Seductive Secrecy (Shadows series) (35 page)

With things between us finally settling back into place, I was
able to return to my art. I hadn’t forgotten about Jameson’s proposal and that his collector was waiting on my go-ahead. He’d emailed me several reminders which I had entirely neglected. When I finally got around to answering him, he gave me the email address of his particularly high-paying buyer. “She values her privacy above all else,” he told me, “to the point of living in relative anonymity. She goes by only her first name: Tori.” It seemed a bit too celebrity, but I was in no position to judge. I really wanted the work, and I wouldn’t have dreamed of insulting Jameson by pressing him for details he wasn’t able to give—especially after he told me how much she paid.

I had one other question before our conversation ended.
“So…when we met at your showing, you mentioned that you’d bought one of my paintings.”

“That’s true.”

I’d been curious. “Which one was it? If you don’t mind me
asking.”

He laughed. “I don’t mind at all. I bought
Kerrianna.
There’s something tragic yet hopeful about it—about her. Perhaps there’ll be a chance for me to own more of your work someday.”

“Perhaps,” I told him, and I smiled. It made me happy to know that the broken soul I’d painted on that canvas had finally found a place where she belonged.

Just like I had.

When I sent Tori a note letting her know I was ready to begin
working, and that we should meet to discuss the details, she sent
back nothing more than the address of the hotel where she’d be
staying
the next weekend, and a suite number for me to meet her in. That
was
the only communication we had. I was getting used to the
eccentricities of my collectors. It seemed the more bizarre their behavior, the more they were willing to pay for my paintings.

That was perfectly fine with me.

With the strap of my bag tightly wrapped over my shoulder, I entered the boutique hotel in the Back Bay. It wasn’t far from the one I used to work at before I had been recruited by the mansion. I knew the area well, but I’d never met a client here before.

I took the elevator to the top floor and checked my phone to reconfirm her room number. I neared the end of the hall and noticed the
do not disturb
sign hanging from the knob. The color wasn’t right, though…or the shape.

My heart began to pound as my eyes made sense of what they were seeing.

That isn’t a sign…it’s a mask.

And this time, Cameron had nothing to do with it.

My heart hammered and my throat tightened as I turned in a rush toward the elevator.

The door swung open before I made it. “Hello, Cee…”

I stood where I was and turned to her. Her face wasn’t hidden by a mask this time, and her body wasn’t draped in lingerie. It didn’t matter. I would never forget the way her lips tensed and relaxed when they formed lies. I would never forget the piercing chill of her eyes as she sized me up. I would never forget the warm honey of her voice—deep and smooth when she needed to reprimand, shrill and sharp when she showed excitement.

“Victoria,” I answered.

None of it made sense.

I squeezed my bag with one hand, reaching for my phone with the other, not sure how I was going to get away or how quickly I would have to do it.

“Relax…I’m not going to hurt you,” she said, following me into the hallway. Her steps were slow and controlled, as always. “I’m not the villain you might think I am.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter. “You must be kidding.”

“I just want to talk to you. That’s all.”

I glanced from her to the elevator and back. We were completely alone…she had me right where she wanted me. If my instinct was to run as fast and far as I could, my strength told me to stay. Emma’s voice appeared to confirm this.
Just breathe, Charlie,
she said. I did more than that; I straightened my spine and stood taller. I knew what Victoria didn’t; she may have called me Cee, but the woman
standing before her was Charlie. The mask was off, and soon the
gloves
would be, too. “What do you want, Victoria? Obviously it has
nothing to do with my art.”

“Considering our shared
situation
, I think it’s unwise for us to talk in the hallway.” She moved back through the door, hiding in the small niche that surrounded the doorframe. “Come in.”

Did she really think I would go into her suite with her? “You’re out of your mind.”

She shrugged. “If it makes you feel more comfortable, hold your cell phone in your hand and dial 9-1-1. You have my permission to press send the moment you feel threatened.”

I rested my thumb on the screen of my phone. “Maybe I should just do that right now...”

“It wouldn’t take much for them to rush in and take me down, would it?” she asked. “I’m a wanted woman, after all.”

There was no way I was going inside that room with her. She was the enemy, someone I’d trusted to take care of me, and she’d led me straight into that house of horrors. I wasn’t going to be led anywhere by her again.

“I think the hallway will be just fine,” I said. “If you have
something to say, you can say it out here.” My volume rose, almost as if I knew I was willing to call her bluff.

I think she knew I was, too.

“Okay, then…the hallway it is.” She raised her open palms to me, as if she were giving up. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot since everything sort of…fell apart…for us.”

“Maybe things
fell apart
for you. But things have only gotten better for me.”

She looked me up and down. “So I see.” She breathed deeply. “Have you ever thought about me?”

I wasn’t going to play her game, or answer her odd questions, or tell her that it had taken until recently for me to stop looking over my shoulder and wondering if she would be there.

“What is it that you
want
, Victoria?” I repeated, louder this time. “It’s obviously not a painting.”

“Well, now…you’ve grown a pretty little backbone, haven’t
you?” She smirked. “I’m so happy to see that.” I didn’t respond. “You’re a
bright girl, Charlie…haven’t you ever wondered how I was able to
get away when everyone else got caught?” she asked. “How I managed to slip out of a net that dragged down some figures from Boston’s highest positions of power yet somehow had a hole large enough for me to escape through?”

I moved warily to the side just a bit, staring into her eyes, trying to figure out the answer without needing her words. Honestly I hadn’t thought too much about that part of the whole thing. I just figured she was more devious than the men she was surrounded by. “I have no idea, Victoria.”

“It was your father, Charlie. He clued me in on the take-
down…he was the one who told me I needed to find somewhere safe to go right before it happened.”

My father?

She knew our connection. Hearing her say those two words sent a pain straight through my core, it rattled, it shook, it weakened everything inside of me, and she could see it.

“Sorry…should I call him the Doctor? Would that make you a little less anxious?” She was toying with me now. “He wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get caught. He wanted to keep me from going to prison. He trusts me, you know... ”

“Why the hell would he ever do something like that?” My anger was making me bold.

“Come inside and I’ll answer all your questions.”

I reconsidered what might happen if I did that. I still had the phone tucked under my fingers.

She put her hands in the air again and repeated, “I’m not going
to hurt you, Charlie. I’ve had plenty of opportunity to do that
already.” Her eyes sparkled.

Could I really go in that room with her? I couldn’t help but be curious about why my father would choose to help her, or trust her with information that was supposed to remain only between him and me. What else did she know? And why would she ever risk her own freedom by revealing her whereabouts to me? Victoria may not have been one of the owners of that house, but she’d been at the highest level of authority among them. She was facing life without parole like the others. My father had told me that she’d known why the girls were recruited to work there and what would happen to them once they were inside. She was an accessory to murder—many of them, actually. Still, my desire to know was as strong as my fear
of her vengeance. But as she’d said, she’d had plenty of
opportunities to hurt me if she’d wanted to. I had a feeling that if she were going to do it, it wouldn’t be happening in this hotel.

I took several breaths to calm my stomach, to encourage my feet to walk into her room. When I felt like I had control of my emotions, I brushed past her without meeting her gaze and moved inside the room. I watched her shut the door and step over to the bar.

“Can I get you a drink?”

I shook my head and crossed my arms. “I didn’t come here to drink with you.”

She opened the mini-fridge and removed two small bottles of vodka. She poured each into a glass and topped them with a splash of cranberry juice. She handed me one, as if she hadn’t really wanted my answer. “You’re going to need it. Please, let’s sit.”

There were two couches in her suite. I took the one closest to the
door, while she reclined on the opposite one. Our gazes locked,
taking each other in as we’d done so many times in the mansion—maybe even admiring the other’s beauty. At one point, I had considered this woman a friend, the mother figure I’d never had. But all she’d done
was betray me. I remembered the feeling of wanting her to be
pleased with my performance in the mansion. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been so needy. And yet something in the way she looked at me now—outside of that infernal house, with no mask
concealing the truth of her features—made me feel
unworthy…unloved. Inferior. In my head, I knew that I didn’t give a damn about her opinion of me anymore. But something in my heart told me I’d been a disappointment to her.

Until that moment, the only person who ever could have made me feel that way had been Lilly.

“You look beautiful,” she said, her eyes finally dropping to my outfit, then back up to my face. I assessed her as well, her long dark locks were curled and hanging across her shoulders. Her full figure was clad in a tight, fitted suit. She didn’t look any different; she was still as hard as I remembered, but her lids appeared tired. “Love has really made you blossom.”

That comment told me she knew about Cameron, too.

“Who knew all it would take was monogamy to make you really happy? It was the complete opposite of what you were wallowing in
at the mansion—
before
the mansion, even. To be honest, I never
thought
you’d choose Cameron. There’s something a little too…I don’t
know…
good about him. He’s like a grown-up boy scout with a gym
membership. I definitely wouldn’t have chosen Dallas for you. But I guess it wasn’t for me to
”

I didn’t need to listen to her anymore. “Why are you here,
Victoria? And more than that, why am
I
here with you?”

She smiled and slowly crossed her legs. “I see you like to get right to the heart of things these days.”

Victoria wasn’t one to be dominated by others, in any aspect of her life. I may have been the one asking the questions, but she was very much in control of the conversation. There were still questions lingering, questions I was sure I already knew the answer to. But I wanted to hear them come from her.

I didn’t give her a chance to answer the others before I fired
another. “How much did you know?”

She laughed, as if there was even a reason to ask that question at all. “I knew everything, hon.” She seemed only slightly bothered by it. “From the moment you entered the mansion, I knew it would happen. It was only a matter of time. You were going to be killed; your death had been ordered.”

“Is that
all
you knew?”

She leaned back into the cushions, her hands resting in her lap, her fingers looping together. “No…I knew who Hunter was, and his relationship to you. I knew how much it was going to hurt you when you realized you had just been fucked by your best friend’s father.” She was darker than I’d thought. “Oh—and I knew about Thunder, too…your favorite stallion in the whole stable. I’m guilty, Charlie, for all of it.” She pursed her lips. “Every last bit.”

Her invasion of my life hadn’t stopped when the mansion was dismantled. She was still watching my every move.

Worse than that, she had absolutely no shame about it.

She was right, I did need this drink. I swallowed as much of it as I could stomach. “You fucking bitch.” I considered throwing the glass at her, but I didn’t want to waste the liquor.

Her head tilted and her brows knit together. “I deserve that.”

“You deserve a hell of a lot
more
than that. That was just for knowing that my best friend’s father would be fucking me up the ass.” My voice was getting louder, and I knew there was a chance that it was carrying through the walls. But I couldn’t stop it, and at that point I didn’t care to. “I can’t believe you can sit here with a straight face and tell me that you knew they were going to gut me, and you did nothing to stop them.”