“Hello!” called Sal from a distance and below. Pain scratched his voice. “Is anyone there?”
“Shut the fuck up!” hissed a male voice I didn’t recognize, but the familiar accent told me he was one of Ewan’s men. “Someone opened the door.”
I flipped my phone around and pressed the light into my chest. Darkness took over. In the gloom, I inched to the end of the stone floor. A distant light flicked on from near the stairway. A figure stood, half hidden, with their head not even reaching above the sagging bannister.
The light shone my way. I shielded my eyes but it flickered and disappeared. The shadowy figure dropped it.
“Shite!” he yelled then spoke to himself. “How did he get here so fast?”
Wood creaked and the man screamed, falling. A thump below confirmed it. The man moaned in the basement, harmonized by Sal’s pained expletives. The floor boards right in front of me splintered away from the beams. Emma’s stepfather lay on his back below, covered in dust. His left leg bent in a wince-inducing way.
“Hello? I need help!” he yelled up at me.
I stepped onto the beam, still leaning back on the stone. It held my weight so I tried the next one over. As sure as I could be, I shuffled along them toward the staircase. Emma must have climbed up if they were following.
“Where are you going?” whined Sal. “I need help. My leg is broken.”
The moaner who’d fallen through the stairs kept at it, growing louder as I neared them. In the last week, Emma and I had explored the upper levels of the manor, at least the parts we could safely reach. Our unwelcome house guest had stepped on the third stair, one of the many bits of wood in desperate need of replacement.
The hole he’d left behind showed the wood under the stairs had to go too. Both had snapped in half under his weight. Still moaning, he lay on his side, doubled over. His only response to the light came in a wince.
At the top of the stairs, I flashed my light both ways. The second-floor balcony drooped and fell to the left before reaching any of the doorways so I went right. The moaning and pleading from below made it hard to hear anything else.
When one of the injured idiots paused for breath, I heard footsteps thudding above me, counterpointed with creaking wood and dust raining from the ceiling. I hurried to the stairs. Even the stable ones groaned under my weight. In as much of a hurry as I was, I almost mis-stepped, foot inches from a weak board Emma and I had found earlier.
“Doesn’t look like you have anywhere to go now,” Ewan Turner’s voice said somewhere above me. “That’s what you get for running up the stairs, huh?”
“Killing me gets you nothing, brother,” Emma spat and my steps hurried. “Everyone will already know you kidnapped me. My mom probably bolted to tell Ian right away, in the meeting with all his lieutenants. The ass driving the van, what do you think he’s going to do? He knows you had our father killed. It is over. You are done. Kill me now and you only add another family member to your kill count.”
My feet remained planted on the floor when the conversation above me fell silent. The spiral staircase that led to the half-collapsed tower lay right in front of me. Light streamed down, creating shadows out of the ornate wrought iron steps and bannister. It was among the strongest surviving parts of the house, but almost impossible to ascend without making noise.
“What’s one more?” Turner asked and I started up the steps. “Then I’d have a trifecta.”
“Trifecta?” Emma sucked in a breath, I climbed two more stairs. “One of the sons our father mentioned in his pre-wedding toast?”
“Guilty, but it’s not like I feel it.” Ewan barked a laugh. “He stood in my way, just like you. Do you think my lieutenants would believe your whore of a mother?”
By now, I’d climbed high enough to peek at the next floor. Emma stood feet from the edge where the wall had crumbled away decades ago. Light from beyond kept her mostly silhouetted. Ewan had his back to me, closer to the stairs, but not close enough. Bits of broken stone and splintered wood covered the floor.
“Ian will believe her, he probably had people following you,” Emma said. “The cavalry is on its way already. Maybe he’ll surprise us both and get here even quicker.”
Her eyes remained focused on her brother. With half my head in the light, she saw me – she’d have to have been blind not to. To keep her composure in a situation like this, to not give my arrival away when adrenalin had to be surging through her was quite the feat.
“If he’s even coming,” Ewan said. He inched closer to Emma. “You said it yourself. It almost makes more sense for him to let you die. He doesn’t need you anymore, does he. Your marriage served its purpose for him, helped him steal what was rightfully mine.”
His words masked my steps up the last few stairs. Emma’s focus on him never wavered. She offered no hints at all that they were not alone any more.
“I don’t think my husband thinks like that, like us, brother,” Emma said. “We are a lot alike, as much as neither of us wants to think that. I can understand your greed, your drive for power, even rationalize your murderous choices, and I really don’t like that.”
I stood at the top of the stairs. Emma hadn’t acknowledged me at all, not even a glance away from her brother. I’d been ready to spring into action, assuming she’d accidentally give my presence away. It wouldn’t have taken much.
Ewan crept closer to Emma. She stood only a foot from the ledge but had shifted to the side, nearer the remains of the crumbled wall. With a few more steps, he’d be close enough to shove.
“Oh, how trite,” Ewan mocked. “A deathbed confession? Now that you’re about to tumble like the top of this tower, you finally start feeling guilty.”
“If I’d killed my father or an innocent brother, yeah, I’d probably feel guilty,” Emma said, standing taller. Her hand reached out and held the crumbling stone at the wall’s end. “But I won’t shed a tear at your funeral.”
Her eyes darted my way for the first time. Ewan spun around an instant later, but too late. My hand slammed into his chest. He stumbled back, gasping for his lost breath. Emma inched down the wall. Her brother’s steps took him to the edge.
