Their Virgin Secretary (Masters of Ménage #6)(135)

"You're going to kill me anyway." Maybe it was time to take a stand.

"No, I'm not. If you give me the list, I'll walk away," he said in what Belle bet he considered a soothing tone. She noted that he didn't point that gun elsewhere, though a tremor shook his arm. He wasn't a young man. He likely wasn't used to holding heavy objects for long periods of time.

"I'm not stupid. I know you won't leave me alive." She listened for the sounds of movement downstairs. It was faint, but she could almost hear them moving, the wood floors creaking as Gates's two accomplices searched the downstairs. Well, Helena was searching, but Mike seemed to be preparing for her inevitable murder. How did they plan to finish her off? Another hanging murder designed to look like a suicide?

Belle couldn't wait to find out. She had to make a move. She wasn't sure she could live knowing Tate was dead. How much time had passed? Where were Eric and Kellan?

Gates shrugged a little, giving up his previous act. "Fine. Of course, I'm going to kill you. If you give me the list, I'll make it quick. If you give me trouble, I'll draw it out. You won't like that. I can make you feel pain like you've never felt before. I'll give you over to Mike. He seemed to really like you. Although you might enjoy that since you like sleeping with a lot of men."

She ignored his insults. They didn't matter. She had to think. Her brain raced. She'd screwed up his plan by having Tate in the house. He'd wanted to catch her alone. He'd intended to only have to deal with one body.

And with the history of this house, it would be easy. The story itself would be so spectacular-history repeating itself and all-that the truth might be easily concealed and forever buried.

"You're planning to hang me." She'd wondered why Mike had laid out a white sheet on the floor in front of the banister.

Now that she thought about it, she could see the whole scenario play out in her head. They would make a noose out of the sheet. Pristine white. Like a cloud. They would pervert it and slip it over around her neck before tossing her over the banister and completing the act.

Belle felt an odd chill go through her, though there was nothing truly sinister about the feeling. Strength. She felt a weird bolt of it run through her, giving her energy, straightening her spine.

Belle suddenly realized she wasn't alone. The house might be haunted, but not all ghosts were evil. Some simply wanted to right the wrongs done to them-like the Peterman girls who'd been hanged by their own father. They could right those terrible wrongs by saving someone else, by not allowing what happened to them to happen again.

A nasty smile lit Gates's face. "Everyone knows this place is haunted, Miss Wright. Your story will make headlines for a day or two, then it will fade into New Orleans lore. Then you'll be just another young girl who committed suicide in this house. Just another ghost."

But the ghosts weren't on his side. He couldn't know that, couldn't know they had been coming to her each night in her dreams, trying to tell her that they had fought and she should, too. She got that now. They hadn't come to scare her. The thing in the library, yes. That entity wanted to hurt her, but not the girls from her dreams. They'd come to warn her, to make sure she didn't suffer their fate.



       
         
       
        

A deep peace settled over her as though she was finally in synch with the house she'd come to call home.

She didn't have to die. Neither did Tate. She could fight and she could win.

She looked briefly around the room. It was in complete disarray. He'd forced her to ransack every inch of the place looking for his "list" and now she had to walk gingerly around the piles of her grandmother's clothes and keepsakes that had absolutely nothing to do with the list.

She decided to obey him for now, to buy a little more time while she sought a weapon. There had to be something heavy and blunt among all this stuff.

What if Eric walked in first? Would he walk in and immediately be killed because he had no idea what was going on?

She had to prevent that, too.

Belle pushed at the mattress, pretending it was far heavier than it looked. She made a big show of straining to move the thing while she pointed out certain truths to the lawyer. "It's not going to work. Why would I hang myself?"

She'd just gotten engaged. She had everything to live for. And she had friends. What Gates didn't realize was that if anything happened to her, Kinley would never stop trying to find the truth and she would sic her very-good-at-their-jobs husbands on the case. Kinley wouldn't believe that she would kill herself. Not for a second.