Page 109 of Savage Seduction

She shrugged. “I didn’t know there was any,” she mouthed back at me.

The men kept coming and going. I shook my head in disbelief as I tried to count their trips. I eyed the stairs going up, my feet itching to run. But not if we were going to get caught. A moment had to come soon, right?

“I’m fucking thirsty,” Jacob said when he reached the top, heaving for breath. “I’ll get us some cold drinks. Who’s in?”

Now that he had his gold, he sounded smug and positively benevolent.

Panic propelled me and Chiara forward, rushing through the kitchen and into the chef’s pantry. We huddled in breathless silence there, clinging to each other.

From our hiding place, we heard two pairs of footsteps come into the kitchen.

“It’s too heavy for the van,” saidone man. “We won’t be able to take it all.”

“We’ll split it between the van and cars. No way am I leaving anything behind,” said Jacob.

“That much gold just sitting there under his feet. Fuck me. It’s four times what you said. DeAngelis must be one crazy bastard.”

“It’s his dad who was the crazy bastard,” said Jacob, sounding bitter. “A cool one hundred million sitting under his feet all these years, making him feel like a fucking king.”

“Thought you were friends with the old man?”

“Sure I was. He was a great guy. But dead is dead.”

Their voices faded as they left the kitchen.

Chiara’s trembling hand gripped mine tightly, tears silently streaming down her face.

“Bastard,” she whispered. “Dad was supposed to be his friend. And Mom loves him. She actuallyloveshim. And all this time he was planning this.”

The minutes stretched into an eternity as we waited. The sounds were too distant for us to tell what was going on. We had to creep back to the hallway opposite the stairs, where we waited again for our chance.

And then it came. All the men went down at once.

We eased out of our hiding place, but a pile of heavy bags was wedging the basement door open. We couldn’t lock them in!

Momentary fury balled my fists. I had so wanted to lock Toby down there with them. But we couldn’t afford to sit around.

Chiara looked devastated.

“Go!” I whispered, pushing her.

Sprinting across the corridor, we reached the stairs, my heart pounding in my chest. I pushed her up ahead of me. Her shoe fell off, tumbling down and landing against the pile of bags.

She gasped. We both knew they would see it the moment they came up.

I hurried back to get it. And came face to face with a man coming up the stairs. The driver of the van.

He froze, his eyes widening. Then, cursing, he dropped his heavy leather bag with a thump and ran at me.

“Run, Chiara,” I shouted.

But she stayed frozen on the spot, a look of horror on her face.

“Run! Go get help.”

He tried to shove me aside to get at her. I pushed him back, giving her the chance to flee. He slapped me so hard it nearly took my head off.

Jacob came running. He looked stunned to see me. He saw Chiara fleeing up the stairs.

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