The Fall of Lucas Kendrick (17 page)

“Meet you in your room,” Josh murmured, and guided his wife off into the dwindling crowd.

Lucas and Kyle also drifted off, leaving the room with the absorbed expressions of lovers with private things to do on their minds. They worked their way toward the far end of the house, moving more quickly when they’d left
the guests behind, and slipped down several deserted hallways before entering a small room. It was a parlor-type room, formal, and with the air of being little used. French doors opened out onto the second of the three terraces, this one constructed with a view of the rose garden.

“We can get upstairs to our room from here without being seen?” Lucas asked.

“Servants stairs behind that door over there. They go all the way to the top floor, and there’s a landing almost across from our room.”

“Childhood exploration?” he asked.

Kyle smiled. “Hide-and-seek, when I really didn’t want to be found. It was one of my favorite games. Luc, I know this house pretty well, and I can’t remember a sign of a hidden room or vault. I was a child, of course, but if it was here, I should have found it years ago.”

He nodded. “I know. But we’re running out of options. It’s the only game we’ve got.”

Lucas locked the door leading out into the hallway, and Kyle went to ease open the French doors. She had to open them wider a moment
later, amused because no one had thought to tell her that Zach was so big.

Well over six feet of big. He had broad, powerful shoulders that the black of his sweatshirt did nothing to diminish, and it was obvious he had muscles to spare. And no one had to tell Kyle he was a dangerous man. It wasn’t that he tended to fill doorways; it wasn’t even that a wicked scar twisted whitely down his lean cheek. What it was about the man that would frighten even the stouthearted was a palpable aura of leashed power and an atmosphere of cold menace.

He moved like a big cat as he came into the room, as if he walked on dried leaves and wished to be silent. And he would have been silent even with dried leaves underfoot. The dark clothing he wore did absolutely nothing to conceal the danger of him, nor did the calm, almost bland expression on his rugged face or the serene gray eyes.

Born for danger, indeed, Kyle thought.

On the big man’s heels came his new wife, a
petite woman somewhere in her twenties with an unruly and beautiful mass of red hair, and the big, soft brown eyes of a doe. She looked delicate and fragile, but her small face was vividly alive, and Kyle thought there was a great deal of strength and spirit beneath that dainty exterior.

Quick introductions were made, and then Kyle was leading them into the stairwell while Lucas unlocked the hallway door and joined them. They found the stairs clear and were soon safely inside Kyle’s room.

“Where’s Josh?” Zach asked immediately, his voice soft and effortless.

“Downstairs,” Lucas reported, loosening his tie. “He and Raven will be up soon.”

Zach made himself comfortable in a large chair, pulling his wife down into his lap and giving her a look that was a somewhat comical mixture of adoration and annoyance.

“Don’t fuss,” she told him severely in a musical voice. “I’m here, and that’s that.”

He grunted. “I know, dammit.”

Lucas went to change into clothing more suitable for skulking, while Kyle softly and rapidly filled the new arrivals in on their progress to date.

Zach nodded when she was finished, then gestured to the walkie-talkie he had set on a table by the chair. “Kelsey has the other. He’s on watch and in touch with Hagen.” He studied Kyle, his gray eyes intent. “You say Rome’s acting strangely?”

Kyle sat down on the foot of the bed and sighed. “You could cut his tension with a knife. It may only be Zamara’s weird control over him, but we’ve all decided that the sooner we’re out of here, the better.”

After a moment Zach said, “I checked out his family. His nephew—you said he was the current heir?”

“According to his will, yes.”

“An interesting young man,” Zach murmured.

“In what way?” Luc asked as he returned to
the room wearing dark slacks and a black turtleneck.

Zach’s mild, heavy-lidded eyes continued to study Kyle thoughtfully. “I suppose a polite way to put it is that he’s careless with money. And he’s recently incurred some whopping gambling debts. Big-time bookies. I’d say the young man has the beginning of a serious gambling problem.”

Kyle looked at Luc as he sat down beside her. “Maybe that’s why Martin’s so determined to marry me; he wants another heir. Zamara knows it. And if he’s becoming consciously aware of the sexual hold she has on him—”

“He could be obsessed by now,” Luc finished grimly. “Dammit, Kyle, I wish you were out of here. If she keeps pulling him toward her while he’s obsessed with marrying you, he may snap.”

“He’s never been known to lose his cool,” Zach noted. “Never emotional or violent. But if that kind of pressure’s building up in him now, he may lose it completely.”

“You armed?” Lucas asked him.

“Ankle holster.” Zach nodded toward the small duffel bag he had brought along. “And a few extra.”

Lucas went over to kneel and check the guns Zach had brought, and it was Kyle who went to answer the soft knock at the door. Slipping quickly into the room, Josh and Raven were also dressed in comfortable dark slacks and sweaters. And Josh spoke instantly to Teddy.

“You’re always in his lap,” he said dryly.

“That’s where he puts me,” she replied, unembarrassed and somewhat amused.

“Zach, did you bring my gun?” Raven was asking, going to peer over Lucas’s shoulder.

A little bemused, Kyle gathered up her clothes and went to change in Luc’s room. Intrigued by all of Luc’s friends just hearing about them, she was completely fascinated now after seeing them together. Between them all there was an easy familiarity, a kind of camaraderie that struck her as being very rare. They’ve been through more than one fire together, she thought.

And Kyle herself felt accepted into that closeness,
something that both delighted and moved her. She had known few friendships in her life, and to be so readily accepted into Lucas’s circle of friends was something she treasured.

The future looked bright indeed.

If they could only get through this night.

She returned to her bedroom to join the others, who were lounging comfortably and talking in low voices. The guns had been distributed, with Lucas, Josh, and Raven all carrying theirs at the small of their backs beneath concealing sweaters. Teddy, like Zach, wore an ankle holster. Kyle readily accepted the automatic Lucas handed her, pleased to discover that these men—even with Lucas’s gallantry and Zach’s clearly protective nature—treated the women in their life as capable equals.

“I read you’d become a sharpshooter,” Lucas told her with a smile.

Kyle checked her gun and put it inside the waistband of her pants at the small of her back, returning his smile. “Did you? Well, it’s nice to
know those supermarket rags are good for something.”

He chuckled. “Actually it was
People
magazine. That competition you won in California.”

“I’d forgotten about that.”

He shook his head, then looked at Josh where the other man rested a hip on the low dresser. “How many guests were still downstairs when you left?”

“Just a few. And from the look of things, Her Highness plans to keep Rome fully occupied once they get upstairs.”

“Let’s hope she’s successful,” Raven murmured.

Lucas nodded, then said, “We’ll split up into teams. Zach, you and Teddy take the ground floor. Josh and Raven can take the second floor, and Kyle and I will take this one.”

“Just how legal is this?” Kyle wanted to know.

“Not very,” Josh told her, amused. “If Zach and Teddy are found here, they could be charged with breaking and entering by Rome.
The rest of us are here by invitation, but we were hardly invited to search the house. Caught, we’d look damned suspicious. Still, if we find the mask or the other stuff, it’ll be enough to get the police in here legally with a warrant. We’re okay with the guns, since we’re all licensed to carry—”

“I’m not,” Kyle said, interrupting.

“Yes, you are,” Zach told her. “I have the permit if anyone asks.”

She stared at him. “You think of everything.”

Solemnly Teddy said, “He’s well versed in the art of skullduggery.”

“I resent that on Josh’s behalf,” Zach said mildly.

“Leave me out of this,” Josh requested. “Everybody knows I’m a model citizen.”

Kyle looked at him, rakish and rather dangerous in his dark clothing, and giggled suddenly.

Raven grinned at her. “I know. I haven’t decided if they’re commandos at heart or ten-year-olds.”

“Look who’s talking,” Josh said chidingly.

It was as if none of them carried guns or waited to search a house in the dead of night, Kyle thought, as if no danger surrounded them. They were six friends talking casually.

And she believed she knew then why Hagen had drafted these people and cannily made use of their talents.

He would have been a fool not to.

The house was silent when they slipped from the room and went their separate ways. There were occasional lamps to softly light their way, and each carried a small flashlight, courtesy of Zach’s well-equipped duffel bag.

It was a big house. Moving silently and whispering when they needed to, Kyle and Lucas searched carefully. Of course, the bedrooms were off limits due to sleeping guests, but there were many other rooms. Salons, sitting rooms, innumerable closets and storage areas, alcoves and pantries. And it was a slow business because
they had to check every possibility and be utterly silent all the while.

With at least half their floor covered, Kyle became aware that there was something bothering her, an idea at the back of her mind, and gradually realized that a passage she had read in the Rome family book was nudging her.

“I want to take another look at that book,” she whispered. “I think I missed something.”

Lucas was examining a closet full of linens and spared a moment to glance worriedly at her. “Be careful, will you, love?”

She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “I’ll just be in our room. Back in a flash.” She disappeared around a shadowy corner of the hallway.

Lucas gazed after her for a moment, then glanced at his watch and went back to work. It would be dawn in another hour; they were running out of time.

In their darkened bedroom, Kyle found the book and carried it to the window, making use of moonlight as she flipped through the pages. Something … What was it? She stood holding
the book, her abstracted gaze focused out the window. Then she frowned and looked down at the book again. Slowly her finger traced the Rome family crest engraved on the first page. An ornate
R
surrounded by a series of double-lined boxes.

With fingers that trembled in sudden excitement, she turned the page to the verse written by one of the Rome ancestors. This time she read it carefully.

Kyle raised her eyes slowly and stared through the window. She could see the dark shape of
the maze and, at its center, bathed in moonlight, the dome of the gazebo. The golden lighting inside it, remaining on during the dark hours, made the shape of the little structure glow warmly.

“The golden dome,” she whispered. That had to be it. The Rome crest was an initial within a maze, and that had to be where “the wealth of Rome” could be touched.

Rome’s hidden vault wasn’t in the house at all—it was secreted somewhere in, or beneath, the gazebo!

On the point of rushing out to tell Lucas, Kyle hesitated. What if she was wrong? They’d waste time out there if both of them went. But if she searched hurriedly first … After all, who knew that gazebo better than herself?

And Rome.

Kyle bit her lip in an instant’s indecision, then set the book aside and hurried from the room. Raven glided from the shadows on the second-floor landing to look at her quizzically.

“I want to check the gazebo,” Kyle whispered without pausing.

Raven frowned after her for a moment, then turned back to find Josh.

Kyle hadn’t forgotten the guards and dogs outside but trusted her ability to get across the terrace and into the maze without rousing them. She waited at the terrace doors for a few moments, watching the two guards pass each other outside. She allowed them a few more moments, than slipped outside silently.

She reached the maze without being detected and moved swiftly along the familiar paths, undisturbed by the smotheringly tall, dark hedges, by the stark shadows of moonlight.

The gazebo, softly lighted, welcomed her to the center of the maze, and she stepped up into it. Now … where? She studied the structure slowly, carefully. There was no ceiling; the rafters supporting the domed roof were exposed and painted white. The Doric columns were slender, each decorated with an ornate
R;
the
floor apparently solid. The benches had thin padding and spindly legs.

It had to be the floor.

And there had to be a switch of some kind. Kyle turned in a slow circle, then began probing the columns and railing with delicate hands.

Josh and Raven found Lucas on the third floor, coming out of Kyle’s room, a strained expression on his face. “Have you seen her?” he asked them in a whisper.

“She said she was going to check the gazebo,” Raven answered softly. “I think she has a pretty good idea there may be a hiding place out there.”

Lucas swore softly. “She shouldn’t be—”

Zach and Teddy moved quietly down the hall toward them. “Somebody crossed the terrace a minute ago,” Zach told them. “A man.”

The walkie-talkie hanging at his side whispered softly.

From his vantage point on the hill, Kelsey watched the house constantly. He swore irritably when he realized that the setting moon was stealing his light, but he could still make out the house pretty clearly. He methodically studied each window on each floor, checked the whereabouts of the guards, and sent the lighted gazebo a glance.