AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, wait. You’re telling me Trevor was cursed, or something?”
Gunner pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, the other hand locked on the steering wheel. “No. The artifact that he stole from the crime syndicate was cursed.Supposedlycursed, but we both know that isn’t a real thing, right?”
I pondered the question. “I don’t know. Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.”
“This isn’t The Mummy. Items can’t be cursed. Curses aren’t a thing.” Gunner groaned. “You’re really fixating on the weirdest things about this story.”
I got the feeling Gunner had expected me to be silent as he explained what it was he was looking for, but I had so many questions. So many things about Trevor suddenly made sense; his genuine passion for art, the obscene amounts of money, and eventually, the strange behaviors. I couldn’t believe I was in the dark for all this time, and it’d been so long since Trevor died, that I didn’t even feel that rush of triumph like I had expected to. Who cared if I knew why my fiancé was so secretive now? He was dead, and it was too late.
I probably would have checked out of the story at that point, but the cursed Anubis statue was such a surprising twist that I was hooked. I wanted to know everything about it, where it came from, and where it was right now. And, of course, if it was really cursed.
“Things can be cursed, or unlucky!” I insisted. “Like the haunted doll they made all the movies about.”
He slid a glance over at me, mouth pulled to one side. “Annabelle? Rachel, that’s not real.”
“Yes, it is! It’s in a museum of haunted things.”
He groaned again. “Fine. The statue is cursed. Can we move on?”
I leaned back in the seat and grinned smugly. “Yes.”
“Trevor and my brother-in-law, Geoff, stole the Anubis statue right from this crime group called the Dark Hand Syndicate. Their leader is uncreatively named Shadow, but despite his stupid name, he’s a ruthless son of a bitch. I don’t know for sure, but Geoff thinks Shadow gave Trevor one chance to turn the statue over, and when he didn’t comply, the car crash was set into motion.”
I pressed my hand to my throat and exhaled shakily, “My God …”
“Yeah. It’s brutal stuff. I’m not going to go into it because I’m sure you’re still reeling from all that. Once it was confirmed that Trevor didn’t have the Anubis piece on him, the Dark Hand’s attention was turned to Geoff instead. When he realized they were biting at his heels, he got me involved.”
“You’re doing all this as a family favor, then?”
“Nothing as noble as all that. I’m doing it for my sister and my nieces. Geoff can go fuck himself. The deal is that if I manage to find this relic and return it to Dark Hand, he leaves my sister and her daughters alone for the rest of his life. Besides leaving them all his worldly possessions, of course.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “That means we’re all caught up to the present day, right?”
“For the most part. I figured the Lace Elm house had fallen to some distant relative of Trevor’s and I was driving myself up a wall trying to figure out who. I never guessed you would still be in the house. All my information pointed to you having taken the relic yourself and running.”
“I never even saw the inside of his office, let alone helped him traffic an ancient artifact.” I looked out the window at the scenery passing us by. It’s a drive I’d made a million times before; Lace Elm to Dallas, but it felt different now. Like the distance from home was so much farther. “He transferred everything he owned into my name a few weeks before he died. He even bought an urn. Do you think he knew he was going to die, Gunner?”
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, slow to answer. “If you want my real opinion, I think he was doing all of that to fake his own death and disappear. Maybe he was going to give you the artifact first, or maybe not, but I think the plan was to leave all his worldly possessions with someone he trusted and then drop off the face of the earth. If Dark Hand thought he was dead, they would have called off the hunt. Unfortunately, it looks like they got to Trevor before he could put his plan into action.”
“It’s a lot to think about. The man I was supposed to marry was content with using me as an alibi and bag holder.” I nibbled at my bottom lip, wondering where the truth ended, and the lie began with Trevor when he was alive. “It really sucks.”
“Sweetheart, I think we can apply that to everything related to this whole situation. ‘It Really Sucks’ is the motto of our mission.”
I cracked a smile despite myself, and caught Gunner looking at me when I shifted in my seat to face him. He brushed my bare knee with his knuckles before returning his hand to the steering wheel. This did suck, but at least there were a few bright spots to pull me through.
Hotel Crescent Court was right outside the art district in Dallas, an area I was exceedingly familiar with. At first, this gave me pause.
“There’s a ninety percent chance I’m going to run into someone I know around here,” I told Gunner, watching him shoulder both my bag and his with ease. “Shouldn’t we be keeping a low profile?”
He readjusted his grip on the bags before answering, giving me ample time to watch the muscles roll across his back. “That’s the genius of my plan. This is your stomping ground, and the Syndicate isn’t going to make a move when you’re surrounded by so many people. The key to them succeeding in anything they do is being discreet. Ripping a famous porn star off the streets is anything but discrete.”
He wasn’t lying. It was a genius plan. The art district is a busy area. Always lots of foot traffic, with people coming and going at all hours.
“You stay here while I go check us in,” Gunner said.
I plopped down on a bench to wait, watching our bags, while trying not to think about what came next. I was considering what I could order from room service when a figure took the seat next to me, much closer than they needed to be.
“I bet you notice he’s touching you all the time, right?” Maestro said breezily. “But not in pushy ways. In little ways, just so you can get used to his skin on yours.”
