Everyone draws closer to the center of the room. Even Camille and Bennett. Until we’re a circle of people surrounding Hayes.
“I see,” says Hayes. “Yes, open it up first, then call me back.” He hangs up.
“What was that about?” Connor asks.
“A package was just delivered.”
We all look over at Emily, wondering if this is the promised gift she was so insistent about.
But she’s gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – CONNOR
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I say. “Where the fuck did she go?”
“She won’t get far,” the doctor says, pointing at his two apes, then the door. Indicating they should go collect his patient.
“This house has like two hundred rooms,” Sofia protests.
“Ninety-seven,” Hayes corrects her, which makes Sofia huff.
“We’ll find her,” the doctor says. “Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” Sofia yells. “She tried to kill us ten years ago. That’s the whole reason she was locked up in the first place!”
Hayes takes over, ushering the doctor out of the room after his guards, and whispers something the rest of us can’t hear. Then he closes the double doors and twists a key in the lock with a loud click.
I look at Kiera, who is standing close to me, mouth open. Either appalled at the way this whole thing is playing out, or shocked that Hayes just locked us in. Hard to tell which.
“That’s just great,” Camille says, making herself a fresh drink over at the bar cart. “We’re locked in a room while a murderous crazy person runs free through a mansion. Will Mrs. Peacock kill us with the candlestick in the library? Or the wrench in the billiard room? They’re never going to find her. She could be anywhere.”
“Forget her,” Hayes says. “We have business to discuss. Camille, I’ll take one of those as well. Anyone else need a drink before we get started?”
I glance at Camille, wondering how she’s taking her new promotion to bar maid, but she doesn’t seem to care because she’s already lining up five more glasses on the bar cart and is muttering, “We’ll need an entire police department to flush someone out of hiding in this ridiculous place,” as she drops clear cubes of ice into each glass.
“Let’s just all take a seat, shall we?” Hayes, ever the host, says as he pans his hands over the seating arrangement.
There’s two couches facing each other, and two chairs acting like bookends on either side.
I take Kiera’s arm and lead her to the closest couch. She sits, me next to her. Bennett takes the other couch, Sofia takes the chair to my left and Hayes settles in the chair on Kiera’s right, reaching for the book we’ve all come to talk about.
Camille is holding a tray of drinks, passing them out like she’s done this before, as Hayes opens the book and begins to read.
“‘They told me to write what I know so that’s what I did. I wrote dirty. I wrote erotic. I wrote the truth. And then they called me a liar. But it’s not me who’s lying. It’s them.’”
He closes the book and places it back on the side table.
“We know that part,” Camille says, now finished with her duties, and settles herself on the couch, very close to Bennett. She puts a hand on his knee and he looks at her, smiling.
Kiera and I exchange a glance, both of us asking the same silent question.
“So who was it?” Hayes asks. “Who wrote this?”
Everyone shakes their head simultaneously, muttering out denials.
“Kiera?” Hayes says.
“Come on,” I say.
“It wasn’t me,” Kiera says. No hint of animosity because it’s not necessary. It’s very apparent that Hayes isn’t accusing her, just asking out of obligation.
“Sofia?” he says next.
“Not me,” she deadpans back.
“Don’t bother asking me,” Camille says, heading Hayes’ next question off before he can ask it. And then she meets my eyes. Tilts her head up a little like she’s trying to be superior and boost her confidence, since I seem to be the only one who has no details about her secret life. But it makes me frown a little. Because I didn’t know about Sofia, either. But she didn’t get all haughty about it. “I do write erotic novels,” Camille adds. “And it’s a good idea, so maybe I wish I had, but I didn’t do it. I did not publish that book.”
“Well, I sure as fuck didn’t write it,” Bennett says.
Then everyone is starting at me. “Get fucking real,” I say. “Why would I sabotage my life with this bullshit?”
“That’s not a denial,” Hayes says.
“I didn’t do it,” I snap back.
Hayes sighs, takes a sip of his drink, and then says, “It wasn’t me either. So that leaves us with…”
“Fucking Louise,” Camille says.
“I was gonna say a mystery,” Hayes clarifies.
“It has to be Louise,” Sofia says. “She’s the only one who didn’t come.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I say. “She was never really one of us. And has anyone even talked to her since school? Because I sure as fuck haven’t.”