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He might always need this woman. God help him, it made zero sense, but he might be in love with her.
She held a hand up, beckoning him to join her. He leaned in to do just that when, over the music from the gramophone, he heard what sounded like a door shutting, followed by footsteps on the floor above.
His adrenaline started to flow.
They weren’t alone anymore.
NINE
Everly sat up as Gabriel crept across the room, switched the gramophone off, then eased toward the little hall that led to the secret door. “What’s wrong?”
Suddenly tense and alert, he pressed a finger to his lips to silence her and nodded at the ceiling. Something was going on above them. She wasn’t sure what, but she’d been too lost in the moment to hear. Though she prayed he was mistaken or being overly cautious, she went on high alert.
Following Gabriel, Everly rose on shaky feet and tiptoed across the hardwood floor, praying it didn’t creak.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the secret door¸ which was still slightly ajar, as he whispered into her ear. “Someone’s upstairs.”
The words had barely cleared his lips when she heard it, too. A door slammed. Footfalls clomped.
“Didn’t you set the alarm when we came in?” she asked.
“Yeah. Whoever sneaked in apparently knew the alarm code and turned it off.”
She breathed a little sigh of relief. “Then it’s probably the housekeeper or Dax.”
“Dax would have texted first to warn me he was coming.” He held his phone, and she watched him text Dax and Connor at once to tell them trouble had arrived.
“What if the housekeeper forgot something?”
“Then she’s about to get the scare of her life.” Gabriel looked down at her. “You stay here. I’m going out there to grab a few items from Mad’s desk.”
She shook her head and gripped his hand. “We’re safer in here.”
But he’d already slipped free from her hold and was easing back into the library. Everly tried to see out¸ but the view from behind the hidden door was limited.
More loud footsteps resounded through the otherwise deserted house. Something else—a drawer, maybe—opened and closed. The sound repeated a multitude of times from the direction of the kitchen. Then she heard what sounded like furniture being overturned. Glass shattered.
“What the fuck?” a man from somewhere above cursed. “This was supposed to be easy.”
Closer. The voices were getting closer. That last squeak had been above her head. They were on the stairway and it only led to one place. Right here. Her heart pounded in her chest. It was probably kids looking for money or drugs, or the reporters had been quicker than Gabriel had given them credit for.
But they wouldn’t know the alarm code. Dread pooled inside her because there was another explanation.
Whoever had killed Maddox had come back to find or cover up something. Whoever was on those stairs wouldn’t be swayed or run from the idea that they’d called the police. Someone had gone to great pains to kill Maddox and he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her and Gabriel, too.
She pushed the door open a little farther and peeked out in an attempt to warn Gabe that they had incoming. He stood at the desk, opening the drawer with quiet precision, then extracted something.
Frowning, Everly peered, trying to discern what he thought was important enough to risk his life. The glint of metal gave him away. A gun. And he didn’t fumble with it at all as he checked the clip and flicked off the safety. He knew exactly what he was doing.
“Lighten up. It’s easy. Focus.” Another stranger’s voice floated through the lower level.
“Nothing in this part of town is easy. Did you get the money up front like I told you?”
Based on their deep voices, the two men drifted ever closer. Gabriel lifted his head to the sound. He was trapped on the other side of the room. He zipped his gaze at her and motioned her to shut the door.
She wasn’t about to leave him out there. The door to this secret room didn’t open easily. If he had to trip the switch to release it again so he could hide in this adjoining space with her, it could cost him critical moments.
“I got half up front. Cash,” the first one said.
“Do you smell that?” the second asked, sounding as if he had nearly reached the bottom of the stairs.
“What?”
The floorboard creaked as they reached the library. They were coming too fast. In seconds, they would round the corner of the room and see Gabriel.
Fear gripped her, and she looked around for anything she could use as a weapon. She spotted the fireplace tools outside the secret doorway. A poker leaned against the marble surround. She snatched it up and gripped the thin but sturdy column of metal.
Gabriel glared at her from across the room. It wasn’t hard to read his lips as he mouthed a warning to her. Don’t you dare.
She wasn’t about to cower and hide when she could help. She’d been raised by one tough cop and still trained with the security guards who stood sentry around Crawford’s building.
“This dude has been dead for days, but it smells like someone was cooking recently,” said one of the men as he rounded the corner into the library. “If we’re not alone, we need to get this shit done fast. There can’t be any witnesses.”
Gabe crouched under the desk and hit the screen on his phone three times. 911. Within seconds, he began whispering to the dispatcher.
“Damn. We should have waited to light up the top floor. This place looks ripe for the picking.” They crossed the library floor with all the subtlety of elephants.
Everly shrank back. Two men. All in black. The tallest glanced around the room, looking under the sofa, tossing books from the shelves onto the floor, then heading for the desk, holding a bag in one hand and a bottle in the other.
“There’s no time for that. We need this place to go up fast. One more room, then we get out of here.”
Gasoline. She could smell it faintly but every second seemed to bring it closer. Oh, god. They’d torched the top floor. While she and Gabriel had been dancing, these men had set the house on fire.
The intruder stopped in front of the desk, lifting papers and nosing around before leaning over to sort through the drawers. With a curse, he shoved everything on the floor. What the hell were they looking for? Everly didn’t get to think much about it before the tall one pounded a fist on the desk, then ignited his lighter and held it to the rag poking out of the bottle’s neck.
Molotov cocktail.
From up above she heard the shriek of fire alarms.
Gabriel stood up from under the desk, pointing the gun with confidence. “Stop right now. The cops are already on their way.”
The man with the bottle cursed and immediately threw it at Gabriel.
As he ducked behind the desk again, Everly bit back a scream. The curtains behind Gabriel immediately went ablaze.
The sound of gunfire ricocheted through the room. Everly’s heart chugged with fear, especially when the second man pulled a gun from a holster at his side and started creeping toward Gabriel.
“Leave it, man. Let’s go. Bastard’s as good as dead.” The first man darted up the stairs once more.
“Les . . .” the man called to no avail.
Chaos seemed to take over. The library was on fire. The sound of glass breaking cracked through the space, but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. And the second man hadn’t been as eager to leave as the first.
A dark figure moved past her, stalking Gabriel.
She couldn’t see him, couldn’t tell if Gabriel had been hurt. She had one shot at saving him.
She slipped out from behind the secret door and immediately felt the heat. Flames licked the wall as smoke filled her every sense. Biting back the need to cough, she moved in behind Gabriel’s attacker.
