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CHAPTER37
Inside was another room. The hair rose on her arms, and Calista looked over her shoulder. “What is this?” She whispered the question. Did she know him at all?
Ronan shook his head hard. “I don’t know.”
“This house was Dodo’s bachelor pad?”
“Before he rented it to me, yes.” He paused. “What do you see?” He truly looked like he didn’t know what was behind the wall. Despite everything, that gave her some relief. She would have hated for the man she was seeing to have a secret boarded up room.
Calista breathed easier. “Another room.” Calista lifted the sledgehammer, and this time Ronan didn’t protest, but he held out his palm.
“Let me have a go.” He took the handle from her and widened the hole. The pounding seemed to give him the same release of tension that the activity had done for her, a welcome outlet for the emotional turmoil. Once the hole was widened enough to fit through, Ronan looked at her and arched his eyebrows.
Calista nodded. She held the flashlight up, and he went in. She followed him through. The beam revealed a desk, a bookshelf, and an inner door across the square space. Calista found the light switch, flipped it, and overhead canned lights buzzed on easily, giving the room a cool blue glow.
Her mind went over what she knew about the layout of the house. This made some of the structural oddities make sense. She moved to the door and turned the doorknob. The door opened inward, readily revealing a row of insulation. She shifted it with her gloved hand to reveal new drywall. Okay. “We’re in a small room which someone blocked up between the living room and the sunroom.”
The room’s overhead lighting, on its own, switched to a pale amber.
Ronan stood near a small desk. “I’m man enough to admit this is skeeving me out.”
Calista took stock of her own feelings. After all that had happened during the last twenty-four hours, she should have been numb, but on this she wholly agreed. “Same.” She was staring at an oddly thick bookshelf with conversely narrow shelves.
“Why would anyone want to hide an office?” Ronan cursed. “Am I living with some freaking shady tax records filed behind my wall?” Ronan opened the desk drawer and rifled through the items. He withdrew a handful of storage drives and placed them on the desktop.
“That’s one theory.” Calista neared the shelf, eying the thick handle along the side. She grabbed the bar and pulled.
The room lighting turned red. She stepped back as the shelving dropped down, revealing a Murphy bed. The headboard was the type with thin rails. Two feather covered sets of handcuffs clanked down against the metal, and an extra-large tube of lubricant rolled across the black satin bedspread. “Secret sex room?”
Ronan cursed again. “No.” Ronan shook his head, then ran his hand through his hair. He stepped back. “I mean, no judgement, I believe in a healthy sex life.”
He also believed in secrets, like the fact that he wanted to return to Washington. “This room’s not healthy.” Calista let the tension show in her voice.
“We agree.”
They agreed on a lot. Wasn’t that important? Didn’t he see that? “What do we do now?” Calista didn’t know if she was asking about the room or their relationship or both. Her insides jangled with sick nerves. Maybe she was mysterious and obscure, but if someone knocked down her walls, there’d just find a solid structure and a sincere heart.
“I guess we cover the hole up, and I move into a hotel.”
Calista pinched the bridge of her nose. No. Don’t leave, don’t end this, don’t go back to Washington.
Stop.
Calista shook herself out of her head to focus on the moment. Ronan couldn’t stay here. The setup covered over in Dodo’s old bachelor pad was weird. Ronan had to leave. Leave this room, when his contract ended—their time together was really ending. The pain of their imminent separation felt tangible. Her palms ached. She wanted to hold his hand, she wanted a hug. She wanted all the reassurances he could give her. What did he want? She’d give a lot in this moment to have her sister’s ability to understand men. “You could stay with me.” The offer came out pained, her vulnerability open and on display.
“I…” before Ronan could answer, he frowned and flipped over three of the storage drives. “Check this out.”
Her heart had stopped, waiting for his answer, and he wanted her to look at office supplies. If she were a screamer, she’d be yelling now, but her screaming was done on the inside. Calista closed the Murphy bed and moved to his side. The first storage drive read, Jimbo Johnston’s wife - Kay. That riddle startled her from her own turmoil. “What’s that mean?”
Ronan showed her the next two. Warren’s fiancée – Willow and Liam’s girlfriend – Bianca.
Calista stiffened. Dodo had better not be messing with her friend Liam. “I don’t want to know what’s recorded on those drives.”
“Right, I’m just wondering if we should destroy them or give them to the women involved?” Ronan shook his head. “I’m also incredibly pissed that we have to ask that question.”
They agreed. She’d never been in a situation like this, but she knew who to turn to. “Piper’s good with life stuff. Vivien’s not judgmental and would know if it’s a mutual…tape? Or could simply be information about the ladies, like a billionaire’s background check on women in his life.” She threw out the last to give Dodo the benefit of the doubt.
“That someone hid in a secret room?”
