She takes a large gulp of her whiskey, and I lean forward to pour some more into her glass. We’re both going to be hammered by the time Oli and Harlow return, but I don't really care. It’s been a trying day, and I can’t do anything to solve the shitload of problems on the Summers’ list, but I can be an ear for my bestie. Maybe she’ll finally feel a little lighter with something off her chest.
“Before I go any further, I need to tell you the McCallisters never promised to adopt me or anything, but the guys always believed that if I followed their parents’ rules, they would eventually take that final step. I tried so hard, but I guess I should have known it would never happen once I hit my eighteenth birthday. They’d never even brought it up!”
A tear trickles down her face, and my heart breaks for my friend. I shuffle over to sit next to her and put my arm around her shoulders, tucking her into my side.
“Anyway, I got super drunk the night of our graduation, and I had sex with the twins at a party. Later on in the night, Parker and I crossed the line together. We were so drunk we didn't think to set an alarm, and we’d totally forgotten Judy wanted to take us out for a celebration breakfast. I’d been accepted at UCLA on a full ride scholarship, and Parker was going to work with Miles in construction while doing community college courses. She was pleased as punch, but that didn't last long when she burst into his room the next morning and found us wrapped together, still naked. She hauled me out of his bed by the hair and basically tossed me out, only allowing me to get dressed and pack a bag of my belongings. By the time she dragged me down the stairs and tossed me out, all the boys were watching. The twins had this coldness in their eyes that I had never seen before, and Miles was just… indifferent. He’d been funny since we slept together, and I guess they were thinking that Judy’s prediction about me had come true. What hurt the most was Parker. I wanted him to stand up to her, to fight for us or something, but he just stood there and watched. Even when I pleaded for him to help me, he didn't. I now realize he was probably in shock, but it broke my heart. I used some of my savings to hop on a bus to LA and didn't look back.”
“They never tried to contact you?”
She grimaces. “They did, but I blocked them all.”
“Is this the first time you’ve seen them since it all happened?” I ask gently, and she nods.
“I’ve kept track of them through social media mostly, but none of them are very active. It’s more like people tagging them in things. I’m not entirely sure why their business wasn’t doing well. I only knew about that because I ran into someone from my high school at a club. They mentioned it off-handedly, and I didn't push. If I didn't ask about them, I couldn't feel sad. Seeing them yesterday was somewhat of a smack in the face, and suddenly I’m that eighteen-year-old girl again being thrown out of my foster home. The reason I recommended them to Brad was I knew they were struggling. Despite all the shit that went down, Miles and the twins were good at what they did. Their company was new but it was doing well when I lived with them. Something must have happened after I left, and I knew your dad would ask the right questions. He must have been happy with the answers because he hired them. I guess there was a part of me that still wanted their approval or for them to like me, and subconsciously, I wanted to help them.”
“Aw, babe. Screw them! You don't need them anymore. You’ve got us and are about to get adopted into our family.”
Before she can respond, Harlow and Oli enter the room, Oli waving some pieces of paper. “You should see what we found!” He’s breathless with that nearly tangible energy that he gets when he’s running on adrenaline. “But most importantly, we found the map.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Harlow
Holden and Hope are looking very solemn when Oli bursts into the room waving the map. Thank god it’s just them because his tact leaves a little bit to be desired.
“Jesus, Oli, what about being a little more discreet? It’s lucky it was just the two of them in here.” His enthusiasm wilts at my scolding, but I’m more worried about the other two at the moment. Oli will bounce back quickly enough. “Is everything okay here?” I ask carefully.
Hope’s smile is shaky, and her eyes are begging for me not to push right now. “Yeah, it is. I’ll be okay. Oli, come show us what you found and distract me.” His face lights up once more, and we chuckle at his enthusiasm as he makes room on the coffee table for the map.
“This place is like a labyrinth. There are underground tunnels everywhere! They even detour around the big pool in the zoo.” He looks at me. “Did you get a chance to read the records to see what was in there?”
“No, I was hoping to get a chance to do it now. Where did you put it?” I ask Holden, and he points to a little table on the other side of one of the sofas. I jump up, grabbing it and bringing it back to my seat. I start to flick through it as Oli continues to explain.
“Then there are all the secret tunnels in this house. It’s like they built all of them first, then built the rooms up around them.” Holden and Hope lean in to have a look. “If this map is correct...” He pauses before walking over to a china cabinet on one wall, getting up close and personal with the wood before shouting, “Ah ha!” He pushes his finger into a knot in the wood, then the cabinet slides away from the door with a quiet click, revealing a dark tunnel. Motion-activated lights appear along the floor to light the way after he takes a single step over the entrance to the tunnel. “This should lead to the kitchen, and there should be entrances along it to other rooms.”
“Holy shit.” Hope joins him. “Did you say the whole house is like this?”
He nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, upstairs has them as well. The only rooms that don’t have them are the sex room and the master bedroom/safe room.”
“Sex room?” Hope squeaks, and Oli laughs.
“Yeah, you should see it. It’s really something.”
Holden’s studying the map, mumbling to himself before he starts to speak louder, directing his next comment at the rest of us. “Good idea not to let anyone else know about them. Let’s keep this a family secret. From what I can see, apart from the tunnel they’re showing the agents, there are six others. One leads out from a sealed room next to the vault, and that one, if I’m not mistaken, actually travels all the way under Dad’s property and out the other side of it.”
“That must be the one from the safe room. There’s a slide that goes from the safe room to that room. I wanted to give it a go, but Harlow said we should wait until the authorities leave. Though I guess there’s no point now that we know where it goes.” He pouts a little, drawing the expected chuckles from the rest of us. “We still need to make sure the slide and tunnel have retained their integrity over the years, so you’ll still get your chance.” Oli perks up at this. “I also want to make sure there’s some kind of way to securely close the tunnels at the other end. We wouldn’t want some random stranger stumbling upon them.”
“Holy shit!” I sit up straight as the words on the page jump out at me. I’d been skimming the details, half paying attention to their conversation and half to the words in front of me. “That crazy bastard kept an orca!”
“Are you serious?” Holden asks, gaping at me with surprise.
“Yeah. I have no idea how he managed that. He must have paid someone a lot of fucking money to catch it, not to mention what it must have cost to transport the thing here. How they did that without anyone noticing is anyone's guess. Whoever wrote this notes that it didn't do well, so they convinced him to return it to the wild. Count Bucataru apparently had an agreement with some wildlife conservation group who specialized in aquatic creatures. The group was given access to the pool when they needed to rehab dolphins, seals, or turtles. Occasionally, a stranded whale was kept there until they were strong enough to return to the water. It says here that there was a mass stranding, and out of the fifty minke whales, they managed to save five of them by shipping them here and rehabbing them in the pool.”
“Minke whales must be small, then?” Hope asks.
“Yeah, they’re a smaller species. Five would have been fine in such a big pool, especially since they wouldn't have needed to stay long—just enough to build up some strength and make sure there was no underlying reason to beach before releasing them. That would have been a big operation, though. Maybe I’ll get in contact with the organization, see if they have any more information.”
“If we decide to refurbish the pool, we could let them know that we’re ready to help them out at any time too,” Oli says after closing the door on the secret tunnel and sitting back down next to me.
