AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I lean my head against the window and watch as we slowly leave the city behind, driving out into the countryside. We eventually pull off the motorway and travel down a narrower road until we reach an enormous set of gates.
There’s a guardhouse of sorts at the entrance and a large, muscular man with a buzz cut comes out to check who’s in the car. The moment he sees Rory, he gives him a nod and signals for the gates to be opened.
We drive through, and a large building looms out of the darkness up ahead. I can’t make out any details, but it appears to be a large house, like something out of a Jane Austen novel.
“What is this place?” I ask as we pull up at the bottom of a small flight of steps leading up to a big wooden door.
“Our country house,” Rory says.
He switches off the engine and gets out of the car. I don’t move, waiting for him to come around to my side and open the door. I remove my seatbelt and step out.
“Follow me.” Rory’s tone is terse, so I do as he asked without question. Until I get a better sense of things, I can’t risk upsetting him.
We go inside, entering a huge hallway with a massive staircase sweeping down from the upper floor. It’s dark, but I can see white marble gleaming in the moonlight coming in from a glass dome overhead.
Rory walks upstairs, fiddling with an app on his cellphone. Lights come on in the corridor as we reach it, so I guess that’s what he was doing. We pass several doors, coming to a stop at the fifth on the right. Rory opens it. He grabs my arm and shoves me inside.
“I advise you to get some sleep while you can,” he says.
Though the urge to ask him what he means by that is strong, I keep my mouth shut. He gives me a look I can’t decipher, turns and leaves the room. In case there was any doubt I’m in trouble here, the scraping of a key in the lock tells me I’m a prisoner.
I turn to look around my surprisingly lavish cell. It’s a lovely bedroom, with a pale blue carpet, cream walls and floral drapes. There’s a gigantic bed with a padded headboard. The thick comforter spread out on it matches the curtains.
As I look around, I realize the room lacks any personal touches that would tell me who it belongs to. There’s no artwork on the walls, no rugs, no cushions on the chintzy armchair by the window. It’s probably not used very often. Everything looks like new.
There’s a dressing table and a wardrobe, which I discover are empty when I go to open them. A door on the left side of the room leads into a small bathroom, the focal point of which is a soaker tub. It would probably do my aching muscles a world of good if I had a bath, but it seems really inappropriate to make myself at home.
With no other option, I decide to take Rory’s advice and get some sleep. I cross over to the bed, kick off my shoes, and climb onto the bed. It’s warm in this room, so I curl up on top of the comforter. I close my eyes, but I doubt I’ll get any sleep. Thoughts are racing around my head and anxiety has my chest in a tight grip. It’s going to be a long night.
CHAPTERFOUR
Rory
After pouringmyself a large glass of Jameson’s, I sit on the sofa in the library and stare at the black leather bag on the table. It’s the one Eleanor was carrying. I need to search it for weapons, cash or any other suspicious items, but I feel strangely conflicted about going through her things.
When Aidan roused me from my bed to tell me he thought she’d witnessed his interrogation of some Bratva fucker Jacob captured, I couldn’t believe it. He explained how they’d found her purse in the office, along with a makeshift bed on the sofa that suggested she’d been planning to sleep in there.
That, in itself, is worthy of punishment. Spending the night alone in an empty building is reckless. I intend to take her to task for it.
Though Aidan said one of his men thought he heard someone running out the back door of the club, I still wasn’t convinced it was Eleanor until I saw her leaving her house with that bag. The cab driver I paid off said she was planning to go back into the city. Where was she headed? She was clearly trying to run.
Foolish girl. We’d have hunted her to the ends of the Earth.
Setting down my glass, I lean forward and drag Eleanor’s bag to the edge of the table. I unzip it and start to pull out her belongings. There’s nothing much in it. I find a couple of changes of clothes, some lacy underwear, a toothbrush and some shampoo.
What I don’t find is a passport or a large amount of cash, so I guess she wasn’t planning to go far. Perhaps she was going to her mother’s house. She lives in Kent, I believe.
When Eleanor started working for Andrew, we did a background check on her. Although she came recommended by Libby, my sister-in-law hadn’t been around for very long and we weren’t going to take her word for it that we could trust this woman. In our line of business, we have to be careful about the people we let into our sphere.
Not finding anything that suggests Eleanor has been working for the Bratva, the police or anyone else who might wish to do us harm, I conclude she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I zip up her bag, grab my glass and sit back, sipping the rich, smooth whisky.
I think about the woman upstairs in the spare bedroom. The information we got on Eleanor didn’t reveal a lot.
Nobody knows who her father is. Her mother worked as a cook at Libby’s posh boarding school, and Eleanor was given a scholarship to attend.
Apparently, she was treated like crap the entire time she was there. Libby told me about it. People mocked her because her mother was the help.
They teased her about her secondhand clothes, her vivid red hair and freckles. I think that’s probably left a mark on her. She’s not the most confident woman I’ve ever met, though she works hard to disguise her lack of self-confidence behind a brisk, efficient manner. I can’t wait to thaw her out a bit.
