Page 90 of Laced With Secrets
My hand found my belly, protective instinct overwhelming terror. “I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered to my unborn child. “I’m so sorry. But Daddy’s coming. He’ll come for us.”
Time moved with excruciating slowness. I couldn’t move, couldn’t call out, couldn’t do anything but stand perfectly still on the pressure plate and try to control my breathing. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to escape, but I couldn’t risk it. Couldn’t risk even the smallest movement.
Through our bond, I could feel Dominic’s desperate urgency. I tried to push calm through the bond, tried to let him know I was still alive, but fear kept overwhelming any other emotion.
How long have I been standing here? Five minutes? Ten?
The glass roof groaned softly overhead—ancient iron expanding and contracting in the cold night air, or perhaps Adelaide’s sabotage beginning to give way under the strain. I couldn’t tell. Every sound made my heart race frantically in my chest.
“Hold on,” I whispered. “Just hold on a little longer.”
The greenhouse door rattled suddenly—someone trying the handle from outside. My heart leaped with desperate hope and terror in equal measure.
“Leo!” Dominic’s voice, muffled through the door but unmistakable. Frantic. Terrified. “Leo, are you in there?”
“Don’t come in!” I shouted, voice cracking. “It’s trapped! I’m standing on a trigger!”
Silence for one agonizing heartbeat. Then Dominic’s voice again, closer to the door: “What kind of trigger?”
“Pressure plate! Connected to the roof! If I move, it collapses! Adelaide—she rigged it—she took my phone?—”
“Blake!” Dominic’s shout was muffled but audible. “Get Richard! Now! And Sheriff Hawkins!”
I could hear movement outside, people running. Through the glass walls, I caught glimpses of Dominic’s face pressed against the frosted panels, trying to see inside.
“Keep talking to me,” Dominic ordered, his voice deliberately calm despite the panic I felt blazing through our bond. “Are you hurt?”
“No. But I can’t move. She said if I move, the roof will come down?—”
“We’re getting you out.” The certainty in his voice was absolute. “Stay exactly where you are.”
More footsteps. Richard’s voice, breathless: “What’s going on?”
“Adelaide trapped Leo inside,” Dominic said, his words clipped and controlled. “Pressure plate. Connected to the roof structure. Can you disable it?”
“I need to see—” Richard’s face appeared at the glass, eyes scanning the interior.
“Can you disable it?” Dominic repeated, each word sharp with barely restrained desperation.
“There’s a basement control panel for the old security system,” Richard said. “If I can access it?—”
“Then go!” Blake’s voice. “I’ll come with you.”
“If Adelaide modified it, there might be failsafes.” Richard’s voice was urgent. “Traps within traps?—”
Sheriff Hawkins arrived, slightly out of breath. “What’s the situation?”
“Adelaide confessed to murdering Thomas Wong,” I called out, my voice shaking. “She told me everything. Then she trapped me here. She has my phone—GPS should tell you where she is?—”
“And she has a gun,” I added.
“All units,” Hawkins said, apparently speaking into his radio. “Locate cell phone registered to Leo Sterling-Hart. Suspect Adelaide Fairfax is armed and dangerous. Apprehend on sight.”
“Richard, we need that control panel now,” Dominic said, his voice tight.
Penny’s voice, panicked and wobbling as if near tears. “He’s down there working on it.”
Through the glass, I could see Dominic trying the door handle—locked. He stepped back, clearly calculating whether to break it down.