“The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.”
—Edgar Allan Poe
It’s strange seeing the four of them lounging in leather seats, gathered in Raife’s office for a meeting. It just looks so . . . normal . . . from out here in the hall. Aubrey leads the way, although I’m the one carrying a tray in one hand with their drinks. When I told her I was a waitress before this, she shoved the tray into my hands and said she always spills. If I knew that’s all it was going to take to be allowed into these morning meetings, I would have told her three days ago when I first started assisting her.
Serious tones fill the air as the brothers talk amongst themselves, only quieting slightly when we enter. Aubrey makes her way across the room and gestures for me to get started.
Griff is closest to the door, so I give him his drink first—plain coffee, which surprises me considering what the others are having. When he grabs the mug, his fingers cover mine and hold. I lift my gaze to his, a shiver sliding down my spine when I meet his beady black eyes. His lips thin before twisting up.
I’m about to pull my hand away when his grip tightens. What the hell?
“Is there something else you need?” I mutter, trying to avoid gaining any more unwanted attention.
“I’ll tell you what I need—” He stops suddenly, glancing behind me and gritting his jaw.
After an eternity, he grumbles and takes the drink, releasing me in the process.
Relief rolls through me, and I chance a peek over my left shoulder, the direction Griff had been looking. Adam sits back against his seat, legs spread, slowly running his thumb beneath his bottom lip. He’s looking at Felix, but his attention on me is like an invisible grip warming my skin. Something flutters in my stomach. I notice the bags under his eyes, despite his freshly shaven jaw and otherwise sharp appearance.
Moving to Felix, I lower the tray and hand him a whiskey.
“There’s been no movement,” Felix is saying, looking between Adam and Raife. “Other than covering up the kid’s shit, he’s staying quiet.”
I frown before remembering I’m not supposed to be listening. Not that I’ll stop, but I don’t have to give myself away either.
I move on to Raife, who sits at his desk with his hands clasped behind his head.
Raife’s chuckle sends goose bumps down my arms. “Yeah, well, preparing to run for state senate will do that to a man.” His eyes follow me as he speaks, but I pretend not to notice.
A deep grumble sounds from Adam’s direction. “He won’t get that far.”
“I don’t know,” Raife murmurs. “I certainly like the idea of waiting till he does. More people to see it all blow up in his fucking face.”
Griff grunts from behind me. “I second that.”
“We’ve been over this. I’m not wasting my breath on it again while we could be discussing today’s . . .” Adam’s gaze finds me, and he grinds his jaw, “. . . appointment.”
My curiosity spikes more with every word they say. What the hell are they talking about?
“Everything’s prepped on my end,” Felix says, checking his watch then nodding at Griff. “His wife rescheduled her dental appointment, so you might want to wait an extra hour before doing your pickup.”
Finally, I reach Adam. For the first time, he looks straight at me. His eyelids lower, and I swear he’s burning me from that look alone. When he reaches for his glass, his finger grazes my thumb and warmth zips through me as my senses come alive.
I’ve barely seen him over the past week. Not for lack of trying, but he always seems to be locked inside one room or another. My cravings for his voice, his touch, the sinful fire in his eyes—it eats away at me stronger than anything I’ve felt before.
My bite mark pulses as his gaze travels down to my thigh. His fingers tense around the drink just before he snatches it from my hands.
I jerk when Aubrey leans over me to exchange a file under her arm with the one beside Adam, and Raife barks out a laugh. When I narrow my eyes toward him, he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at Adam, much in the same way he did the very first night I arrived here. Like the pair of them are sharing a private joke—one that Raife alone finds amusing.
I swallow and back up a step, wishing I knew what those looks really meant. Turning to find Aubrey, I spot her leaning over Felix’s shoulder. She’s stroking his tie and whispering in his ear. Felix’s lips turn up, then he’s pulling her mouth to his and licking her face off. Awkwardness seizes me as I just stand there, not knowing if I should wait outside or stare, so I choose the latter.
She pulls up for air and walks toward the exit like she’d been simply stopping in for a quick hello.
I glance back at Adam, desperate for one more look, one more anything as long as it’s from him—but his stare is fixed on the blank wall opposite him.
A crazed spark flits across his tired eyes.
My brows pull down, but Aubrey grabs my hand and tugs me from the room before I can figure out what’s going on with him.
“Knock, knock,” Aubrey bellows through Felix’s closed door. I pull back to look at her. This is the most casual I’ve seen her act with any of the Matthews.
“Yeah, come on in.”
She looks at me, and her lips curve up like we’re in on the same secret. But she hasn’t told me why we need to make a stop in Felix’s office, so I don’t get it. I follow after her anyway, more curious than I let on because I’ve never seen the inside of his domain.
She strolls toward him with me trailing behind, then rests her ass on his desk and places one hand on her hip. She tilts her head to reveal a mark I hadn’t noticed on her neck. A hickey? “Really? Are we in high school?”
My eyes widen. I didn’t think we were allowed to speak to the Matthews like that. Not that it isn’t a perfectly normal way to speak—anywhere else.
He smirks, his eyes locked on hers as though it’s just the two of them in the room. “You said nothing permanent this time. It just came to me.” He shrugs. “You know, heat of the moment and all that.”
She rolls her eyes. “Raife doesn’t like it.”
Felix wipes a palm across his mouth and adjusts his bowtie. “Yeah well, Raife’s not the one who discovered you and invited you here. So it could be said that, on principle alone, I win.” He grins.
A smile lifts her lips, and she mutters something in agreement, but I’ve stopped paying attention. Three huge monitors sit on Felix’s desk. Two of the screens are black, but the third and largest one is lit up with small squares.
Each square reflects a camera’s view of different rooms of the house.
My stomach tightens at my discovery. So Felix is the one monitoring the cameras. Right now at least. It’s not much, but it’s the first thing I’ve stumbled across that could be useful somehow.
Lip-smacking hits my ears, and Aubrey waves for me to leave as she mounts Felix’s lap. “You’re on break,” she murmurs through his mouth. “You’re welcome.”
My lips quirk. “Thanks.”
I quickly exit, closing the door behind me, and chew on my lip. This is the first time she’s let me go on break without her. I glance at the camera at the end of the hall, a rush of adrenaline pouring through me as ideas formulate in my mind. The person on watch is a little preoccupied at the moment.
Before I miss my chance, I travel down the stairs and turn left, stopping only once I reach the basement door. It’s cracked open again. I’m either remarkably lucky or terribly unlucky. Nerves wrack me as I flick my gaze down the empty hall and slip inside. A pitch-black cloud swallows me, just like before, but this time I’m prepared for the staircase. Finding a rail to my left, I carefully make my way down.
The stairs lead me to a wide, dimly lit hallway with cameras at both ends and several doors lining each side. Deadly silence fills my ears, and I breathe it in. It’s not easy to get a quiet like this, the kind that’s still and thin, fragile like it could break at any moment.
I slide my shoes off and carry them in my left hand, then slowly pad through the basement. There are four rooms I can see, but the hallway curves at the end, hinting at more. Each door is open, lights off, nothing but shadow over clinical tiled floors. After passing the third room, I glance over my shoulder and slink into the fourth.
A cold wave of disappointment floods me as I look around. There’s nothing here. Literally. Other than a column running from the ceiling to the floor, it’s a vast expanse of nothingness.
Irritation gnaws at me. I risked getting caught over this?
I take in the room once more. Something doesn’t feel right. Why have a basement filled with empty rooms? And why would Adam be down here? After creeping further inside and still finding nothing, I exit and duck into one of the other rooms. This one is exactly the same, except there’s a metal table just a few feet from the column.
Slowly, I approach the table, intense curiosity pulling each footstep forward. A rectangular tray sits tilted in the center. My throat tightens as my eyes trace the sharp instruments laid out side by side. Reaching forward, I let my fingers graze the scissors from top to bottom, then I drift to the scalpel. My heart thumps a little too loudly, almost echoing against the hollow walls of my chest. I pick up the instrument, cock my head to one side, and lightly skim the thin blade along the inside of my index finger.
Strange thoughts seep into my head as I wonder how deep it cuts. If the red liquid it spills pours out in a rush, or if it trickles down, like in my paintings.
With a jerk, I drop the instrument and step back when a thunk sounds from down the hall. Heavy footfalls hit my ears, blending with the echo of the scalpel hitting the metal tray. Darting from the room, I race down the hall and up the steps, my pulse on overdrive, my breathing hard. Once I’m alone in the hall, with the basement door cracked beside me, I pause and rest against the wall.
As my breathing slows, my ears fill with Aubrey’s voice . . .
They have enemies.
And maybe a few trust issues.