But I’m kind of stuck. If I go back out, I run the risk of running into someone in the hallway. I should probably hide under the bed or in the closet until they finish, but I have no desire to listen to this. So, as he reaches and wraps his hands around Cecelia’s throat, thoroughly distracted, I creep back out of the room, praying there’s no one on the other side of the door.
My luck sticks, and the breath I was holding whooshes out of me in relief. What I need to do is find the kitchen. Hopefully, there’s an attached garage or carport with tools in there. So I go left toward the party, hoping that it’s out the back of the house and not inside it. I don't get very far before another door down the hallway opens and a man stumbles out of it, tucking his dick back into his pants, followed by Raquel. She’s wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Two guesses what they were doing. The man sees me and smiles.
“Oh, I didn't realize there was a blonde option, too. I’ll have a go at that one as well.” Raquel frowns, not having noticed me yet, but when she does, her eyes widen as she shrieks.
“How did you get out? Mom!” she screams, running back down the hallway.
Fuck. I hurry back down to the basement, and Jaxon’s eyes widen when he sees me taking the stairs two at a time. I look around the room for a weapon, eventually picking up Jacinta's chair. I’ll just bash them over the head with it.
“I got caught, but on the bright side, maybe I’ll get to kick Raquel's ass.” We both watch the stairs, waiting with dread to see what will happen once they realize Jacinta is gone.
ChapterTwelve
Oliver
The room is chaos as everyone tries to talk over one another. Thomas is shouting into his phone while Kai and Holden throw questions at Dad, who obviously doesn’t have any answers, but it’s Declan’s response that I’m most concerned about. He's gone quiet, and his eyes are glazed like he’s retreated into his mind. What the fuck is wrong with my brave, self-assured, and arrogant-as-fuck big brother?
Ignoring everyone else, I move over to sit next to him. I pick his hand up in mine and pat it, trying to get his attention. “Dec… Dec.” He doesn't respond. “Declan!” I call sharply, and that finally seems to work. His eyes meet mine, and although they’re no longer blank, it’s not much of an improvement. Instead, they’re filled with terror.
Oh no, I guess this reminds him a little of when he lost his parents. He was with the neighbors while his mom and dad went out for date night, and when the police knocked on their neighbors’ door later that evening, he was told they’d been in a car accident. A drunk driver had crossed over lanes and hit their car head-on. They’d been killed instantly. Child services had picked him up shortly after that because he had no family. Nana had told us that until the twins had come into his life, he'd been a withdrawn and quiet child, but once he took the two younger children under his wing, he changed. Being a big brother and having someone to look after gave him the purpose in life that he’d been missing since his parents’ deaths. For the two of them to be missing, as well as Harlow, must have taken him back to that day so many years ago when he felt helpless and blamed himself.
“Get it together, man,” I order, shaking him. “You’re not helping anyone by becoming panicked. Let’s not think the worst until we know something that gives us reason to.” He blinks owlishly at me, but I can see him coming back on line. His back straightens, and he takes a deep breath before nodding at me.
“Thanks.”
Thomas gets off the phone and roughly runs his fingers through his hair. “Jake is going to track the limo. I put devices on all the cars. I’m going down to security to look at the footage of their departure that night. It has to have happened between here and the cruise ship, so I’m guessing the usual driver had either been paid off or replaced. The guy’s not answering any calls or texts, so either way, that doesn’t bode well for him—or us. Jake's still coming up empty on Cecelia. It looks like she may have used a fake name and ID when we hired her. As soon as I’m done with the footage, I’m meeting Jake at her apartment. He has a warrant, and we’re going to search it to see if we can find anything that points to her real identity or where she may be now.”
“I don't understand why the stalker took the twins as well,” Kai mutters.
“Maybe it was the only chance they got,” Holden suggests. “Plus, it’s not like either of the twins would let Harlow go without a fight. Maybe they were forced to take them all to make an easier getaway?” He has a pretty good point, but my mind has been nagging at this exact thought, and I’ve come up with an idea.
“What if it’s all connected? If the remaining stalker has been watching Harlow this whole time, they’ve been learning about us too, right?” Everyone stares at me like they have no clue what I’m talking about.
“But what does that have to do with Cecelia?” Declan asks from next to me, his game face back on. I pat his knee reassuringly.
“What if Luke approached her? With the way she treated Harlow and the rest of us, she blew her shot at staying a part of Neighpalm—threat of blackmail or not. Maybe Luke figured she could help him get Harlow for himself since Cecelia obviously wanted her out of the way,andif she had an ax to grind with the rest of us, he’d have a partner in getting some kind of revenge on us? He wanted Harlow, and she wanted to leech off of us. So long as they could both get what they wanted, does it really seem that far-fetched that they could have teamed up?” The more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense.
Declan shifts in his seat, drawing my attention back to him. “But we can’t forget there’s another person in play here, someone who obviously doesn’t care whether Harlow is alive or not. This has got to be about their inheritance and the vault next door now, not just her. Someone wants something from that house, whether it’s Cecelia or whoever else was working with or against Luke. We already assumed there were two people watching Harlow, and with Luke gone, that still leaves a mystery puppeteer in the background.””
“Well, who would benefit from Harlow being dead?” Holden asks, and the room falls quiet as we all rack our brains.
“I can’t think of anyone. They didn’t even know all of this when they were in Hawaii. The count’s house hadn’t been moved to her name yet since the twins were still dealing with the legalities of getting it moved to theirs first. And the money I gave her to start the animal sanctuary is in the business’ name. We would all be devastated, of course, but unless their aim was just to hurt us, there is no direct benefit to killing Harlow.” Dad’s face shows strain, and we can all hear the tightness of his voice. He, like the rest of us, is hoping these theories are just that—hypothetical explanations that won’t have any kernel of truth to them.
“Okay,” Thomas says, a determined set to his mouth. “So we’re at the point where we’ve got a lot of theories—the Bucataru fortune might now be in play, Cecelia has hooked up with whoever was stalking Harlow alongside Luke, the twins were a lucky grab while Harlow was the main goal, or maybe even the opposite of that, depending on who’s leading the show… Right now, we don’t have any loose ends to explore as far as Harlow is concerned. We’ve checked out everyone we can on her end, but what about the twins? Did we ever get a lead on Carmen?”
“No, after the home invasion she disappears off the radar. She could be living it up in Bora Bora without a care in the world.”
“Fuck, and now we’re at a dead end again,” Thomas grumbles.
“What can we do?” Dad asks, and Thomas shakes his head.
“Nothing at the moment unless you can think of anything else that might be relevant. Did Carmen have any family besides the twins?”
“None she was close to as far as I knew.” Dad breaks off, and a small frown appears between his eyebrows. “Before I went out to Connecticut to visit Chuck, Dragos and Carmen came to the house for dinner. They were supposed to be coming with me, but they pulled out at the last minute, said something had come up with his father.” Dad runs a hand across his jaw. “It was weird because when they said goodbye, it felt like they were saying goodbye for good.”
Dad’s frown turns to a look of realization, and he jumps to his feet. “Holy shit! Carmen may be a dead end, but their father might not be. I’d forgotten all about this. As they were leaving, Dragos pulled this little black book out of his back pocket and gave it to me. We joked that it was his book of hookups and he was passing on the mantle because he had Carmen. But as he left, he told me to put it somewhere safe, said that I would know when the time was right to use it. I just laughed and shoved it in the top drawer of my office desk. By the time I got back from Connecticut, he was gone. I was so jaded about women I almost threw it in the trash, but out of respect for his last wish, I shoved it into my bookcase. It’s been there ever since. If the twins really are connected to this somehow, it couldn’t have started with them. It has to be connected to their father or grandfather. What if the book has some kind of clue?”
“We should definitely go have a look at what it says. You really never opened it?” Tom asks.
