Page 16 of Release You

“I have until tomorrow to come up with the money. Or are you backing out of that promise too? Huh?” He glared at me.

I tapped a fist to my forehead, counting to ten to keep my composure. What was he talking about? “Ineverback out from my promises. Unlike you, when I say I’m going to do something, I do it. Always.”

He winced. Finally, his face showed what he felt. Tears swelled in his eyes, and his cheeks turned red. “Always, Hipolita?”

“Don’t call me that. That girl is dead. And so are you. You hear? You’re dead to me.” I ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time.

I slammed the bedroom door behind me and threw myself on the bed. I hit the pillow twice before I buried my face in it and screamed. How did I get here? Crying my eyes out over Henry Cavalier again, like a stupid little girl who still believed in fairy tales.

CHAPTER 6

The Speak Softly Shop

Henry

I threw the takeout containers in the trash and downed the rest of my beer. Three days had gone by since my little reunion with Nikki—yeah, Nikki, because the Hipolita I knew was long gone. Not exactly the reunion I dreamed about for so many years. So many nights I wished she’d come back and tell me she never stopped thinking of me. My jaw tightened. I opened another beer and took a long swig.

Dammit, Nikki. How could I have been so wrong about you?

At least now, instead of flaunting her tight pants around the hotel with her happy attitude, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, she stayed in her room day and night. She hadn’t even come out to tell me that our agreement had expired.

I thought for sure she’d leave her room to throw that back in my face. To tell me how, unlike her rich friend, I didn’t have two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to buy this damn hotel. Or pay for a couple of hours of her company. Christ, why did Istill want her after all this time? I tossed the bottle of beer in the trash and headed out.

“Hey there, Henry. I was coming to look for ya.” Russ met me outside the hotel, where the sinkhole used to be.

The guys had worked two days straight to repair the street. All that work and I still couldn’t find the damn prohibition tunnels that led to Cavalier Manor. Grandad’s dad had built them in the twenties. That was how the Cavaliers had made their fortune—James Senior had never made big money designing buildings.

“What is it?” I asked.

He smiled and rubbed a hand at the nape of his neck. No doubt he was relieved I wasn’t breathing fire anymore. Nikki being back had put me in a mood that had all my guys avoiding me.

“Well, you told me to let you know if I found anything out of the ordinary.” He looked behind him. “I think it’s best if I show you.” He gestured for me to follow him.

My heart skipped a beat when he opened the access into the manhole in the middle of the street.

“What did you find?” I asked.

“It’s over here.” He climbed down the ladder.

I glanced behind me, half expecting Nikki to be standing by the front door. When I didn’t see her there, I followed Russ down the rabbit hole.

“I didn’t make a big deal of it, you know. But I had the guys reinforce the walls in that passageway over there.” Russ continued once my feet hit the ground.

For a moment, I’d hoped he’d found a hidden tunnel. “Thanks for doing that. Something tells me our pristine mayor hasn’t been keeping up with the town’s maintenance.”

“It’s not that, Henry. This tunnel isn’t in the blueprints you gave me.” He crossed his arms across his chest and beamed atme. “I think that counts as anything out of the ordinary. Don’t you think?”

“Holy shit. It sure does.”

“Is this why we’ve been blasting half of downtown? Why we evacuated a bunch of people?” His face lit up. “You’ve been looking for hidden tunnels?”

Russ wasn’t just my foreman. He was a friend. When he heard I was back in town, he signed on to my crew, no questions asked. We picked up our friendship right where we left off. I should’ve trusted him with my secret from the beginning.

“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I just didn’t?—”

“Don’t even go there. Just tell me why, and I’ll let it go.” He nodded once.

“My uncle stole everything from me when Dad died.” Acid built in my stomach and spread through my body. His death would never stop hurting. Russ patted me on the shoulder, and I nodded. “Now he has the entire town on his side. I can’t stand it. Look at what he’s done, neglecting all the buildings my family owned. Gambling them away. He stole my life, and I want it back.” My voice echoed in the tunnels. “Dad trusted Uncle Jonathan with his family, and the asshole betrayed him. I’m not that little kid he could manipulate anymore. I see him for what he is now. And he needs to give back what he stole.”

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