The laundry room!Excited, I tugged, and the panel popped open, revealing itself to be a secret door. It was wider and heavier than I expected, and I figured maybe that was why it blended so seamlessly into the wall.
I moved into the opening, and the overhead light clicked on instantly, illuminating the room. It was small but bigger than I expected, with enough room for a full-size washer and dryer and a rack to hang wet clothes. I snooped through a set of black cabinets above the appliances and found them stocked with detergent, dryer sheets, and other cleaning supplies. There was also one of those fancy cordless vacuums I saw on TV attached to the wall.
The walls weren’t white like the rest of the condo but covered with black and white geometric-patterned wallpaper. Something about it struck me as odd. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because no other walls had it. Maybe because I’d just walked through a secret door hidden by custom wood panels. Or it could have been because it was three in the morning and Kieran was gone.
Laying my palms flat on the walls, I began feeling around for anything that seemed uneven or out of place. After a while, I gave up, frustrated and feeling pretty stupid. I’d lost my mind, searching the walls for some sort of secret latch.
Did I think this was some kind of movie?
Blowing out a breath, I turned to go, my attention snagging on the lifting seam of the wallpaper near the floor.
In any other house, that would be a giantso-what. But this was Kieran the perfectionist’s house. Curling wallpaper was practically a crime. Leaning down, I used my ragged nail to lift the edge.
Gasping, I noted the small latch built into the wall, a latch the wallpaper usually hid. I tugged it, and a section of the wall slid open.
This is totally like a movie.
Excitement coiled through me as I stood, taking in the narrow opening. It was large enough for me to stand in, but Kieran probably wouldn’t completely fit.
I shifted closer, and light flooded the small closet-like space, revealing everything inside.
My jaw went slack.
Frozen in place, I gaped, unblinking, at the last thing I’d expected to find.
It was a body. A dead one.
Just kidding.
It wasn’t a body.
It was worse.
What could be worse than a dead body, you ask?
Stuff tomakea dead body.
Guns. Knives. A machete. Pretty sure there was a row of grenades toward the top. Did I mention guns?Lotsof guns of all different kinds. All of them with the potential to kill. There were some boots and a few other things I couldn’t identify.
Pursing my lips, I took it all in once more.
Listen, I know I just watchedJohn Wick,had a nightmare, woken up to find my new maybe-boyfriend missing in the middle of the night, and then snooped through his house to find a secret room—Oh, and all that wasafterpeople tried to murder me—but I wasn’t making this up.
My eyes did not deceive me.
I blinked them a lot just to be sure.
There was amurder lockerin my boyfriend’s house.
Remember when Kieran told me he was in real estate and I believed him? And then Ghost seemed surprised about Kieran’s career, and I didn’t say anything?
Sure, I had some suspicions. Kieran seemed very confident earlier when he said he’d handle the men who tried to turn me into Swiss cheese. Dealing with killers and selling a house wasn’t exactly the same thing,amiright?
I could no longer ignore my suspicions. It was clear Kieran was not, in fact, in real estate.
The murder locker lit up before me dared me to believe otherwise.
This is exactly why people say you shouldn’t meet men online. But why would I listen to a bunch of people I didn’t know? I didn’t even listen to myself.
