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Hawk took the end of the tapestry and put it up on a high shelf so it was mostly out of the way, and took a step back for a wider look. On either side of the tapestry were bookshelves that had stacks of books. Except one. On the right, at about shoulder level, there was a shelf that had one book still upright. The book was green but had no writing on the spine. He reached up and pulled the book. It gave at the top but not the bottom, so it came out at an angle.
The wall behind the tapestry slid back to reveal a staircase. “Open sesame,” he murmured.
CHAPTERSIX
All the breath left Remy’s lungs as she stared into the darkness.What the hell?When her head began to spin as if her whole world had shifted on its axis, she latched onto a shelf to hold herself upright.
How could she not know this existed? How could her grandfather not have told her? Wrapping her brain around this felt as futile as trying to wrap her arms around the Rock of Gibraltar. Her grandfather, her only living relative, had lied to her.Her entire life. He’d lied. There was nothing behind that tapestry, he’d tell her when she would ask to move it.Nothing at all.
“Remy.” Hawk’s voice finally broke through her thoughts.
She pulled in much-needed oxygen. “I—I had no idea. He always said there was nothing behind this tapestry. He never mentioned the door. Not once.” She let go of the shelf, but her hands continued to tremble.This couldn’t be happening.She wrapped her arms around herself when a cool dampness seeped out from the stairwell. “Where do you think it leads?” Her voice came out in a whisper. She cleared her throat.Okay, now she knew she was discombobulated. Of course it led to the basement.
She stared into the dark hole. A dank, musty smell burned her nostrils. The stairs were stone, as were the walls. The stairway was quite narrow as well and there wasn’t a handrail of any sort. It was just stone leading down into darkness.
Hawk shrugged. “New York has all kinds of hidden underground spaces. There are old subway stations that went out of use, and they just blocked them up. They say there are even people living underground in parts of the city.”
She shuddered. None of that sounded like anything she wanted a part of. “Maybe that’s why my grandfather never told me about this. Maybe it leads to one of those spaces, and it’s not safe.” But if that was the case, wouldn’t Grandfather have sealed the space better? Boarded it up, or bricked it in?
“Maybe,” Hawk said, but his tone was doubtful. “There’s only one way to find out. Got a flashlight?”
Was he crazy? “You’re going down there?”
He smiled at her. “Why not? We need to know where it goes.”
“Why? He kept it hidden for years. Do we really need to know anything about it now?” Panic gripped her throat, driving her voice high. Her palms were sweaty. The last thing she wanted was to find out something horrible about her grandfather.
She’d been able to fool herself for a long time about how he made money, about how he lived. She’d even fooled herself into believing the break-ins had nothing to do with him. But deep down she knew the truth. Grandfather had a shady side—one she wasn’t keen to explore. He’d been the last relative she’d had. Finding out he’d been less than perfect hadn’t been an option when he was alive. Was it an option now that he was dead?
Hawk was staring at her, waiting. She closed her eyes. Logically, they had to know where the stairs went. Her curiosity would get the better of her at some point in the future, and she would have to check it out. Better that she did it now with Hawk holding her hand as she climbed down the stone steps to an awareness she might not want. As much as the man could be insufferable, she knew instinctively he’d protect her. And the literal last thing she wanted to do was go down those stairs on her own.
“I think I should probably tell you that my grandfather may have been into something shady.” Merely saying those words out loud grated on her, leaving her raw.
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “May have been?”
“Okay,” she snarled. “He was, all right? He was into something shady.” She bit her lip as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Getting mad at Hawk wasn’t helpful. She needed to direct that anger where it belonged… at her grandfather.
“How do you know?” Hawk asked.
“Because he died a very rich man.” At his blank look, she heaved an exasperated sigh and continued. “There’s nothing here in the bookshop or anywhere else in his life that could account for the amount of money he had. When I questioned the bank about the sum, or the source of the funds, they said the income came from some company I’d never heard of. I didn’t find any paperwork about it in the store.” She hadn’t been able to search the apartment upstairs, not just because it was his home and she missed him, but because she was terrified of the truth she might find there.
Hawk leaned against the bookcase. “That’s why you kept the bookstore as is and never cleaned out his place. You were afraid of what you might find.”
She nodded slowly. “He was all I had.” Her words came out whisper-thin as she rubbed her arms trying to warm herself from the sudden coldness filling her chest.
Hawk reached out and pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in a big warm hug. “It’s going to be okay. It doesn’t matter who your grandfather was to the rest of the world. He was good to you and took care of you. That’s what you have to remember. The rest just isn’t important, Remy.”
She wanted to believe that. She let the warmth from Hawk’s embrace seep into her, body and soul. If someone had told her this morning that she would welcome a hug from this man, she would have told them they were crazy. But somehow, she seemed to draw strength from the man who had annoyed her all day and it felt so damn good.
Finally, she straightened. “I think I have a flashlight at the front.” She moved out of the circle of his arms and immediately missed his touch. All this had thrown her for a loop. That had to be why her heart was pounding, right? She stepped around the front counter, mentally chastising herself…get it together, girl.
Bending down, she retrieved the flashlight from the back of the shelf. She tested it, to be sure it was working, then started toward Hawk, but changed her mind halfway there, pivoting toward the front door to make sure the lock was engaged. She pulled down the blinds on the door and the window seat. No one had to see them going through the hidden staircase. Somehow, she knew that would be a bad thing.
She walked back over to Hawk and handed him the flashlight. “Here.” She glanced through the doorway. “Let’s do this.”
He nodded once and turned on the flashlight. Her stomach rolled as she followed him down the old stone steps. The dank smell eased as they went lower. She kept her hands running along the old stone walls as she descended.
The staircase was longer than she’d assumed. There was a landing and a turn she hadn’t seen from above. The walls widened out at the landing, alleviating some of the claustrophobia crushing in on her. When they arrived at the bottom, Hawk reached out and hit a switch on the wall. The area flared into light, revealing something resembling a foyer but larger. She guessed maybe fifteen by ten feet, more like a large closet. Four wall sconces, one per wall, banished all the shadows.
