Billionaire Bachelors 10 ; Holiday Treasure(31)

"What was that?" she asked, her voice trembling. "It sounds a heck of a lot bigger than a rat scurrying across the floor."

Before he could say anything, there was a scratching sound like someone moving, and Tanner was now absolutely certain that they weren't alone. Maybe their horror flick scenario had just come true.

Tanner refused to let Kyla come up beside him as he moved toward the sound. What he should do was try to rush up the stairs and bolt the door closed. But, hell, if they were in a horror flick, they might as well be the stupid fools who walked straight to their deaths. No use ruining a standard plot. Besides, what if someone else had come down the stairs to try to fix the problem and had fallen and was just now waking up?




 

 

Just as he and Kyla reached the edge of the stairs, their flashlights pointed at the dark area beneath, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air.

Chapter Seventeen

Kyla was on Tanner's back with her legs wrapped around him before she knew what she was doing. When he said something and his voice came out indistinct, she vaguely realized that her hands were around his throat, most likely cutting off his lower airway. The problem was that she couldn't make her muscles unclench. She told herself to let go, but it just wasn't going to happen. She was a helpless mass of terror.

"Can't breathe, Kyla," Tanner choked out.

"Wh … wh … what was that?" That was all she finally managed to get through her chattering teeth.

"Let go and I'll find out. I don't want to hurt you by prying your hands away," he wheezed.

Somehow she managed to loosen her grip around his neck, but nothing she tried was allowing her legs to give up their hold on his waist. She wasn't going to move from his back.

"Okay, you have to climb down, Kyla, so I can figure this out," he said, his voice still a bit hoarse, but sounding better than it had when she was nearly throttling him.

"Nope. Not letting go," she told him.

To her amazement, a small chuckle escaped his raw throat. "Okay." He moved forward and spoke to whatever monster was threatening them. "Who is there? I'm not going to hurt you unless I have to," he said.

Whoa. Tanner really sounded frightening now Kyla wouldn't want to be on this man's bad side.

There was more shuffling behind the stairs, and she was really shaking now. This was it. They were both going to die because they were the stupid ones who had willingly - well, okay, not quite willingly - gone down into the dark and dingy basement.

"Listen up," Tanner said. "Come out now or I start shooting."

That stopped Kyla's fidgeting. He didn't have a gun - or at least she didn't think he had a gun. She wasn't going to question him, though, because if the intruder assumed he had a gun, then maybe he, she, or it wouldn't try to go after them with a bloody hatchet.

They heard even more shuffling, and then Tanner backed up a few paces and turned his light once more in the direction of the sound. After a few more tense seconds, she saw dirty blond hair, and then a small body. It rose slowly and walked toward them.

"Please don't hurt me," the voice quavered.

Tanner froze as a child walked toward them.

Kyla barely recognized the boy, and it took her a few moments to place him with all the dirt on his face. "Billy?" she finally said. 

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. He came up to them, trembling.

"What are you doing down here?" Tanner asked. He knelt on the ground, quite a feat because Kyla was still attached to him.

That was the point she realized that she needed to let him go. She carefully untwined her limbs from his body and landed on her rear with a slight thump. She stood up slowly and staggered away from him so she could find the flashlight she'd dropped. Any movement at all was now difficult; she felt an ache all through her because she'd been wound around him so tightly. She wondered whether he had bruises where her legs had held him in a death grip.

"I'm hiding," Billy said.

Why in the world would he be hiding? There were so many questions Kyla wanted to ask him, but she knew they needed to get out of this creepy basement first. When she discovered her flashlight, she turned back to him and Tanner, and then spoke.

"Let's go upstairs and you can talk to us." When she came closer again, it broke her heart to see that the boy's cheeks were sunken, and dark circles were prominent under his five-year-old eyes.

Billy didn't argue when she took his ice-cold hand in hers and turned him around so they could make their way up the staircase. She knew Tanner would follow. She went down the hallway and straight to her apartment. Once inside, she lit the candles she already had sitting out. They cast a dim glow on the room, and she took the time to get a really good look at Billy's face.