Page 27 of Bliss with a Billionaire

“I think it’s a lovely idea, Sierra,” Julia said with a rub of her shoulder. “Let’s talk about it another time, okay?”

Kyle shifted in the bed.

“Tired of losing yet, loser?” Sierra asked.

“I wouldn’t have lost so much if you weren’t cheating,” he said, his forehead creasing.

Julia studied him with narrowed eyes. “Need your pain meds?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“I’ll get them,” she said with a rub of his arm. She climbed from the bed, tugging her phone from her pocket and glancing at it. Her forehead crinkled as she spotted a text from an unknown number.

Heat washed over her, but she shoved the phone back into her pocket before she grabbed Kyle’s pain medication and shook two pills from the bottle. After delivering them with a glass of water, she hovered at his bedside.

“Julia? You okay?” Grant asked.

“Yeah, deal me out of the next round. I just want to check on Alicia and Ethan and make sure they’re settled. I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” he said with a grin.

“Hurry back,” Sierra said, “there are too many egos in this room without supervision.”

“I promise,” she said with a smile before she darted into the hall, pulling her phone from her pocket again. With trembling hands, she swiped into the message.You think you’re so smug. Well, look who is having the last laugh.

A picture followed of Alicia tied to a chair, along with another message.If you want to save her life, come alone to 538 Silvertree. Tell anyone about this, and you’ll never see your sister again.

Julia swallowed hard as she blew up the picture, her eyes tearing. How had this happened? How was there another attack on her family?

She wasn’t certain how much more her heart could take. She shoved the phone into her pocket as she hurried down the hall. With labored breathing, she burst into Alicia’s room.

“Ally? Ally!” She tore across the room and raced into the darkened bathroom, finding it empty.

Her sister wasn’t here. She swallowed hard as she left the room behind and raced to Ethan’s room. She found it empty, too.

Her heart ramped up as she slid her phone from her pocket and dialed her sister’s number. Her call when straight to voicemail. Her breathing turned ragged as she bobbled her phone in a desperate attempt to dial Ethan.

His voicemail played in her ear as worried groan escaped her. Her knees wobbled, but her feet drove her forward. She was, once again, playing the game by Lydia’s rules.

With her stomach twisted into knots, she fled from the house into the night air. The coolness couldn’t soothe her frayed nerves. Visions of the shape they’d found Kyle in danced in her mind, making her worry about how she’d find her sister.

With blurry vision, she slid behind the wheel of her car. She wiped the tears away, trying to focus as she typed the address into her GPS and pulled the car down the drive.

Her grip remained unnaturally tight on the wheel, every mile she drove made her heart beat harder against her ribs. “Please be okay, Ally,” she squeaked as she urged more speed from the car.

As the building came into view, Julia stared up at the old Victorian mansion. Secluded, on the outskirts of town, the overgrown ivy and weathered neglect sent a shiver down her spine.

She imagined her sister being help inside, eyeing the dancing lights glowing from within. She eased the car to a stop and leapt from it, her eyes rising to take in the structure.

With a hard swallow, Julia forced her legs to move forward, climbing the ramshackle stairs to the wide, sagging porch. She pushed through the front door. The strong odor of decay filled her nostrils as she stepped into the dusty space.

“Hello?” she called.

“Upstairs!” Lydia’s voice answered.

Julia’s eyes rose to the second level, her throat going dry. She wrapped her fingers around the peeling banister and slowly climbed past the candles lighting her way.

“Lydia?” she questioned as she reached the top of the stairs.