The Insiders Page 7

  She had filing cabinets in another corner, covered in picture frames.

  A half wall jutted out so I couldn’t see what was on the other side, but the back of a desk chair had been rolled out.

  The room was large, more resembling an elementary school classroom than the office of someone who managed the staff at Peter Francis’s estate.

  “Come in, come in. Shut the door.” She waved at me, impatiently.

  I sat on the chair across from her desk, sinking into it.

  She was watching me, already riffling through some of her papers, and the ends of her mouth were pulled in. I tried not to feel her disapproval, but it was hard. It washed over me like a hot wave of embarrassment.

  She motioned around the room behind me. “That’s for the children. They like to come in and spend time here.”

  “Cyclone and Seraphina?”

  “Cyclone.” She was nodding as she spoke. “Seraphina, if she can sneak away from Victoria or her mother. And some of the other women bring their children if they’re sick or school is closed. The master and mistress are very accepting if the staff don’t have day care options in case of an emergency.” She waved around her office again. “They come in here. We call in a day care worker if there’s enough children, but you are right.” Her eyes paused on me, looking over a piece of paper. “It’s mostly Cyclone, and if he has a friend over at times. His parents like him to have friends here. Seraphina too, but her friends prefer her own wing rather than in here.”

  Jesus. Wing.

  I heard the fondness and pride.

  She was proud of what she did at this estate, of who she worked for, or perhaps of what she did for the children. She provided a sanctuary for these children, and that was important to her.

  She waved to the partition behind me. “There’s a desk behind that. That’s for you.”

  “Me?”

  “As soon as Kash informed me you were coming, I had maintenance bring up a desk for you. It’ll be your spot for when you are inside the estate home. I called after seeing you at the villa and they’re bringing up a computer as well. It might already be there, but you can check later. Now…” She was done with her paperwork, putting it all aside and fixing me with a direct stare. “Let’s discuss you.”

  I swallowed, not getting a good feeling from how she said that. “Me?”

  “You.” And she narrowed those eyes at me. “You are going to be a problem.”

  Those were the words every illegitimate daughter longed to hear.

  And, feeling like a smartass, I smiled. “Please elaborate.”

  She fixed me with a look, her mouth flattening even further. She was not amused.

  I tried to make my smile more sincere. “Pretty please?” Was that better? Then I just sighed on the inside. Kash was right earlier. I was fighting being here, but could he blame me? Could anyone? But that wasn’t her problem. That was mine. That was my f—that f-word. She was just doing her job.

  I sat up straighter in my chair and rolled back my shoulders. “Okay. Lay it on me. Tell me how to not be a problem for you, and I’ll do the best I can.” I bobbed my head up and down. “Promise.”

  Her mouth pursed together and she moved her head, giving me a side-eye. She blinked, slowly, and rotated her face to look at me square again.

  “Okay.” She laid her hands down on her desk, folding them together. “You want to not be a problem for me?” She didn’t wait a beat. “You should go home, go back to where your mother is, and not contact Mr. Colello or Mr. Francis again.”

  I stand corrected.

  Those were the words every illegitimate daughter longed to hear.

  THIRTEEN

  “Excuse me?” I pretended to clean out my ears. I hadn’t heard that right, had I?

  “You heard me.” It was like she could read my mind. She fixed me with a steely glare. It wasn’t a full glare, but it wasn’t a stare.

  “You will only upset this household. There is no place for you. If Mr. Francis wanted to include you in his family, he would’ve introduced you as his daughter, not this facade of being Mr. Colello’s family friend. You are upsetting master and mistress, their children, and also Mr. Colello himself. He has enough to worry about. He does not need to add a stranger into the mix to babysit.” She lowered her voice, but that only made her more terrifying. “If you should pack up and require a ride from the estate to return to your real family, I could set that up. You could do it quietly, and tonight, when Mr. Colello is in the city dealing with other aspects of his life.”

  Other aspects of his life? What all did he do?

  “I thought Kash worked for…” Did I say “master” too? “For Mr. Francis. Does he not?”

  Some of the steam cooled, but she was still chilly.

  “Let’s stick to what you need to know, and that’s this: if you stay here, you will upset the balance of this family.”

  Right.

  This family. Not mine.

  Not me.

  Them.

  She kept on. “If you remain here, Cyclone will get attached. Seraphina will care for you. They are good children. Your presence is a risk. There is a possibility they could discover who you claim to be, and if they do, what then? You are under a guise. You are not here as a member of this family, nor will you ever be. This has happened before, where someone came under the facade of proclaiming they were Peter Francis’s child. When it is discovered you are not, you will only hurt those dear children. Their hearts will be ripped out, all because Mr. and Mrs. Francis had the kind heart to bring you into their fold, even if Mr. Colello is insisting for your presence to be kept under wraps so they do not get attached.”

  Attached.

  Guise.

  Facade.

  She thought I was lying. She thought I was a fake.

  “You think I’m conning my biological father?”

  My hand curled in on itself on my lap.

  Her nostrils flared and, flattening her hand on the desk, she inched forward. “Mr. Colello would never allow that to happen, but it is alarming that you’ve been given free range of the estate.”

  She should’ve just shoved her fist into my throat. That’s what I was feeling here. “You think I’m here … why?” Think, Bailey.

  “Why do people usually claim to be a long-lost daughter of Peter Francis?”

  She was so cold, mocking me now.

  I flinched. “Right. Right.”

  Her mouth thinned. “Why else would you be restricted to being under my charge if Mr. Colello was not still investigating your claims? He assured me you wouldn’t be here long.”

  I almost laughed at that. “He said that because I go to graduate school in the fall.” I leaned forward. “For computer security. I’m a hacker, Marie. Don’t you think that’s a big coincidence, if you thought I was this con man?”

  She drew up her chest, letting it lower again, then shrugged. “I think you underestimate the lengths some people will go to be claimed as a child from Peter Francis.”

  So she just didn’t believe me.

  Well, that was an easy fix.

  “Right,” I drawled. I didn’t think anything I said would get anywhere, and on top of that, I wasn’t sure if I even wanted her to believe me. Maybe there was a reason she was being so distrustful? Kash could’ve dealt with this when he told her I was coming, but he hadn’t.

  Maybe it was for the best? I mean, in a way, she was speaking the truth. I would be gone soon. She just didn’t know the real reason.

  And, at this rate, who knew if I’d even meet my father. It was day three and no one mentioned him being anywhere in the vicinity. I was given a desk in the staff headquarters, for God’s sakes. I was not wanted here.

  Fine.

  I stood up.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Can you have the computer brought to Kash’s place? I can do some of my work from there instead of…” My eyes skimmed her office and my heart sank a little. If this had been my home, if she’d be
en in charge of my family, I would’ve loved to spend time here. The room was warm and inviting, just not to me. My throat tightened up. “I’ll remain out of the way as long as possible, until Mr. Colello’s done with his investigation.”

  I didn’t wait for her response. I left, and going down one hallway in the direction of where I thought I’d come in, I had to stop.

  There were three hallways breaking off from mine, but no door. No kitchen either.

  I was completely lost.

  Karma was a funny bitch indeed.

  FOURTEEN

  I was going down hallway number 233.

  Okay, that was sarcasm, but it felt like I’d been wandering this mausoleum for an hour. Part of it was my fault. I could find someone, get directions (I still couldn’t get over that I would need to get directions in a house), but the point of sneaking out was to actually sneak out. Marching up to someone and asking them how to leave violated the whole point of my exit. Because of that, every time I started to hear voices at one end of a hall, I took the next hallway. It didn’t matter if it led up, down, left, or right, and if I had to brake and back up, I did.

  I did not need to be told anymore how unwanted I was here.

  I was just trying to move along, convince myself it wasn’t actually ripping out my organs to see I did have a family with siblings out there. They just didn’t want me—the father anyway.

  “How did you meet?” I’d asked Chrissy two nights ago, arms wrapped tight around my knees, my heart in my chest as I waited for her to tell me.

  “Oh, baby.” She had wiped a tear away.

  And she told me.

  They met when she was doing clinicals in nursing school. She was hired to care for someone who was dying.

  Her eyes were closed. Her hand didn’t move from that bottle. She held it suspended in the air, as if she had frozen in time.

  Then, with a rasping gasp, she continued. “I took care of his mama for a year, a full year…”

  She wouldn’t look at me as she continued. He was married. He was unhappy. They shouldn’t have done what they did, but it was the last night.

  “The night she died, no one was there for him. His wife never came.” Her voice grew hoarse. “I was crying. He was crying. They came and took the body, and I went to him.”

  Another pause. Her eyes closed. Another tear fell down.

  “I’ll never regret it. It was one night. His wife came the next day, and we acted like nothing happened.”

  That hadn’t been all of it. There’d been more, but those were the words I couldn’t get out of my head.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. Kash.

  Where are you? Marie said you’re at my house, but cameras aren’t showing you.

  Shit.

  And wait—he had cameras on me?

  Took a wrong turn about 823 turns ago. This house is freaking huge. I’m in a mall. An empty and deserted mall. Everyone’s at the Gap.

  Kash: What?

  Me: I’m lost.

  Kash: You’re lost?

  Me: Yes.

  Kash: Where?

  Me: In the house.

  Kash: What house?

  Me: The big kahuna.

  Kash: Did you ask for help?

  I grinned.

  Me: Why would I do that?

  Kash: So you’re not lost.

  Even through the phone, I could feel his irritation.

  I was loving it. More foreplay.

  Me: What if I’m just lost in life? No one to help me with that one.

  Kash: What the hell

  I paused. He’d stopped midtext. That wasn’t a good sign, until my phone rang in my hand.

  Double shit.

  I answered, not even looking. I knew who it was. And before he could snipe at me first, I started in. “You need to understand that a girl in my position, with my background, there’s not much I have.”

  He growled, “What are you talking about?”

  “You see that you don’t see. I don’t have much here, on my end. I’m not that kid who saw too much, et cetera, growing up, but I did see one or two too many guys come in our home. I saw a couple that treated her right. I saw a few who didn’t, and I learned how I wanted to be, growing up.

  “Now, I can’t say I know what morals Peter Francis may have, but I feel I can say with almost an eighty percent certainty that I got my morals and values from living with my mother. Chrissy tried. She really did. She’s a hard worker. She was in her third year of nursing when she got pregnant with me. Took a year off to have me, then went right back. She finished while she worked, and I don’t think she could’ve got more than five hours of sleep a week.”

  I was starting to ramble, but he was quiet. He was listening. No one was around, so I was going with it.

  “So you see, when I’m here and I’m being told that I’m a lie, and I’m being told I should go back home, and I’m being told everyone would be better off without me, well … wandering a bit in a gigantic house is not that big of a deal. Not enough for you to call me with a growl in your voice, because I have integrity. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to keep the last bit of it I have, and I’ll find my way out of this house eventually without asking for help.”

  I didn’t give him a chance to reply. I hung up, and I powered off the phone for good measure. Sticking it back in my pocket, I turned—only to reel backward.

  I didn’t know for sure, but since she was exquisite and had a sunlight-wheat color to her blond hair, which was swept up and pinned to the top of her head, I assumed that I was staring at Quinn Francis. She had clear cornflower-blue eyes, the same teardrop shape as Cyclone. High cheekbones that swept out, a chin that molded down to complete a heart-shaped face, and the plushest lips I’d seen in person.

  She was stunning.

  There were no other words, and she was gazing at me, not a whiff of anger, suspicion, or even warmth. There was confusion, as if she wasn’t sure if I was real or not.

  The image was completed by a soft-hue pink dress that had a scoop neckline, a layer of white lace, and a hemline that fitted just above her knees; the rest was the same hue of pink tulle that fell to the floor. There was no jewelry anywhere, even on her hands. My heart ached because I knew that my mother had kept up with Peter Francis, and if this was who my father had married, then my mother had compared herself to this woman. And there was no comparison. My mother would have won, hands down, for the mere fact that she was Chrissy Hayes, and no one could compete against Chrissy Hayes.

  I readied myself, figuring she’d overheard me, and I waited to see what she’d say.

  Her mouth parted. She was studying me up and down, all over, and damn it, I knew I was going to break first.

  “I’m only here for … you know.” She knew, right? How could she not? I jerked my gaze to the floor. It was so much easier this way. “And, uh, as soon as they catch ’em, the Arcane people, I’ll go. I’m not here to upset anyone or disturb nothing.” And I couldn’t talk, either. Proper grammar be damned. “I was trying to find Kash’s villa again and I got lost.”

  She continued to stare at me. Not a wrinkle marred her face, until thirty seconds later she pointed behind her. “Walk until the T, turn right, and keep going. There’s a back door by the pool. You can skirt around the fence and hook onto the sidewalk that goes past the golf course. Keep straight and Kash’s villa will be in front of you.”

  Of course. That was easy enough. Chances of getting lost were 100 percent, but I was going with it.

  “What’s your name, dear?”

  She didn’t know my name? I considered lying, because integrity, but I heard myself answering the truth.

  “Bailey.” And because no one could compare to my mother, I added, “Chrissy Hayes is my mother.”

  I slipped away after that, but I wasn’t sure if I imagined that soft gasp from her or not.

  I didn’t stick around to check.

  FIFTEEN

  I was frothing at the mouth. Literal drool was sliding out
.

  Getting back to Kash’s place, finding it empty, and finding a desktop left on the kitchen table was a eureka moment for me. My hands were almost shaking from the anticipation of my own little office put in place in my bedroom, and knowing I could disappear in mere moments.

  I had to set everything up first.

  Finding a small table in the basement, I hauled that sucker up two flights of stairs. The chair was next, which was a bit of a struggle. I was tired from the desk. The chair, easier, but it had wheels. That meant back twisting, and the last time I had worked out was never. Once I had both those in place, the table and chair pushed up against one of the corners, the computer was third. That was just placing and plugging. I’d deal with a Wi-Fi connection, but that was the last and final moments before hackerdom.

  Necessities. I needed them.

  Headphones, preferably a headset with a thirty-six-inch cord. They were the cheapest on the market, but they were the best sellers for a reason. The fancy ones stopped working after six months or so. Then snacks and drinks. A normal all-dayer/nighter, I’d want coffee or energy drinks. Energy drinks were preferred, but after raiding Kash’s kitchen, I saw he wasn’t a fan of the stuff. That was something I needed to note to ask for later. Until then, coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

  Snagging a bag of chips, some candy, I was ready to go.

  Everything was spread out around me. The snacks had to be on the table. The drinks on the left side, mid-keyboard location. The snacks were just beyond the screen, left side as well. I needed the mouse on the right.