Page 24 of Release You

“Is all this really necessary?” I tore my gaze away from her to pick up a set of night-vision goggles off the bed.

“Yes.” She came to stand next to me. The faint scent of her perfume took me back to a time when our lives had been much simpler. In her heart, Nikki was still the same girl I’d met fifteen years ago.

“Stop touching. This is expensive stuff, and it’s not mine.” She snatched the goggles from my hand.

This was the worst time to be penniless. Nikki had everyright to be angry at me, maybe even disappointed. I’d never cared about the family’s fortune because I never had to be without it. When my lawyer told me my college fund had run out and I had nothing left, I’d been pissed at my uncle. But I was the one to blame. I was the biggest idiot for letting him con me out of my own money.

When I put in a bid on Paradise Creek’s request for proposal to renovate their downtown, all I’d seen was an opportunity to come back and satisfy this urge I had for revenge against my uncle. Nothing more. But now that I’d found Nikki again, so taken by the family money, I wanted more than revenge. I wanted it all back: my family, my life, and the Cavalier fortune. Most of all, I wanted to give Nikki everything she’d ever dreamed of. I wanted to be the one to lend her these goddamn expensive night-vision goggles. I wanted to be the one she came to for help.

Her shoulder brushed my chest. The small touch drew me to her like a magnet. I placed a hand on her waist and rubbed the underside of her ribs.

“We need to stay focused.” She slapped my fingers away and continued her inspection of her high-tech gear.

“God, you haven’t changed a bit.” I chuckled. “So bossy.”

“Hey, Kettle.” She flashed me a smile before she stuffed the equipment in her backpack, along with a flashlight and other stuff I seriously didn’t think we’d need. She swung the bag over her shoulder and turned to face me. “Ready?”

“You’ve done this before?”

“New York is full of interesting trinkets.” She put her hair up into a ponytail on her way out the door. I followed her as she ran her hand over the sheets dividing the lobby and the staircase in half. At some point, this stupid wall had to come down. We were partners now.

“There used to be a tunnel access in the coat closet, but it’sclosed off. It’s all brick, and who knows how far it goes?” She pointed toward the makeshift butler’s pantry on her side.

“So that’s why you chose this side? Because you knew the tunnel was there?” I’d been so distracted by the idea of having her here I hadn’t seen through the “you can have the side of the lobby with the bar since you already spent all that time cleaning it” bullshit.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Where are we going?”

I opened the front door and pointed toward the street. The determined look on her face filled me with hope and excitement. Mom was coming home tonight. Outside, the starless night greeted us with a warm and musty spray. The monsoon had finally taken pity on us. Rain pelted my shoulders as I bent down to remove the manhole cover.

“I’ll go first.” I glanced at her.

Nikki rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Water scurried down the asphalt, between her black-leather boots, and dripped down the steel, and now-slippery, ladder.

“Let me guess, because you know what you’re doing.”

“Good. I’m glad you remember that.” A split second after I dropped to the ground, Nikki fell next to me. She pressed her body to mine and clutched my bicep tight. I didn’t like the dark either. It always made me think of Dad. “Did you replace the cover?”

“What do you think?” She rolled her eyes again.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a jerk. I’m nervous.”

“I know.” She smiled.

“Come on. Right through there.” I walked to the end of the small room and flipped the switch.

She stared at the dimly lit corridor, her gaze dark with resolve. I kept my eyes on Nikki’s silhouette as she picked her way down the passageway like a shadow, moving fast, every step silent and fluid. A quarter of a mile in, theelectrical conduit ended, leaving us at the entrance of a pitch-black tunnel. I gripped Nikki’s hand and couldn’t help but smile. Only Nikki could understand what these tunnels meant to me.

“We’re almost there.” She aimed her flashlight ahead of us.

Nikki could handle herself. I’d gotten a taste of that her first day back when I ran into her at the construction site. But Cavalier Manor was full of nightmares and old memories that neither one of us wanted to recall. Had I made a mistake getting her involved?

“You really should’ve worn the suit I got for you,” she said. “You stick out like a cold sore.”

“A sore thumb.”

“You know what I mean.” She shrugged and spun in place to take in the space around us.

“I’m fine. We’re going to Cavalier Manor, not Langley.” Had Nikki ever done something as big and as dangerous as breaking into a government building? Ten years was a long time. I knew next to nothing about her. So much lost time, and so much I wanted to know about her. “Did you make it to Paris?”

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