Whispered Lies

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  He listened. No footsteps came running. Once the grate was open far enough he climbed through and turned to wave a hand at Gabrielle. All he could see was a black hole until his light flashed twice. Smart woman.

  A scuffling noise was followed by a feminine grunt, then her face appeared. He took her arm and helped her onto the floor, then to her feet. She immediately started dusting off her pants. Every bit the lady until she realized he was waiting.

  “Oh.” She glanced around. “We go up the stairs.”

  “Tell me now what the upper-floor layout is before we get there so we won’t have to talk.”

  She explained, using her hands. “Amelia’s room is 210. If nothing has changed, everyone should be in their room or at the meal hall, because we were never allowed to linger in the hallways. But we might run into someone coming or going.”

  “We’ll deal with that if it happens.” Carlos took her hand and led the way. When he pulled open the wooden exit door to the second floor, the hinges whined.

  She held her breath, then shoved up close to see past his shoulder. A metal door twenty feet away on his right closed off the hallway, with an alarm-code panel on the side. A sign above stated no access.

  Gabrielle whispered, “That’s the staff quarters and security entrance for this building. Go left to the first turn, take a right, and 210 should be halfway down on your left.”

  He nodded and eased into the hallway, where hand-blown glass sconces lit the passageway, painted a dusty rose and white. Each door was still marked with metal numbers in gold. She stayed close behind Carlos, careful not to make a sound. When they turned the corner, a door shut with a click in the hallway.

  Her whole body shook with the fear of getting caught. On some buried level, she was still the frightened teen who never broke a rule or took a risk while here. She’d never wanted to be taken to the “special building” at the back of the property. The place she’d once thought was for exceptional students until a rumor floated around of someone screaming out a window.

  Could have been a fabricated rumor just to scare students, but she hadn’t risked finding out.

  Carlos reached back, taking her hand as if he’d sensed the terror she felt and knew the simple touch would ease her fears. He moved forward, forcing her from her spot. At the door to Amelia’s room, he listened, then tapped his knuckles lightly. No answer. He slipped something from his pocket.

  Feeling clingy all of a sudden, she released his hands so he was free to jimmy the lock while watching both ways. He opened the door and she followed him into the room.

  The room hadn’t changed much other than newer floral brocade linens, the priceless French Provençal antiques still elegant and feminine. Clothes were tossed across one bed just as she and Linette had done on weekends, though they’d kept the room neat all week. Nostalgia flowed over her in slow waves, reminding her of happy nights sharing dreams and sad times once Linette disappeared.

  Carlos moved around the room silent as a ghost.

  Both of these beds and dressers had photos, books, nail polish, hairbrushes, and other items scattered about. If one bed was Amelia’s, the school still expected her to return.

  A humming noise drew her attention to the loo. The fan was on, which meant…

  Carlos stepped backward just as the commode flushed.

  She cringed at the noise.

  He had her out in the hallway in half a second. The sound of the bathroom door opening and shutting came through the wood separating them. They barely got out fast enough.

  Carlos took a step the way they had come when a door to another room between them and the turn for the stairwell opened.

  A young woman with long, silky brown hair backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. She fiddled with the lock.

  Something whispered from Carlos’s lips that Gabrielle bet was a curse. If they went the other way, the student might report strangers in the hall and LaCrosse would immediately know who they were by the description.

  If they walked forward, they’d have to interact, and any lie might hang Gabrielle if the student told someone.

  She clenched Carlos’s hand, fighting a panic attack. Didn’t take a genius to figure the probability of escaping without notice was too small to calculate.

  What would LaCrosse do if he heard about this?

  Sweat trickled down her collar.

  Carlos started forward, pulling her with him. Her heart bounced in her chest. What was he going to do?

  When they were within ten feet of the girl, she must have heard them approaching. She swung around with a wide-eyed look that washed away when surprise burst across her face.

  “Gabrielle, what are you doing here?”

  SEVENTEEN

  ME? WHAT ARE you doing here?” Gabrielle demanded.

  Babette flung herself into Gabrielle’s arms. “I sent you an e-mail that I was being exiled. Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Who is she?” Carlos asked at the same moment Babette said, “Who is he?”

  Gabrielle took a breath, hugged her half sister to her, then looked around. “Oh, dear. Do you have a roommate?” she asked Babette quietly.

  “Yes, but she’s eating right now. I don’t like the food in the meal hall so I keep snacks stashed here.” Babette kept her voice down, picking up quickly on the conspiratorial atmosphere.

  Gabrielle bet her sister’s resistance to dining in the common area had more to do with being new than the food since the school had fabulous chefs.

  “Let’s talk in your room.” Gabrielle glanced at Carlos. His lips were drawn in one unhappy line, but he nodded.

  “Sure.” Babette opened the door and closed it as soon as everyone was inside. “So what’s going on? How did you get permission to visit? I was told that would take forever and an act of parliament to get approved.”

  “Babette is my sister,” Gabrielle told Carlos, stalling while she came up with an answer for why she was in the dorm. She turned to Babette. “He is-”

  “-her bodyguard,” Carlos answered for Gabrielle, which reminded her to be careful about what she shared.

  “Really?” Babette’s animated face crumpled with worry. “Has that scumbag tried to hurt you?”

  “No, I, uh…” Gabrielle looked to Carlos for help.

  “Scumbag?” he asked, not helping one bloody bit.

  “Roberto, her ex-husband, I told Gabby he had to be behind those attacks. Don’t you know who you’re protecting her from?” Babette glowered at Carlos, who cut his eyes at Gabrielle as if she should now help him.

  She crossed her arms in silence.

  “Yes, I do know about him,” Carlos lied since Gabrielle hadn’t shared that much about Roberto with him or his black-op friends. “I’m here to ensure he doesn’t even try. Gabrielle’s here to help the school with their computer system and wanted to see her old dorm room again, but there’s a couple girls in it. This is a stuffed-up bunch so we don’t want them to know we were over here. LaCrosse would probably get his panties in a wad.”

  What a brilliant story. Gabrielle’s knees were weak with relief.

  “You can trust me. I won’t tell a soul, especially not the head troll.” Babette delivered that with all the sincerity of an accomplice. Then her gaze softened when she took full measure of Carlos to the point of ogling.

  “Don’t speak disrespectfully of Monsieur LaCrosse.” Annoyance heated Gabrielle’s neck at yet another female drooling over Carlos, but she couldn’t fault an impressionable teen.

  It was his fault anyhow. A woman couldn’t possibly take in all of him in just one glance. But her younger sister had been taught better manners. Gabrielle cleared her throat, pulling Babette’s focus back to her.

  “Why didn’t LaCrosse mention your sister?” Carlos asked.

  “He probably assumed I knew.” Gabrielle shrugged.

  “Do you know the girls in Gabrielle’s old room?” he said in a voice as smooth as fine cognac and loaded with just as much intoxicating charm.r />
  Gabrielle sent a sharp glance of warning at him for turning that power on her little sister.

  He winked at her. The bugger.

  “I wanted Gabrielle’s room, but all Papa remembered was that she had been on this floor.” Babette’s attention never moved from Carlos as she pushed the long sleeves of her gray T-shirt back to her wrists and smoothed her hands over the jeans she wore. “Papa never said much about her time in this dungeon. Which room?”

  “Two ten.” Carlos smiled and Babette’s cheeks flushed pink, then she looked away.

  Gabrielle knew he was trying to get information while they were here, but her maternal instincts surfaced when it came to her sisters. She kicked her foot against his ankle.

  His jaw clenched, but his understanding expression never wavered except for the eyebrow he lifted.

  Babette missed the silent exchange. She was staring off in thought, nibbling on the corner of a fingernail, then pulled her hand away and snapped her fingers. “Beatrice and Amelia. Beatrice and I have classes together. She’d probably let you take a look at your old room if she’s there. I’ve only met Amelia at lunch a couple times. Talk about an extreme mouth. She’s got an opinion on everything to do with civil rights.”

  Gabrielle smothered a chuckle. Babette had to be sorely put out to meet someone more opinionated than herself. Carlos was far better at this espionage part than her, but she picked up the thread he’d started and guided Babette back on topic.

  “No, no, I don’t want anyone to see me here,” Gabrielle assured her sister. “So these girls are friends of yours?”

  “Beatrice is okay.” Always animated, Babette moved her hands up, shoving hair off her face, then she fiddled with the edge of her T-shirt and finally settled her hands at her hips, fingers hooking the top of her jeans. “Her mum is a duchess who just remarried, so she got dumped here while the luuuv birds have a first year alone. Bet she’s here longer. Amelia’s a dorfy one. Beatrice doesn’t really know her since they just got moved in together. I’m betting Amelia probably got tossed by her last roomie. I don’t want anything to do with her.”

  “Why?” Gabrielle asked.

  “Because the one time I tried to have a conversation with her she said…” Babette paused then straightened her posture, lifted her chin, and pulled her hands together in front of herself emulating a formal stance that was in direct contrast with her usual slouch. She raised her voice and said in an overdone snippy accent, “Biting one’s nails is a terrible habit and socially unacceptable.”

  Babette made a face. “I haven’t missed Miss Prim and Proper Salsa one bit since she left last week. Beatrice says Amelia’s okay, just programmed that way because her dad is some big-deal coffee guy in South America.”

  “Was there a school break last week?” Gabrielle asked conversationally.

  “Not really. Beatrice and Amelia are ahead in credits for the quarter so they could take off, but Beatrice got the same answer I did when she called home to ask for a vacation-no way, no how.” Babette’s eyes shone with dampness, but she shook it off. “She’s been stuck here with me, but Amelia got six school days off. She left with some girl who got hurt or sick while they were gone, so it sounds like her trip got screwed.”

  “Do you know if anyone else is gone right now?” Gabrielle asked.

  “I don’t know that many kids yet. Why do you want to know?”

  Gabrielle cut her eyes to Carlos. Had she said too much?

  He answered Babette, “Your sister is helping them cross-reference files. It seems a few high-profile students like Amelia have slipped out without permission, but that doesn’t mean Amelia did. Anything you hear could help Gabrielle, make her look good to the management here so they might ask her to come back and work some more.”

  Gabrielle narrowed her gaze at him for raising Babette’s hopes, but his trick worked to enlist her sister’s help.

  “I’ll keep my ears open for anyone coming and going in this building.”

  Carlos checked his watch. “We have to get back.”

  Babette lost all interest in him and turned to Gabrielle with pleading eyes. “Are you coming back to see me?”

  Gabrielle’s heart broke at the realization she didn’t have a clue if she’d be free to visit her sister again. But she wouldn’t worry the child. “As soon as I can, but I’ve got to keep a low profile right now because of…” What could she say and not cause alarm?

  “The scumbag,” Babette finished for her, and turned to Carlos. “If he comes near her, I hope you plow his face down to his socks.”

  The smile of assurance Carlos gave her was outright evil. “If anyone tries to hurt her, I’ll do worse than that.”

  Babette sighed with adoration for Carlos.

  Gabrielle jerked his sleeve. “We going or not?”

  “Getting testy?” he murmured.

  Babette launched herself into Gabrielle’s arms again. “Come back as soon as you can and call me.”

  “I don’t have my cell phone with me,” Gabrielle told her. Because the guy you’re mooning over destroyed it.

  “Why not?” Babette looked up at her worried. “What if I need to reach you?”

  “We use mine when she travels,” Carlos explained. “I’ll give you the number.”

  “Good.” Babette snatched up a pen and paper. “I’m ready.” She jotted the numbers down, then stuck the paper in her pocket and smiled. “I won’t tell a soul about this either.”

  “Call if you have any…problem.” Gabrielle wanted to say if someone tries to kidnap you, but why should anyone want Babette?

  Why should anyone want Mandy or Amelia for that matter?

  Worry clawed a hole in her stomach.

  “Nice to meet you,” Carlos told Babette, and she almost swooned. Gabrielle wouldn’t have thought the little hellion had it in her to behave so girly.

  Carlos opened the dorm door and slipped out.

  Gabrielle waved to Babette and rushed out behind him. They made it to the stairwell and the creaky door to the stairs was swinging closed behind them when the staff door at the end of the hall opened.

  A woman shouted, “Where are you going?” Footsteps pounded in pursuit.

  Carlos yanked Gabrielle’s hand and flew down the stairs through pitch dark. She slipped twice but he kept her from falling. As they reached the second landing, the door above them squealed open. Carlos pressed her against the wall with his arm. She couldn’t see her fingers in front of her face.

  “Who’s down there?” a matronly voice bellowed. A flashlight beam glowed down the center of the stairwell, but the black hole gobbled up the light. One heavy plod after another hit each step as the woman slowly descended. “Stay where you are.”

  That order wasn’t necessary. Gabrielle was glued in place, fear paralyzing her.

  Carlos opened and shut the access door to the first-floor rooms but didn’t make a move to exit through them. He lifted Gabrielle and hoisted her onto his shoulder fireman-style, then tiptoed down the steps.

  How did he move so easily and not make a sound?

  He stopped at the basement landing when the footsteps above them reached the first floor. A radio crackled to life.

  The woman above them said, “I’m in the first-floor stairwell. I heard this door open and close, but can’t be sure anyone went through it. I’m going to do a room check on this floor. You search the stairwell all the way.”

  Gabrielle clutched at Carlos’s waist to steady herself while he moved through the dark with careful but quick steps. He set her on her feet, then she heard a rustling noise as if he moved something.

  “Give me back the light,” he told her softly.

  She dug out the small plastic case in trembling hands. “Here.”

  He caught her arm with one hand and took the light with the other.

  A door at the top of the stairs squeaked again and slammed shut. Footsteps pounded downward much more quickly than those of the woman who had chased them.

  Carlos
flipped on the light, showing Gabrielle the opening to the grate. “Be careful. Don’t rush.”

  Was he kidding? Don’t rush. She swung around and he caught her under her arms as her feet floundered, trying to hit one of the spikes. Her toe caught.

  The door on the landing one floor above opened and a man shouted, “Find anything?”

  The answer he got was too muffled for Gabrielle to hear.

  “Watch what you’re doing,” Carlos told her calmly as she pulled out of his grasp and moved to each lower step.

  The door above slammed shut. Then the footsteps pounded downward again.

  She dropped one foot at a time, clutching the spike above her as she made her way down what seemed like an endless ladder.

  Carlos prayed for enough time to get them to safety and stuck the light in his pocket. He swung through the hole backward, catching the spikes with his foot. Holding the grate with one hand, he used all his strength again to lift it off the track while he slid the metal covering into place. The grate snagged on something and stopped an inch short, but he couldn’t spend the time or risk the noise shoving it into place. He climbed down the last steps and dropped to the floor.

  The grate screeched with the friction of metal against metal when their pursuer slid it aside.

  Carlos grabbed Gabrielle and yanked her out from beneath the open shaft just before a beacon of light showered down the hole. He held her close to his chest, willing their pursuer not to climb down.

  Radio noise crackled above, but he doubted the guy could transmit from this far belowground.

  Carlos moved Gabrielle away and started walking slowly until he heard the guy growling and banging the grate aside.

  He was following them into the tunnel.

  “Stay close,” Carlos whispered, then took her hand and ran. He made the first turn before a light beamed in the tunnel behind them.

  The guy had to figure out which direction to go first.

  Carlos hoped that would buy them enough of a head start to reach the administration building before security either caught them or called to alert the central office.