Page 109 of Bliss with a Billionaire

She shook it off, letting her curiosity kick in. “It’ll be okay. We’ll just take a quick look around.”

She slid her hand into his and tugged him closer to the rickety porch steps leading to the doorless opening. They stepped inside, eyeing the blackened walls. The house groaned, echoing the trauma it had withstood.

The scent of charred memories hung in the air, a stark reminder of the fire that had ripped through the house only days before. Each step inside the Victorian echoed with a haunting creak, the blackened walls standing as silent witnesses to the night that had almost torn everything apart.

“We should split up,” Sierra said.

“Why? What are we even looking for?” Grant asked.

Alicia dug the key from her pocket and toggled on her phone’s flashlight. “Maybe something that looks like these symbols that are on the key?”

“Right. Text us pictures. Then we’ll split up. Me and James. Daddy and Julia. L.L. Beans. Oh…and Kyle can go with…ummm…”

“I was nice to you about this whole DNA thing, Sierra.”

“Not my fault you’re a chump,” she said with a shrug.

Alicia shook her head. “First of all, that’s a ridiculous split for teams.”

“Why?” Sierra asked.

“Because Ethan and I are the only two with weapons. And you sent us both together.”

“Oh,” Sierra said with a bob of her head, “simple fix. Give us guns.”

Grant shook his head. “No. No one is getting a gun outside of the people who are trained to use a weapon.”

“Right, and that’s me, Ethan, and Julia.”

“And me,” James said with a raise of his hand. “In fact, there’s one in the car. I’ll run back and get it.”

Sierra’s eyes went wide as she glanced at Julia. “You know how to use a gun?”

Julia nodded as she took the key from her sister, snapped a picture of the engravings on the bow and sent them. “I do. But I really don’t think we need guns. Let’s just look around.”

James kissed Sierra’s cheek. “I’ll grab mine anyway. Be right back.”

“I’ll go with Dad and Julia,” Kyle said as Julia stepped toward the sitting room to their right.

“We’ll go left,” Alicia said. “Meet back here when we’re finished?”

“Yep,” Julia said, already scanning the room for any clues to anything that might involve the key.

“Hey!” Sierra said with a stamp of her foot. “Wait for me.”

“I thought you were waiting for James?” Kyle taunted.

“He can catch up. I don’t want to miss anything.” She pulled up the pictures on her phone and studied them. “It looks like the one in the middle is a book. Is there a library?”

“Not anymore,” Grant said as he grimaced at the charred furniture in the room.

“I’m not sure,” Julia said as she stepped further into the room. “I came in and went straight upstairs.”

Sierra frowned, wrapping her arms around her. “Is that where Lydia told you about…me?”

Julia twisted to offer her a tight-lipped smile. The memory of the horrific moments, both with Lydia and when she’d been trapped in the fire, flashing through her mind. She shook it away, focusing on the potential answers hidden in the library.

“Yeah. I’m sorry.”