by Jaclyn Hardy
“Okay, so what do you know about Anna? Where is she from? Did she tend to take off? Was there someone in her life that would do this to her?”
Dani leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “Let’s see, I think she was from Chicago. She showed up to work on time every day. She’s about to graduate college and her major is . . . history? I think. And she’s sweet. I don’t know anyone who would want to hurt her.”
Todd seemed to be a likely choice, but Hunter didn’t want to bring him up. “Is there any reason someone would think she was the one to go after?”
“Not really. I mean, she’d been working more lately—we all have been—which means she would have been clocked in. It’s possible whoever hacked us thought she was important.” Dani tapped the table. “But that doesn’t make sense for the other two.”
“Unless they were in on it.” Hunter typed the other two in as possible suspects. “Do they have any reason to be in town? Besides this?”
She shook her head. “Their families don’t live here, and as far as I know, neither of them have work that would require them travel.”
Hunter nodded. “That helps. A little.”
“It does?” Dani raised an eyebrow. “If anything, that makes it worse.”
“Not really. We know where she’s not.”
Dani snorted—something so unladylike and so endearing at the same time. “I think that’s stretching it a little.”
“Maybe.” Hunter stood and stretched. “Let’s explore. Staying in our rooms all day isn’t solving anything and maybe we can find some clues.”
Dani hopped up. “Sounds good to me. I’m bored out of my mind.”
Hunter shut his laptop and grabbed his phone so they’d have a flashlight. It wasn’t the high-tech stuff that the others used, but they weren’t here. He listened at the door to make sure no one was out there, then carefully opened it.
“What are you doing?” Dani’s voice made him jump.
“Being stealthy. Now be quiet and let’s go.” He ignored her laugh and moved out into the hallway.
Dani shook her head and went in front of him, but ducked immediately. “There are a few guards downstairs. We need a distraction.”
Hunter frowned and looked back at his room. “One sec.”
He slipped back inside and opened one of the windows. No guards out there. He smiled and grabbed one of the vases at the side of his bed. There were enough out in the yard that looked similar to hopefully keep them from realizing it was him. He threw it as far out as he could and smiled with satisfaction as it shattered on the ground below. When no guards came, he looked around for another idea.
And ducked when a piercing alarm filled the room. Flashing lights and more sirens came on, and the room was doused in water. Dani opened the door with a grin on her face.
“When in doubt, pull the fire alarm. Come on.” She disappeared again, and Hunter had to run to catch up.
The floors were slick with water, and people were shouting back and forth to each other, trying to hear over the fire alarms. Dani opened a closet and pulled out two jackets that matched those of the employees. She shot him a sly smile and put hers on before continuing down the hallway.
The back stairway was almost deserted, but since they wore the same clothing as everyone else, no one paid any attention. Hunter shook his head. He couldn’t believe it had actually worked. No wonder Clark Kent could get away with his glasses as a disguise.
Shouting came from the kitchen, so Dani ducked around another corner. Hunter stood next to her, his heart beating rapidly. While they waited for the voices to fade, he glanced around at his surroundings. It was another row of bedrooms, most likely for the employees.
He hesitated before heading down the hallways. Some of the doors were open, revealing smaller rooms than what he had. They were still comfortable enough, but small. Those doors that were closed, he listened at before moving on to the next one.
The last door opened to another stairway. He raised his eyebrows and gestured to the stairs, not wanting to talk in case someone was still around. Dani nodded and followed him down the steps. This staircase was poorly lit and dusty. It was most likely an old root cellar or something, but he still had to know what was down at the bottom.
At first it seemed that it was a root cellar like he’d thought. But it was bigger than normal, and the earthy smell he would have expected was absent. He pulled his phone out for the flashlight and examined the shelves that lined the wall. Wine, and lots of it. All different years and brands. But there was no order to any of it.
“See anything strange?” he whispered.
Dani held a bottle of Chardonnay. “This bottle has to cost thousands of dollars. About twenty if I’m remembering correctly. But it’s not where it should be.”
Hunter blinked. “How do you know how much it’s worth?”
“Working with antiques means I love old stuff. And once I got really bored and the remote was too far away, I watched a documentary or three.” Dani set the bottle down and moved to the next shelf. “There’s no rhyme or reason to any of this.”
“That’s what I caught too. As if—”
“As if they don’t actually care about it.” Dani walked past several shelves and gasped. “There’s a room back here.”
Hunter made sure everything sat exactly where they had been, then followed Dani to the back of the room. A door stood in front of them with a keypad next to it. “Man, that must be expensive wine if it has to be behind a door.”
Dani nodded and bent down to inspect the keypad. “I’ve seen keypads like this. Carlie had to figure out how to crack one a couple of years ago. Dee was obsessed and begged to learn as well.”
“Apartment life must have been awesome for you three.”
“You have no idea.” Dani knelt in front of the door and felt around the keypad. “Do you have a pocket knife or something?”
“No, I left it upstairs in my bag.” He looked around for something else that would work. “What type of screwdriver do you need?”
Dani was silent for a moment. “I can’t tell. I just need something to poke up inside this hole right here.”
Hunter checked a few more shelves and except for a few loose nails, there was nothing. “What about one of these?”
“I can try.” She took one of the nails and pushed it up into the bottom of the keypad. “It’s too big. Do you have another one?”
“Uh . . . Hunter sorted through the nails. “No, they’re the same size.”
Dani cursed under her breath and stood, checking all of her pockets. “Check yours. See if you have something else.”
Hunter patted down his own jacket. “Nope. Nothing. I’ll go check the rooms upstairs. If anyone comes down here—”
“They won’t. Go.” Dani bent down again to examine the keypad, and Hunter took off up the stairs.
It was silent in the house, but that would only last so long. Someone should have noticed that he and Dani were missing. Unless Mr. Carpenter and Xander weren’t here . . . He tried a couple of doors before he found one unlocked. He found a few bobby pins, a safety pin, and a screw driver and carefully shut the door behind him.
Dani stood holding one of the bottles of wine when Hunter got back down to her. She went through the things in his hand and chose the safety pin. “How does it look up there?”
“Too quiet.” Hunter was torn between staying here to see what was in the room and going to check on why no one had come to find them.
Dani popped the front of the lock off and carefully undid a couple of the wires. “They certainly didn’t go with the high-tech locks.”
“What do you mean?” Hunter leaned closer to see what she was doing. “You can unlock it?”
Another tweak of the wires, and the light went from red to green. “Yep.”
She stood and placed her hand on the door. “We probably should have brought a weapon or something, considering we have no idea what’s in here.”
Hunter grabb
ed two bottles. “Let’s hope we don’t have to break these.”
“No kidding.” She held her bottle up and slowly opened the door. Her hand dropped to her side and Hunter had to leap forward to grab the bottle before it reached the floor. “Todd?”
A man sat tied to a chair, his face bruised. He jerked up and glanced around. “Who’s there? Dani?”
Dani rushed to his side and untied the cables while Hunter examined him. His nose appeared to be broken, and the cut over his eye would need to be stitched.
“We’re going to get you out of here. Can you walk?” Hunter untied the man’s ankles from the chair.
The door creaked behind Hunter. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
D ani jumped up at the sight of Xander and several guards standing in the doorway. Her first instinct was to step between Todd and the men, but the guns that were pointed at her and Hunter told her that was a bad plan.
“You two were a little busy, weren’t you?” Xander stepped forward and took the cable from Dani’s hands.
“Why is he tied up?” Dani glared down at him. “This guy is my friend.”
Xander grunted. “Your friend was selling our secrets to other organizations. Come on. We don’t want to be here when Mr. Carpenter gets back.”
Dani hung back. “Let him go first.”
“I think we should do what he says, Dani.” Hunter took her hand and gently pulled her away from Todd.
The hurt look on Hunter’s face and his quiet voice was enough to make her move. She glanced back at Todd as they left the small room. Two guards flanked them as Xander led the way out of the basement. Dani flinched as the door to the room closed. Her friend was here tied up and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Xander didn’t stop until they got upstairs to Hunter’s room. The guards stayed out in the hall and closed the door. Hunter sat at the table, his elbows resting on his knees. Dani paced the floor. If Carlie had been here, she would have been able to save Todd before anyone knew what was going on. Of course, she thought Todd was a jerk, so it was possible she would have left him there . . .
“Talk.” Xander stood in the center of the room, arms folded.
“No, I think it’s your turn to talk.” Hunter glared. “We were supposed to meet our friends, but then we end up halfway across the country from them. We’re kept in nice rooms, and yet we’re still prisoners who can’t leave the house. And now we find that there’s a guy in the basement that has been beaten for who knows how long. What’s going on?”
Xander stared him down before finally nodding. “Fine. That man down there did exactly what I said he did. We tracked down the hacks to his computer. He’s the reason your friend is missing. Unfortunately for both of us, he won’t talk. We can’t find Anna.”
Dani glanced between Xander and Hunter. “That’s ridiculous. Even if he is working for the bad guys, he doesn’t have enough tech knowledge to hack a computer. I had to teach him how to set up an account for college.”
“We can’t argue with the facts, and I have the computer to prove it.” Xander pointed to the dripping sprinklers on the ceiling. “Was this you?”
Dani shrugged. “I wouldn’t know how to set off the alarm. Maybe it was Todd.”
“What she means is that we hope there was no lasting damage to the house.” Hunter squeezed her shoulder. “Can I see this laptop?”
Xander nodded, still keeping his eyes on Dani. “I’ll get it. But you need to pack up your things. This house needs to be remodeled. We’ll leave in an hour.”
As soon as he left, Dani sunk onto the bed—and then hopped back up again with a yelp. It was sopping wet. She probably should have thought that part through.
“You don’t think he could have hacked your computer?”
Dani shook her head. “No. Remember, I knew him for years. He was more of a jock. He hated dealing with computers. If his computer was involved, it was someone else.”
Hunter sighed. “I should be able to find out if the hack originated from this laptop as long as they didn’t erase anything.”
“Which I wouldn’t put past them.” Dani moved close to Hunter and placed her hand on his chest. “I’m going to go get my things so we can leave, but I think we need to come up with a plan to escape during our move to the next place if things don’t seem legit.”
Hunter nodded, his eyes drifting down to her lips. “I think that’s a good idea.”
Dani kissed him on the cheek, then hurried to the door. She was too distracted around him now and she needed to think. Her room was a mess from the sprinklers. She probably should have thought the idea through a little more, but it had worked. Never mind the shard of glass that had cut her finger when she broke the glycerin bulb to trigger it. She rubbed her finger over the bandage, glad no one had noticed it.
While she collected her things and decided what to keep or throw away, her mind wandered back to Todd. As much as she wanted to believe that he wasn’t capable of doing what he’d been accused of, Dani wasn’t sure. He tended to enjoy breaking the rules. But it still didn’t add up. She’d seen Carlie’s bruises from her various adventures. Some of them stuck around, while others faded quickly. Several of the bruises on Todd’s face were older than when all of this mess had taken place back at home.
A knock at the door made her jump. Dani checked the room once more, then picked up her bag to meet Hunter. Her jaw dropped when she saw Carlie standing there with a grin on her face.
Dani shrieked and dropped her bag, so she could throw her arms around her friend. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting you out. Come on.” Carlie grabbed Dani’s bag, but then set it down immediately to hold her belly.
“Uh, Carlie? Are you okay?” Dani leaned out into the hallway to find Dee and Braden standing by Hunter’s door. “What’s wrong with Carlie?”
Dee glared. “Well, if you ask her, it’s most definitely not labor pains.”
Dani cursed and grabbed her bag, then looped her arm around Carlie’s waist. “You’re so stubborn, you know that? And where’s Ben? Why isn’t he the one in here getting us?”
“He’s driving the getaway car. They wouldn’t let me do that either.” Carlie pulled away from Dani. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
Dani glanced between her and Dee as their best friend waddled for the stairs. “Is she serious?”
“That’s what we’ve been saying for half the trip. Let’s get you and Hunter out of here and then we can deal with her.”
They were almost to the door when Dani stopped. “Wait, we need to get Todd.”
Dee gasped. “He’s here?”
“Yes. Down in the basement. We need to get him too.” Dani turned toward the kitchen, but Dee grabbed her. “Our team can grab him. Right now, we need to get you out. The distraction we set up will only last so long.”
Dani took Hunter’s hand as they raced to the car. “What distraction?”
“Someone broke into the safe where the crown is being held.” Dee grinned and climbed into the SUV.
“You guys already found it?” Dani sighed with relief. Knowing it was back in their care meant one less thing on her plate. And now she wouldn’t have Elayne and half of England angry at her for letting it get stolen.
Braden gestured toward the back of the car. “We actually got it yesterday. We just made the alarm go off today so we could get you out. Good call with the sprinklers, by the way. We weren’t quite sure we had the right house until it showed up on the news.”
“It was on the news?” Dani rubbed her finger again. So much for keeping things quiet. She turned to Hunter. “You haven’t said anything for a while. What’s up?”
“We were this close to getting the laptop. It could have answered most of the questions we have.”
Ben laughed. “We have that now too.”
“But Xander—”
“Um, well, we have him too. In the trunk.” Dee cleared her throat. “Now, what’s this about Todd?”
Dani leaned
forward and rested her hands on the seat in front of her. “He was being kept prisoner down in the basement. I don’t think it was him who did most of this.”
Dee frowned. “Look, I know you liked him, but—”
“It’s not that. I promise. Once we have him back you’ll see what I mean. The bruises—”
“Bruises can lie, Dani.” Carlie’s voice was filled with pain as she cringed with another contraction. “Ouch, but I don’t think these can anymore. Maybe we should find a hospital.”
Dani checked her watch. “How long have these been going on?”
Ben took a sharp turn and sped down a side road. “Too long. Maybe everyone should have listened when I suggested going to the hospital before grabbing Dani and Hunter.”
“Enough talking, more driving. Don’t take me to one of the main hospitals. Too conspicuous.”
Ben muttered under his breath and turned another corner. Dani held on for dear life as they barreled down an alleyway.
“When I go inside, I want you guys to keep looking for Anna.” Carlie stopped to breathe. “Then—”
“We’ve got it,” Dani and Dee said in unison.
Ben jerked to a stop in the entry of a hospital and turned. “Let me take care of the paperwork. You and Braden are now Donna and Liam Anderson. You two, pull her hair up and shove it under this wig—”
“I’m not wearing a wig.”
“Get this wig onto her, and then I have two for you as well. Go. Hunter, you’re with me.” Ben jumped out of the car and opened the door to help Carlie out.
Dani squeezed Hunter’s hand. “You be careful.”
“You too.” Hunter climbed into the front seat and Dani grabbed the bag that Ben handed her.
The clothes in her bag wouldn’t have worked anyway. They all needed to be dried out. This was the first time in days that Dani had been out in public without a guard watching her every move. She thought she would have been relieved, but her nerves were shot.
