Page 107 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold
“Pretty sure that’s why we’ve been lying in the dirt for four hours, so—” She pushed open the door before he could stop her.
“Alex!”
But she was already inside. And freezing. He saw the moment when she registered what she was seeing.
Empty bottles and piles of trash. Curtains drawn tight to keep out the sun, and a thick layer of dust over everything. A chair was lying on its side and, instantly, Alex went on high alert. “Okay. So someonewashere.” She turned in a full circle. “Do you think this is where they grabbed you?”
“Alex—”
“Theymusthave grabbed you here.”
“No. They didn’t.” He righted the chair and pushed it out of the way.
“But—”
“I left a mess,” King blurted. “It’s no big deal.”
“Youleft a mess? Ha!” She was seriously giving him the side-eye—until she glanced back at the bottles on the kitchen counter, the piles of dirty plates in the sink. It looked like there’d been a party. It smelled like there’d been a wake, and King couldn’t face her. The last thing he wanted to do was explain. “King—”
“I told you to wait in the car,” he ground out.
“King—”
“Come on. Let’s get the ring and get you something to eat, and then we’ll get out of here.”
“King.” Her voice was too soft—too close. “What happened?”
“What do youthinkhappened, Sterling? The love of my life walked out—”
“You told me to leave!”
“I did.” He nodded and bit his lip—wanted to bite it right in two. “And then you disappeared without a trace. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead. Safe on a beach somewhere or locked in a dungeon. I just knew it was my fault. I just knew... As mad as I was at you, the only person I hated was myself. Now let’s get the ring and get out of here.”
He walked to the wall and threw back a hundred-year-old painting to reveal a state-of-the-art safe. Carefully, King spun the dial and threw open the door.
There were files inside and stacks of cash. His grandmother’s pearls. The German Luger his grandfather had stolen during the war. King dug through bits and pieces of a half-dozen different lives and covers and realities. But the most important thing about that safe was the thing that it was missing.
“What is it?” He could tell by the tone of Alex’s voice that, deep down, she already knew.
“The ring.” He turned to her slowly. “It’s not here. The ring is gone.”
Chapter Sixty-One
Alex
It wasn’t there.
Alex would have thought King was lying—she would have thought King was wrong. But King was never wrong, so all she could do was stand and gaze into the little black void and say, “Where is it?” Because it didn’t make any sense.Nothingmade sense. “King—”
“It was here.”
“Well, clearly it’snothere.”
“That’s impossible.” He started clawing through the safe, tossing stacks of cash and piles of passports on the floor. “It was here.”
She spun and looked around the cluttered room. “Are you sure no one grabbed you here and ransacked the place?”
“No.” King braced his hands on the wall like maybe he was going to push it over—tear the castle down stone by stone with his bare hands.
