AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Worried, Flynn surveyed all the tents, then asked a young woman with a clipboard, “Have you seen Harper?”
The woman frowned. “No, and I am going to kill her when I find her for leaving me to deal with all of this by myself.”
His gut tightened. “Is Susan here?”
“She’s on her way and she’s livid. She can’t reach Harper either.”
Flynn turned and headed for the house. Harper was missing. Not good. Every nerve in his body jangled, knowing she was in trouble. He didn’t need the gift of knowing inherited from his parents to realize that. No doubts she’d gotten fed up with waiting and just barreled on ahead with her own agenda. And now she was missing. Icy fingers clutched at his heart.
“O’Connor.”
Someone called his name. He ignored it. Harper was more important than anything else.
“O’Connor,” the call came again. Louder this time.
He wanted to keep going but he felt someone coming up beside him. He stopped abruptly and turned. George Crawley was huffing from trying to catch up to him. Beside him stood Billy Lazlo.
“What do you need?” he demanded.
“We want to talk to Harper. Have you seen her?”
His radar pinged erratically. Trouble. “What do you want to speak to Harper about?”
“A woman is making some claims about Jason Merritt and we understand Harper might be able to shed some light on it.”
This was not the time. “I just got here myself. I have no idea where she is. If I see her, I’ll let you know.”
He turned and went through the French doors into the salon. Fisher and his cronies were sitting at a table having a cocktail. He nodded to them but kept moving down to the basement and into Shah’s office.
“Gina hasn’t shown up yet.”
Flynn sat down. “I need to find Harper. When was the last time you saw her?”
Shah frowned. “A while ago. She was walking all over the house searching for Gina.”
Closing his eyes, Flynn willed his heart rate down and took some deep breaths to try and clear his head. She was looking for Gina. She must have gone into the secret passages. The kitchen was busy with party prep. She must have entered the tunnels through the basement. He’d like to know when but if he asked Shah to pull up that camera then he’d have to explain and he didn’t have time for that.
Shah was way ahead of him. “This is the last time she was on camera. She’s heading into the unfinished section of the basement. What the hell?” He looked at Flynn.
“Thanks,” he said and got up. He started out of the office.
“Do you need some help?” Shah was standing now too.
“You got a gun?” Flynn asked.
Shah paled. “I can get one out of the gun locker if you want, but why do I need a gun?”
“Do it and stay by your phone. I’ll call or text if I need help. Watch the cameras. If anything weird happens, I’ll need your help.”
“What do you mean by weird?” Shah asked but Flynn was already on his way down the hallway.
Two minutes later, he stood in front of the door to the secret passages. Nothing happened when he tapped the button with his foot. “What the fuck?” Flynn tried again but it didn’t work. He bent down and tried the button again but nothing. He put his hand on the wall and there was a slight vibration but then it stopped. He looked down and noticed dust bunnies floating across the floor. He put his fingers down by the bottom of the wall. A cool breeze went over them.
What the fuck was going on?
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
“Now I am going to get you both to go down the stairs. We can’t stay up here. First though, I want you two to take this rope,” he tossed them a piece of rope that was several feet long. “And tie your hands together with it. Gina, you know what I mean.”
