Page 60 of The Tallest Tower (Underbelly Enchanted)

The tension sitting heavily in her shoulders washes away when she smiles. “I have been inside this home since before Mr. Malone’s conception. I’ve been here for a very long time.”

“You worked for Tim the Second?” Adrenaline floods my veins, and I startle the older woman as I reach out for a pair of jeans, any pair, yank them from the hanger, and shove my feet into the legs. I jump in place to tug the denim over my hips, then I fix the buttons and tie the bottom of Felix’s shirt into a knot so I look a little less… tent-y. “Join me for a walk.”

I grab a pair of sneakers from the very bottom of the shoe wall, socks from a drawer, then I take the woman’s hand and pull her out of the room.

I have so many questions. So many blank holes in a story slowly beginning to form.

“Ms. Cannon.” Dragging her feet, Mary attempts to free her arm from my grip as I bring us down the stairs and past men who carry exceptionally large weapons.

But they don’t speak. They don’t step in my way. So I ignore them as eagerly as I ignored my childhood security detail at home.

“We’re to stay here,” she argues, her words becoming more panicked as I turn left at the bottom of the stairs, not right.

For the first time since my arrival, I shove through the front doorand burst onto the stairs out front, the sun glaring right down on us, like a spotlight that Felix personally set to keep us contained.

“Ms. Cannon!” Mary throws my hand off and stops on a skid when a dozen men turn from their posts and look up at us. “We have been ordered to stay inside.”

“I received no such order.” I move down one step, slide a sock on and follow it with a shoe. Then I move down another, and repeat the same steps to slide my second shoe on. “Felix said I was to stay here, but he provided me swimwear, which implies permission to be outside.”

I descend another step. Then a third. And though tension thickens in the air from the men surrounding me, they don’t move to touch me. They don’t stop me.

“I intend to go for a walk in the gardens, Mary. And you were instructed to see to my comfort, no?”

“I mean…” She wrings her hands and nervously studies each guard. “He said I was to see to your care.”

“Exactly.” I cast a hand toward the massive lawn and flora laid out around us. “And I’m going for a walk. You would be willfully ignoring Mr. Malone’s orders by not escorting me.”

“Ms. Cannon…” she groans.Please don’t make me go.

I feel for her. I do. But my need for answers far outweighs my concern for her emotional state. So I turn and start away.

“I’m leaving.” I lift my hand to wave goodbye.

But I’m not so stupid as to think eyes and guns don’t follow every step I take. So I move to the left and start toward an elaborate garden, instead of continuing ahead and making Felix’s men think I intend to walk straight out the front gate.

“Ohfine!”

I grin, but I don’t turn as Mary’s shod feetthod-thod-thoddown the concrete steps.

“This is most certainly not what I had in mind when I considered my plans for today!”

“And yet,” I slow my steps and wait for the woman to catch up, “the sunlight will be good for us both.”

I peek discreetly over my shoulder and find two gun-toting men shadowing our steps into the garden.

“So, you’ve been in the Malones’ employ since before the children’s births?”

“Since before Timothy’s birth. The third,” she sighs. “Yes, Ms. Cannon. I was with Timothy the Second approximately five years before his sons.”

“With?” My stomach jumps as I glance to my right and study her profile. “Romantically?”

“A few times.” She lifts her chin, proud, and looks straight ahead. “Timothy Malone and I met in our youths, Ms. Cannon. We became friends, and over the years, sometimes lovers.”

Nausea rolls in my belly. The thought of someonewillinglysleeping with that monster is unfathomable to me. “Consensually? You slept together on purpose?”

She scoffs, though the sound is impossibly quiet. “Sometimes.”

Ah.

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