud yelling rose up from below.

“The cops are here,” I assured her. “Fuck, I’m so glad I found you.”

I surged forward and kissed her hard, claiming her lips and absorbing her warmth, her sweetness, and even the salty taste of her tears.

She clutched at me tightly with her fingernails cutting into the flesh of my arms, but I didn’t care.

She was safe.

“Fuck,” Kitty gasped against my lips. “I was so scared.”

“You’re safe now,” I murmured back. “I’m here. You’re safe. I promise.”