Page 56 of Hidden Heir

“What the fuck,” I hiss, retrieving the key and examining it. Did Selina lie to me or is there something stuck in the lock? Perhaps I have the wrong key.

Dropping to my knees I peer into the lock. I’m met with shadow and it quickly becomes apparent that Leon left the key in the other side of the door. Cursing to myself, I climb to my feet and frantically scan for something I can use to dislodge the other key. I use one of the wire hangers, wrestling and bending it out of shape. I feed it into the keyhole. After several moments of frustrating precision, there’s finally a satisfying thump on the other side of the door.

The key is gone.

I scramble back onto my feet and thrust my own key into the lock. It glides in smoothly. The lock turns, and I wrench open the door, half expecting to see Leon still standing there, but the hallway is empty. Not a soul to be seen, not even Rik.

There’s no time to waste. Leaving Tiffany alone in this house for another second terrifies me, and I can barely keep trackof my thoughts while running down the hallway to her room. Stumbling inside, Ant lurches up from where he was dozing on the couch. I look over at her bed and Tiffany greets me with a wide smile.

“Brooke?” Ant yawns and rubs his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Get up,” I hiss. “Get the fuck up.”

“Hey!” He leans forward. “What’s going on?”

“Where’s Selina?” I hurry toward Tiffany, forcing a smile through my tears. “Hi baby.”

“She uh…” Ant rubs at his face. “She had to check on something for that old man, I think.”

“Kreik?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, fine. Come on, we need to go.” As I scoop Tiffany into my arms she stares at me, then her lower lip very slowly starts to tremble.

“Go where?” Ant asks, finally standing.

I press my lips to Tiffany’s forehead, then cuddle her close as I look at my brother. “Anywhere but here. It’s not safe, do you understand? We’re not safe here after all and we need to go.”

“Oh thank god,” Ant mutters, sounding relieved. “This place is fucked up.”

I don’t notice the strange, calculating look in his eye as he moves past me because I’m distracted by Tiff. She’s two seconds away from crying because I’m crying, and I need to make sure she stays quiet as we leave.

“Hey, sweetie, hey.”

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” she asks.

It breaks my heart to see her upset. How much damage am I doing to her by constantly crying and rushing her from place to place? I was supposed to be a better mom than this. Keeping her safe is all I want to do.

“Listen. Mommy’s a little sad because she lost a game, but I think you can help me win the next one, okay?”

“Game? What game?” Ant snorts as Tiffany nods and perks up slightly.

I glare at Ant to silence him, then smile back at Tiffany. “We’re playing a huge game of hide and seek.”

“Oh!” Tiffany beams suddenly. “I love hide and seek!”

“I know you do. We’re a team so I need you to be really quiet while we look for a place to hide, okay? We’re going to hide from everyone else and then Leon will come and find us.”

“Okay!”

“But remember, everyone else is on Leon’s team, and we don’t want them to find us so we have to be extra super sneaky, got it?”

“Got it, Mommy,” Tiffany whispers. “Super-dupersneaky.”

“That’s right. Okay, come on sweetie.” Scooping her back into my arms, I turn to Ant, his eyes wide. “What?”

“Shit, you’re serious,” he says. “What the hell happened?”

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