Chapter 2
For a moment, I forgot the blood running down my temple.
“The basement?” I whispered.
Maya’s eyes filled with terror.
“Please.”
Adrian grabbed her arm.
“Shut up.”
Maya flinched.
That tiny movement told me everything.
She knew fear too.
The front door burst open before Adrian could reach me again.
Two officers entered.
Then paramedics.
Everyone started talking at once.
“She fell.”
“It was an accident.”
“She’s emotional.”
“She caused a scene.”
I stood there with blood on my face and stared at all of them.
Then I said, “Check the basement.”
Adrian went still.
Eleanor’s hand flew to her throat.
Harold whispered, “Maya, what did you do?”
Maya stepped closer to me.
“The locked wine room,” she said. “Behind the shelves.”
An officer looked at Adrian.
“Is there a locked room downstairs?”
“No,” Adrian snapped too fast.
Maya shook her head.
“Yes.”
The officers separated us.
One paramedic wrapped gauze around my head while another checked my pupils.
“Ma’am, you need stitches.”
“After they check the basement.”
Adrian laughed.
“She’s concussed. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
I looked at Maya.
She whispered, “I know exactly what I’m saying.”
The officers went downstairs with Harold protesting behind them.
Eleanor kept whispering prayers that sounded more like threats.
Then a shout echoed from below.
“Get bolt cutters.”
The dining room died.
Maya covered her mouth.
Adrian sat down like his legs had vanished.
A second shout came.
“We have someone down here!”
My stomach turned cold.
Someone.
May you like
Not something.
Someone.
