Page 14 of Goldrage
Without thinking, I touch my collarbone, expecting to find the emerald necklace there. But it’s gone. Lady Harrow ripped it off and I’m not sure where it is. It could be in a dumpster.
Eleanora squeezes my hand. “Someday soon, once this is all over, we’ll talk, okay? We’ll talk about everything. For now, you need to rest.”
“Where would Julian take him?” I ask the question that’s been haunting me for days. “Where is he and why can’t we find him?”
“I don’t know. But try to sleep.” She stands and grabs the medical kit.
Before Eleanora can escape, Lorenzo appears in the doorway. His face carries less color than it should, but he’s standing straighter than he has since Julian’s bullet found him. The excitement in his green eyes makes my pulse quicken.
I shoot upright, ignoring the fire that tears through my side. “What is it?” I ask.
“I have news.”
“Adrian?”
Lorenzo nods, stepping into the room. “My contact finally confirmed a location. Julian’s keeping him at a secondary Harrow estate. It’s outside the city and it’s owned under a false name. It took some digging and some careful sneaking around, but Julian was discovered there.” He pauses, jaw tightening. “We’re certain Adrian is there too. Injured but alive.”
Relief crashes through me so violently I almost sob.We found him! But the relief quickly changes into desperation. “We need to get him out. Now.”
Lorenzo exchanges a look with Eleanora that makes my stomach drop. These silent conversations they’ve been having are another mystery I don’t have the energy to unravel.
“That’s the problem,” Lorenzo says carefully. “The place is a fortress. It has triple the usual guards and plenty of security. My contact counted at least thirty men patrolling the grounds alone. We don’t know how many more are inside.”
“So we go in hard,” I say , already trying to swing my legs off the bed. “Gather whoever’s left from your men?—”
“With what army, cugina? Half my men are dead. And you—” He gestures at my bandages. “You can barely stand for more than a few minutes.”
The truth of it burns worse than my wounds. “Okay. If we can’t attack, then what if we sneak him out?”
“And who will do that? I was able to work undercover once because Julian and Lady Harrow didn’t know I was your cousin. Now they do. And if someone suddenly wants to work at the estate, they’ll immediately suspect it’s a spy. All the guards working for them are loyal.”
“I could try to sneak in,” Eleanora suggests.
Both Lorenzo and I turn our heads to stare at her. She stands with that new confidence, one hand resting casually where she’s concealing a weapon.
Lorenzo’s face lights up like a Christmas tree. “My badass wife, always ready for action.” He winks at her ashis grin spreads wider. “So sexy when you’re plotting violence.”
“Oh my God, stop.” Eleanora’s eye roll could power a small city, but I catch the pink creeping up her neck. “We’re not married yet, you delusional?—”
“Yet!” Lorenzo pounces on the word like a cat. “She said yet. Did you hear that, cugina? Progress!”
Eleanora sounds disgusted. “I meantnever. The word was never.”
“Your lips say never, but your blush says?—”
“That I’m allergic to your stupidity.”
Their bickering fills the room, but I tune it out. I don’t doubt Eleanora’s skills to sneak into such a heavily guarded place, but I do doubt how she’ll then get Adrian out. He’s injured and slow right now. He needs time to recover, but we can’t just leave him there. Who knows what Julian has planned or how they’ll try to manipulate him.
My mind turns over our impossible situation, examining it from every angle like a puzzle with missing pieces. Julian’s obsession with family. Lady Harrow’s fixation on bloodlines and legacy. The way they’ve both clung to their twisted version of the Harrow name…
An idea strikes me like lightning, terrible and perfect.
My voice cuts through the bickering. “I know how to get in. There’s one reason they would let me walk through that door and stay alive.”
Lorenzo’s playful expression vanishes. “Which is?”
I take a breath and I feel a tad crazy for what I’m going to suggest. “I’ll tell them I’m pregnant with the Harrow heir.”
