Still, as we closed the door behind us, a cool sense of dread cloaked me, making me a thousand times more anxious than I’d been in that absolutely haunted room.
A wealthy, possibly deranged man wasn’t just a pain. It had once been the real-life source of my nightmares.
What the hell had I gotten myself into?
CHAPTER 2
Eat the Rich
WINONA
Any last remnants of fuzziness from making Sarah happy were long gone as I headed up toward the most exclusive neighborhood in Quince Valley. Flo, my beloved if not slightly quirky plumbing van, protested with a loud moan on the incline.
I grimaced. “I know, girl. The Hills don’t agree with me either.”
Quince Valley was known for its gorgeous valley views, quaint downtown, and red iron bridge spanning the river. One side of the valley was dominated by the Rolling Hills resort I’d just left, and its sprawling golf course. On this side, the low brick buildings and gingerbread houses of the downtown core slipped away, the properties expanding and houses set farther and farther back from the road. But up here at the very top, I couldn’t see any houses at all; the mansions hiding fully behind gates and walls. The Hills was a favorite locale for not just rich townies, but the uber-wealthy, too. Business magnates, movie stars, and other folks with more money than sense who liked hiding away in a place still only a relatively close jaunt to major cities like New York and Montreal.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like money. I’d been tucking it away for years.Don’t you ever do what I did, baby,my mama had told me in an urgent whisper from her hospital bed.Your money, your life. Ijust didn’t trust people who had so much of it.
“You have arrived,” my phone announced.
I pulled to a stop. I’d done that thing where I barely remembered getting here. Yet here I was, in front of a driveway leading to a massive black gate set between giant concrete pillars. Trees emerged over the top of the gapless gate, but that was all I could see. The wall was so long it took up the whole block. Good lord. This wasn’t just a regular rich client. This looked like the biggest, most imposing place in the Hills.
I gripped the steering wheel with sweaty palms. But I wasn’t going to back down just because of some nerves. I’d learned how to muscle through those years ago. No one controlled me. Ever.
I rolled down the window next to the intercom, which looked like a black tablet on a thin pole poking out of the perfectly manicured grass. The tablet was so glossy I could see my reflection perfectly. My cheek was streaked with grease. And was that a dust bunny in my hair? I plucked it out, but my image disappeared before I could inspect anything further, replaced with another woman’s face. She was pretty, with a tight chignon but warm smile. I went to return it with a hello, but as she blinked, her eyelids blurred. I bit my tongue. She was a computer-generated image. But she looked uncannily real.
“Hello,” the woman said, smiling benignly. “I’m Anita.”
“Um, hi, Anita.” I felt like a damn fool. I didn’t like computers. I was much better with real people. Still, I cleared my throat. “Winona Chalmers, Heartbreaker Plumbing. You—uh, your human—called?”Your human?
The computer was unfazed. “Welcome, Winona.”
The black gate sprang to life, gliding open in near silence.
“God love your cotton socks,” I muttered as I rolled up the window and put the van back into drive.
It was still warm, bordering on hot for mid-September. But the temperature seemed to drop the moment I crossed the wall. I’d entered a dark forest, with trees stretching skyward like giant sentinels, their canopy blotting out the sun; their trunks draped in shadow. It felt less like I was heading to a house and more like I was about to encounter a mysterious, cursed castle.
It was a good five-minute drive, where I strongly considered turning back. More than once. But suddenly, the trees fell away.
I couldn’t help but ogle at the scene before me. The grounds were less like a private residence and more like a park—lush grass dotted with hedge animals, albeit a little overgrown, and a massive fountain topped with a tangled metal sculpture so tall I had to tilt my head back to see it all as I passed it. The residence itself looked like a massive concrete box, with only a few small windows on the top floor. I thought of my place back downtown—a creaky old Victorian I’d inherited from a great-aunt of my mom’s. While the plumbing was top of the line, everything else was tired. An embarrassment compared to this.
Cassandra’s future brother-in-law was clearly a millionaire. Maybe a multi-millionaire.
Must be nice.
I followed the discreet low lawn sign to the service driveway along the side of the house to where it ended in a small parking area. I hopped out of Flo and headed around to her backside to grab my tools.
Maybe I should take better care of my house. My cranky next-door neighbor, Mrs. Moody, was always making snide remarks about it. But all my extra cash these days went to theboys’ college and practicum expenses, or the startup fund for my new project. Plus, I never thought I’d stay there after my brothers moved out, which they did last year, making me an empty nester at the ripe old age of 32. In my twenties, while cosplaying as a parent at PTA meetings and soccer practice, I used to daydream of eventually moving out of the place we inherited from my great-aunt. I’d thought for sure I’d be swept away by some sweet Prince Charming once the boys were grown. A schoolteacher, maybe. Someone calm and level-headed. Handsome, but not showy.
But one had to actually date to get swept away, which was not something I cared to make time for. I was far too cautious for casual sex, and getting entangled in something more long-term took time and energy already allocated to work. But even before launching this new venture, I’d been far more interested in reading about romance than dealing with it myself. It was safer that way.
As I slammed Flo’s back doors shut, I couldn’t help wishing I was at home reading a romantasy now instead of being up here at this modern-day castle that had to be ruled by some kind of evil villain. Or whatever Sarah meant by ‘he’s kind of off’.
I looked around for a service door, but there was nothing visible in the slab of wall before me. I didn’t even know where to knock.
“Hello?”
