Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
They’ll overreact, though. There has to be a better option.
Dylan? One of my nephews?
But I scroll my phone, lingering over Lucas’s name.
He would come. Immediately.
I try to push away the suspicion in the back of my mind that it’s just a reason to see him, but it’s not that. I… I just don’t want to ask my family for anything. Before I know what I’m going to say, I dial Lucas.
I hold the phone to my ear, hearing it ring, but as if I’m waking up, I quickly jerk it away from my ear. “Shit.”
I hang up before he answers, even though he’s going to see that I called. I don’t want his help, either. Not after this morning.
Taking a step, I start to move toward the kitchen, but I stop. Someone could be in there. Someone had to open the mirror. Were they going in or coming out?
I could go out the front door, but the car could be out there.
I dial Hawke. He’s the one who made me keep the damn mirror in the first place.
But as the line rings, realization swirls in my head.
He made me keep the mirror...
Actually, he was adamant about it. It’s beautiful…it adds character…a great Instagram shot for customers…
And you have no idea what problems are behind it. Deal with it down the road, he’d said.
My heart pounds in my ears, drowning out any other noise.
He knew about this.
They all knew about this. Kade, Aro, Hunter, Dylan…
Memories surge of the times they just seemed to show up and I hadn’t seen them enter the shop. Or when food would go missing overnight, but I hadn’t gotten a notification of anyone entering on the exterior security cameras.
My mouth falls open as shock and rage flood my chest and head.
The ringing stops, Hawke picking up the line. “You’re up late.”
I just stand there, words on the tip of my tongue, but they’re the wrong words, and I don’t know how to be sly. I’m not like them.
Do I want to call him out?
“Y–yeah,” I stutter. “Sorry.”
I’m not sure a fight is the way I want to go yet. I need to be certain he lied to me.
“Just wanted to touch base before I forget,” I tell him, swallowing to wet my throat. “You seemed to love the mirror in my shop. Do you want it before I donate it? I’m having it removed tomorrow—”
“No, don’t…”
Heat instantly courses through my muscles, and I exhale.
Oh, he knew all right. The whole damn time.
I open my mouth to yell at him, not just because I should’ve known about a secret entrance to my business, but he lied to me. They all lied to me. For how long?
My mind races, going back over the years and knowing they were in and out of the shop while I was away at school, but I just assumed they were being protective and checking on things for me. Or having some fun with the kitchen.
Why didn’t they tell me?
My eyes sting. They didn’t trust me.
“Why shouldn’t I get rid of it?” I ask him.
“It’s…” He pauses, then continues. “It’s a surprise. Your birthday is coming up, so be patient.”
A surprise…
I approach the open mirror, the ache in my chest steeling hard and cold. “Sure.”
He’s quiet for a moment, then asks. “You won’t remove the mirror?”
“Nope.”
There’s a tense silence, and I don’t think his mind is eased. Once we hang up, he’ll probably call Dylan to panic. I might smile if I weren’t so pissed.
I stop at the entrance. “Goodnight,” I say.
“’Night.”
I hang up, Hawke forgotten before I even take the phone away from my ear. If they’ve been in here, then it must be safe.
Heading to the opening, I stop myself just before I put a foot in and peek inside. “Hello?”
A long black tunnel lies before me, and I think I see an opening, but I can’t make out much else. Black walls, dark floor, and it smells like a cave. Wet rock, earth, deep…
I open the flashlight on my phone, shining it inside.
The tunnel is bare and empty, the long walls a black or deep gray. I step inside and spin back around, pulling the door closed and seeing my shop through the two-way mirror.
“Those little shits,” I grit out under my breath.
It’s not a mirror from the inside. It’s a window. I can see everything in the shop. Who comes and goes, who’s working, what’s stocked on the shelves, the register with the cash… But no one out there would be able to see me in here.
Raising my phone, I find the latch on the upper left and secure it, now knowing why the fingerprints I found last night looked like they were made from someone gripping the mirror from behind.
I unlatch it again and open the mirror, making sure I know how to get out. I close it again, just in case one of my family members with keys come in. I turn, light from my phone showing me the way.