Page 47 of Night and Day

“No. But I love lots of people in my life. Love is real.”

I wouldn’t know. “I’m talking about romantic love. It’s just an excuse to spend a lot of money on a wedding, then even more on a divorce.”

She waved a hand in front of her face.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to see through all the cynicism.”

I sighed. “Sorry, talking with my father always sets me on edge. Now, let’s call for some help.” I looked at my phone and cursed.

“What?” She pressed against me, and I tried not to focus on the fact that I could feel her soft breast against my arm. Or how soft and smooth the skin of her thighs had felt when I’d caught her when she’d tumbled.

She’s an employee. I repeated it a few times in my head to remind myself. My father had quite a few affairs with staff. I’d had to oversee several sexual harassment payouts.

“No signal. Trust my father to find the tiniest signal and drop his bombshell.” I felt the light throb that signaled a headache was on the way.

The power came back on.

The lights flickered to life, and I had a perfect view of the sympathy on Tessa’s dirt-streaked face.

The creak of a door echoed into the space. “Anyone down here?”

“Everett!” Tessa spun and headed for the stairs at a trot. “Thank God. I can’t believe the power went out. Again.”

I followed her. “I’m moving update wiring to the top of the list.”

The maintenance man stood in the doorway, tools in hand. There was a serious look on his face. “It wasn’t the wiring.”

“Really?” Tessa paused. “Don’t tell me a guest plugged in three hundred appliances in their room and was surprised they tripped the breaker?”

Everett shook his head. “I found the problem. Someone had tampered with a panel.”

Now I frowned.

“What?” A groove formed on Tessa’s brow.

“And, it looks like this lock’s been tampered with, too.” He pointed at the outside of the basement door.

I spotted the scratch marks on the card reader.

Tessa’s mouth dropped open.

Someone had trapped us in the basement on purpose.

“This is crazy,” Tessa said. “It must have been an accident.”

It didn’t look like an accident. No one at Windward had been particularly welcoming, and I figured this was another bigfuck youto me.

It didn’t matter. I didn’t let anything or anyone get in the way of what I wanted. I straightened. “I’ll talk to Caden about this.”

Tessa didn’t look happy, but nodded. She straightened her dress. “I’m sure you need to get ready for your conference calls. Why don’t I organize for Chef Harvey to send a plate of food to your office, and I’ll…”—she looked down at her dirt-streaked dress and grimaced —“… tidy up. We can resume our tour this afternoon.”

“That’s fine.”

“Good. Thanks again for the rescue, Everett.”

I watched her hurry off with that brisk, efficient stride of hers.