Page 29 of Grave Kisses (Graveyard of Hearts Collection #1)

Chrissy

I sigh heavily before getting into the car. Decan is driving, and Andre is riding shotgun. He looks back and smiles at me, but I scold the butterflies when they start fluttering in my belly. “How have you been, Chris?” he asks.

“Okay,” I say simply.

“That’s all I get?”

“What else do you want, Andre? I’m focused on Kendra,” I snap.

“Chrissy,” Decan says simply.

“Fuck. I know. I’m sorry,” I sigh. “You fucked with my head, Andre. I don’t know how I am doing.”

“How so?”

“Because you made me feel like an option,” I admit, looking out of the window. “Bellamy and Declan are the only consistently good things in my life… I am a huge disappointment to my parents.”

“How do you think my parents feel?” Andre laughs.

“Baby, I built my empire. It wasn’t given to me.

My mom was an elementary school teacher, and my father was a professor of English.

When he found out I was running the streets…

Disappointed doesn’t cover it. You live your life for yourself and no one else.

You are the only one who should matter.”

“Easy for you to say,” I sigh. “You were already going to help, weren’t you?” I ask.

“I was. Bellamy called me shortly after the apartment fire to just keep an eye out for Kendra because she was struggling,” he says. “Jeff was the new piece, though.”

“How could he possibly be connected to Archer?” I ask.

“I don’t know, but the word is… Archer is missing. Just… vanished,” Andre says.

“When we get there, do we need to be on alert?” Decan asks.

“Uh… No. I think we will be fine. They’d be stupid as hell to come out here,” Andre says.

“He has search teams out tonight, I think,” I say. “It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes up.”

We ride in silence until we stop in front of Alan’s home. He was a nice man. I hate that he passed away. He would be a wonderful grandfather to those twins.

We get into the house without any issues.

By the looks of things, it was just abandoned.

Before we start to clear the house, I pull my pistol from its holster and have it at the ready, but pointed down.

I don’t expect to run into anyone, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

We spread out and sweep through the first floor, room by room.

I take the stairs up, and they follow behind me as we ascend.

Once again, we go room by room and sweep.

“I feel like he would have kept it somewhere close by,” I say when we walk into the master bedroom. “Or somewhere important to him.”

We start searching high and low, looking for anything that might hold secrets Alan left behind.

When I grow bored with this room, I move on.

I don’t know which room was Kendra’s, but when I walk into one with bright pink walls, I am guessing this is either hers or Kimberly’s old room.

This place has six bedrooms, so it’s possible.

I go through and search every inch of the room, leaving nothing unturned. I sigh heavily and turn to leave but gasp and fall back on my ass when I run smack into Andre. “Christ, dude. You can’t sneak around,” I sigh and lay back to rub my hands down my face.

“You think an attacker is going to give you a warning, Chris?” he asks.

“Are you an attacker?” I ask as he steps over me so he has a foot on either side of my hips.

“Maybe,” he says, going down on one knee positioned between my thighs. He continues as he drops the other knee and pushes my legs apart.

“Sir, we are supposed to be looking for something,” I say. He smiles deviously as he leans down. I instinctively place my hands on his chest, and my breath hitches when he presses his hips into me, letting me feel how hard he is.

“Trapdoor,” he says before softly kissing me.

“What?” I squeak out. He turns my face and points under the bed.

“Trapdoor,” he repeats.

I gasp, and he chuckles and leans up, letting me jump to my feet and shove the bed out of the way. It’s a simple metal frame, so it slides with little effort. I then drop down to my knees and pull the door open, revealing a cardboard box.

“Decan!” I call out as I get my phone from my pocket. When I pull the lid off, there is just a black leather notebook inside.

“Hey,” Bellamy answers. I place the call on speakerphone and open the notebook. On the first page, there it is.

“I have it. You ready?” I ask.

“Oh God. Yeah. Uhhhh… Okay. Yeah. Go ahead.”

“Kilo Lima dash Alpha Bravo nine xylophone two dash eight four frank Quebec zero one dash alpha seven,” I say, but repeat it back one more time to him.

“KL-AB9X2-84FQ01-A7,” Bellamy parrots.

“You got it. Who is there?”

“Everyone,” he says. “Searching.”

After a minute, he still hasn’t spoken. “Hello?” I say.

“Uhm… Chrissy… It says it’s at the same location as you,” Bellamy says, sounding utterly defeated.

“Ah, shit. Okay. It’s pretty accurate. What part of the house is it in?” I ask, standing up.

“The… kitchen area. So the south side of the house,” he says. I have never heard my brother sound so fucking broken before.

“Hey. You stop it,” I say. “Let's find the tracker and go from there. Okay? I’m going to hang up and search. I will call you back as soon as we find it.”

“Okay,” he says, sniffing back tears.

I end the call and swipe away my tears before I openly cry.

We go to the kitchen and start tearing everything apart to look for the necklace.

Eventually, we give up and go to both the dining room and the guest bathroom, since they are all on this side of the house.

When that proves to be unsuccessful, we go back upstairs to check the rooms up there again.

I am teary-eyed as I search, but eventually my eyes are blurry and I can’t see. Decan pulls me to his chest, and I fall apart. “Shhh. This doesn’t mean she’s gone, baby. You know that,” Decan reminds me, holding my face between his hands while I snivel and hiccup. “Now, it’s here, but where?”

“I don’t know,” I sniff. “I saw the blueprints, and we’ve gone into every room. We could check the attic, but…”

“There’s not a basement on the blueprints?” Andre asks.

“No,” I tell him.

“Come here,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room and downstairs. He doesn’t stop until we are out of the house and on the north end of the property. This side faces a wooded area, so I am confused why we are over here. It’s dark as hell, and I can hardly see anything.

“What are we doing out here?” I ask. He pulls a flashlight out and shines it on the side of the house, and I sigh. “Can I get a hint?”

“The window, Chris,” he says. “I walked around the property when we first got here… If there isn’t a basement, why is there a window level with the ground?”

“Well, how the fuck do we get in there?” I ask. I go to move toward the window, but he stops me.

“You have no idea what is down there. Don’t go sticking your face down there and making it a target,” Andre says. “Hidden doors like this, I’d imagine they would be tucked away in a closet. Let’s go back through the house and check the floors and wall panels.”

“Okay,” I say with a sigh.