The Secret Night

Giving the boat a shove, she pushed it into the water again, wading in to give it another good shove, then watching as the current grabbed it and took it away. With a little luck, it would serve to throw the Refuge guards off her trail. They might even think she’d drowned.

Exhausted and bedraggled, she looked around to get her bearings.

In front of her was a scraggly wood, full of underbrush, but a little way to the right lay a wide expanse of well-tended lawn. And on that lawn, set well back from the river, was a very large house with lights showing in many of its windows. Maybe the people inside would help her.

Or shoot her as an intruder. Or set the family Rottweilers on her. That, she thought, would really be the final straw.

Yet if she walked to the road, Caldwell’s men could be waiting to scoop her up.

She swiped a hand through her hair and sighed. Given the choices, she decided, the house was the lesser of the evils. She started toward it, but she hadn’t trudged more than twenty feet when a large, masculine hand clamped down on her shoulder.

She opened her mouth to scream—but she didn’t have the chance. The man’s other hand clamped itself firmly over her mouth.

Chapter Three

Emma twisted in her captor’s arms. Shooting out a foot, she caught him in the shin and was gratified to hear him grunt. But he didn’t let her go. She managed another kick, and he muttered a curse.

“Take it easy,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Like hell. She kept struggling and pounding him with all her strength, determined to go down fighting.

“If you’ve escaped from Caldwell’s estate, I’m on your side,” he puffed. “So stop trying to do me bodily harm.”

When she kept fighting, his voice took on an urgent note. “I’ll trust you, if you trust me. I’ll take my hand off your mouth if you promise not to scream. Nod if you agree.”

She could always change her mind later.

She nodded, and when he took his hand away, she spun around to face him. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“Alex Shane. With the Light Street Detective Agency. I was hired to investigate the disappearance of a woman named Anabel Lewis. I have reason to think she’s at the Refuge. Do you know her?”

Feeling light-headed, as if she might actually faint, Emma tried to gather her wits. “Anabel. Yes. I do know her. She sleeps in the room next to mine.”

“So she’s okay?”

“As okay as you can be at the Refuge.”

“Tell me about it.” He looked around. “Let’s get out of here.”

“How did you find me?”

“I was doing some surveillance, and I saw you on Caldwell’s dock—fighting with some woman. Then I heard shouting, and I saw you take off in the rowboat.”

Emma sighed. “The woman is my sister. She ratted me out to Caldwell’s guards. She’s… This isn’t going to make any sense to you, I know, but she’s under some kind of mind control—brainwashed, or something. That’s what Caldwell does to people. Your Anabel Lewis is in the same shape.”

“It does make sense. But come on, we’d better get out of here.” As he spoke, he ushered her along the shore.

Suddenly, from the darkness of the woods, she heard the crackle and tromping of feet running through the underbrush. Then came men’s voices, low and urgent.

“This way. I saw her land a few minutes ago.”

“But the boat’s—”

“I don’t give a damn about the boat. I tell you, I saw her land. She’s got to be around here somewhere.”

Swift as a hawk in the night, Alex Shane grabbed Emma and pulled her into the woods, behind a clump of tall, straight pine trees. A few seconds later, two men rushed past.

She heard the rustle of fabric. Then moonlight glinted off a gun in Shane’s hand. Neither one of them spoke as more men moved toward them, their voices lower now.

She felt Shane tense. Lord, would he really shoot these guys? Her knees weakened as the men moved past them.

Shane waited to make sure nobody else was coming, then he took her hand, whispering, “Come on.”

Without any urging, she followed as he led her through the woods to the lawn surrounding the well-lit mansion. They skirted the house, then walked through another stand of trees to the edge of the road, where an SUV was parked beneath a tangle of vines. In the darkness, the sweet smell of honeysuckle drifted toward her.

She collapsed into the front seat as Shane started the engine, pulled onto the road and drove away. He didn’t turn on his lights, though, until they’d traveled at least a couple of miles.

“So how did you end up at the Refuge?” he asked.

Emma drew a couple of steadying breaths before answering. “My sister took a self-actualization course from Damien Caldwell and decided to burrow in. I came to try to dig her out. That was two weeks ago. I’ve been pretending to be a believer, but…well, I’m not much of an actress. Caldwell knew I was faking it, and…and I heard him tell one of his henchmen he was going to kill me.”

He whistled through his teeth. “Lucky you got away.”

“They probably would have snagged me over here if you hadn’t come along. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. The Refuge is a scary place these days. I’ve been over by boat, at night, a couple of times.” He looked regretful. “If this were the bad old days, I would have stayed and tried to forcibly collect Ms. Lewis. But I’ve got a wife and two kids now, so risking life and limb is no longer part of the job description.”

“You risked your neck just spying over there.”

He snorted. “Those odds were acceptable. I worked for the previous owner of the estate,” Shane continued. “I know what the layout used to be. Tell me what you think has been changed since Caldwell took over—things that look new or like they might have been altered.”

“It probably looks like it always did, except that the bedrooms on the upper floors have been divided up and turned into dormitories, with communal bathrooms added.”

“So what are you going to do about your sister?”

She hesitated a moment, questioning the wisdom of sharing her plans with a stranger. But then, the stranger had saved her butt. Besides, she knew intuitively that Alex Shane was on the side of the angels.

“As a matter of fact,” she said, “I had another detective in mind.”

“Who?” he inquired.

“A man named Nicholas Vickers.”

“Don’t know him.”

Well, so much for recommendations. “Apparently he had a run-in with Caldwell. I’m hoping that puts him on my side.”

Shane was quiet for a minute or two. Then, seeming to come to a decision, he said, “If I know an operation is going down, I might be able to get some guys from our agency to act as backup.” He reached into his pocket and handed her a card. “As I said, I’m with the Light Street Detective Agency. The main office is in Baltimore, but I hold down the fort on the eastern shore.”