Page 110 of Deception

They climbed from his Range Rover and headed toward the edge of the trees again.

Pausing there, they observed the house. In the darkness, it was hard to see much. There were definitely no lights on or any other evidence indicating someone was there.

In fact, everything looked so normal. Eerily normal.

“I think we should walk the perimeter of the woods before we venture closer,” Jason suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”

“That seems like a good idea.”

Woods only surrounded about half of the property. After that, it was a stretch of open field eventually leading to the rolling mountains in the background.

The less they were exposed, the better.

They watched their steps as they walked in the darkness, not turning on a flashlight in order not to be spotted. Slowly, they made their way through the woods, the only sounds that of their footsteps hitting the ground or the swish of their clothes.

Jason suddenly stopped in front of her. “Look at that.”

“Look at what?” Olive peered over his shoulder.

Her eyes widened when she saw a dark-green sedan parked within the trees.

There was a small pull-out, big enough for maybe two vehicles to be stashed out of sight.

Even when Olive had walked the property before, she hadn’t seen this area. The position of the trees blocked any vehicles from sight.

She and Jason exchanged a look.

Then a voice rang out.

Jason pulled Olive behind a tree.

As he did, she glanced toward the voice.

Her eyes widened when she saw a horizontal door lift from the ground and then close again as a man stepped out with a cell phone to his ear.

Her heart pounded harder. A storm shelter.

She should have known.

Rebecca’s cousin—or whoever the man actually was—had been underground.

“I’m doing everything you told me,” the man growled into the phone. “I need you to stay off my case. I don’t know why the cameras keep going down. I’m still trying to figure that out. The good news is that they’re up now.”

Olive’s breath caught. Was he talking about when Nova had taken the cameras offline at Rebecca and Matt’s house?

It seemed like a good bet.

Was this the smoking gun Olive had been looking for?

“I’ve got to do a few more things, then I’ll be back,” the man continued. “I’ll be careful. Yes, I’ve seen the woman snooping around. I won’t let her find out anything. If she gets too close to the truth, I know what to do.”

Olive’s heart pounded harder. He was talking about her, wasn’t he?

The man climbed into his car and slammed the door. Olive couldn’t hear any more of that conversation, but maybe she’d heard enough.

Part of her wanted to follow this guy. But the other part wanted even more to see what was inside that bunker.

She watched as the man drove away. No other cars were here. Based on the conversation they’d overheard, no one was inside either.