Erin leaned close to my left ear as we headed toward the front door. “I guess we should’ve come up with a proper plan of attack instead of just showing up here like this,” she whispered.
I gritted my teeth and nodded, mentally kicking myself.
When I was halfway through the foyer, one of my shoelaces came undone. I knelt to do it back up. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a long strand of hair on the marble tiles. I ignored it at first, figuring that Nora or Ted had missed it when they last cleaned up around the place. After all, they were used to having their staff do everything for them, so it made sense that they wouldn’t know how to sweep or vacuum properly.
A second later, my gaze snapped back to the strand of hair. It wasn’t black and wavy like Nora’s hair, and it was too long to belong to Ted. It was straight and a familiar shade of chestnut brown.
Kinsey.
“I fucking knew it. Shewashere,” I said, rising to my feet and turning to look at Nora. “Where is she now?”
Nora stared back at me with a puzzled expression on her face. “What?”
“Kinsey was here. That’s her hair,” I said, jerking a thumb toward the strand on the tiles. “Now tell me—where the fuck is she?”
“Jax, I know you’re feeling very emotional over everything that’s been going on, but that’s no excuse for rudeness,” Nora replied in an icy tone. “That hair could’ve come from anyone.”
My mind kept whirling. “I just remembered something,” I said. “Cerina told me this place used to belong to some sort of criminal. A mob boss. She said he built an underground cell for his enemies somewhere here.”
“And you think Kinsey is in there?” Nora asked, nose wrinkling.
I gave her a hard look. “She could be.”
“Well, she’s not. If I had to guess her whereabouts, I’d say she felt guilty about what she did to my daughter and ran away to try to escape that shame. She’s probably halfway to Seattle by now,” she said. “I think she’ll find that she can never outrun what she did, though.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Can we confirm that she’s not here?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Nora replied. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
She stalked over to the large sideboard on the edge of the foyer and rummaged in one of the drawers. “Here,” she snapped, briskly stepping back over to me. “This is the key to the cell. You can go and see it with your own eyes.”
I stared down at the small key in her palm. I had a feeling she was bluffing; hoping that I’d view her offer as proof of innocence, because a guilty person wouldn’t dare to offer me access to the cell on a silver platter. From there, she probably expected me to reject the offer and apologize for accusing her of participating in such a dark act.
I snatched the key from her hand. “Where is it?” I asked, choosing to call her bluff.
“It’s on the basement level, right near the wine cellar,” Nora said, motioning toward a doorway on the other side of the foyer. “I’m sure you know wherethatis from all the times you and Cerina sneaked down there to steal wine for parties when you were younger.”
I turned to Erin. “Let’s go.”
Nora followed us as we dashed down the spiral staircase that led to the mansion’s basement level. A long, narrow hallway stretched out before us at the bottom of the stairs. Halfway down the hall was a wooden door I recognized as the entrance to the wine cellar. Another smaller door lay at the end. I’d never noticed it before. Then again, I never had a reason to think about it when I came down here in the past.
I hurried down to the end of the hall and fitted the key in the lock. When it clicked, I turned the handle and threw the door open. “Kinsey!”
My voice echoed through the tiny, gloomy room that lay before me. No reply came, and no one jumped up to greet me.
Nora wasn’t lying to us before.
The cell was empty.
14
Jax
“See?”Nora folded her arms and looked at me, brows lifted high. “Are you happy now?”
I stared back at her with a stony expression. I wasn’t happy at all, and she knew it. “Kinsey could still be somewhere else in the house,” I said in a low voice. “But I’m guessing you won’t let us look anywhere else, will you?”