Page 120 of Hit Man
I’ll need time to locate my suitcase before the afternoon flight. In the meanwhile, I have to make due with what I’m wearing.
I stare at the floor and at the rose-colored light reflecting across the white tiles from the stained-glass window in the room beyond. I stand just inside the door, appreciating the esthetical beauty of the changing colors as dusk settles upon us.
My interest aroused, I decide to explore.
I pass room after room, all exquisitely decorated and, like my blue room upstairs, all have been designed around a main color scheme.
A few doors down, it’s a beautifully handcrafted mantelpiece of wood carved with intricate rose details that pulls me inside one particular room. An office, with a large functional desk, two chairs by a wall, and a picture on the wall that reminds me of the pastoral scene of the picture within my bungalow. I scowl at the mismatched artwork, which ruins the entire effect of an otherwise eloquent office. It reminds me of an unhappy memory I thought I put behind me.
“You won’t find anything in here,” a voice interrupts me.
I jump and turn toward Little Lord’s nanny, who has quietly stepped inside the room behind me.
“The carving on the mantelpiece is jaw-dropping. If you look closely, you’ll see it’s actually two separate pieces fused together. So in a way, you’re wrong. Every inch of this house has something unique about it.”
She gives a very unnanny-like snort. Yet theVin her forehead suggests she’s displeased by my comment. It remains in place as she passes by me to get a closer look at the mantle. Her finger brushes across the seam melding the two sides together. “I thought this was too obvious a place. What else have I missed?” she mutters.
“Excuse me?” I ask, confused.
She cocks her head at me. “Who are you really?”
I sigh. Here we go again. “I was Sylvester’s teacher at The Linguistic Academy. There was an . . . unfortunate incident—”
“Isn’t there always with that kid?”
“—and Señora felt obligated to thank me and invited me to Hacienda Santo Miguel. My flight was postponed so here I am.”
“And you accepted her invitation?”
I frown. But before I can respond, she adds softly, in a voice so low my ears strain to hear her. “My advice to you is this. Follow this hallway to the courtyard when Sylvester’s car arrives. While Señora is saying her good-byes, find your way to the large yellow banquet room—the entrance is on the other side of the courtyard. Once inside, go to the window across the room to the far, far right. It’s broken. Climb through it and run like the dickens straight across the grounds and into the woods. There’s a path that will take you to a gated door. The key to its lock is beneath a boulder.”
“You have an escape route all planned out?” I suck in a breath.
“You have no idea who Señora really is?”
I shake my head.
“Trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to find out.” She walks by me to the door, and glances back at me. “Please don’t reward my act of kindness by ratting me out.”
A shudder runs up my spine as she disappears through the door.
More surprises? I bite my lip. I’ve always hated them but since coming to Mexico, I’ve learned to detest them. It’s like I’m continually stumbling onto one and it’s never the kind that’s easily managed.
And this surprise . . . I hailed a cab and invited myself right into the center of it. This time, Diego isn’t around to help me, either.
What do I do? Do I even trust her advice?
I shake my head, like my decision is a choice.
Wait. Then run.
I step into the hallway and am so lost in thought that I’m startled when I hear the faint sound of the staircase just overhead creak.
Freezing, I listen and wait.
Minutes pass before there’s a second creak. Someone is creeping down the stairs. Is it Señora, come to deal with an unwanted guest? Damn it. I should have followed through on my excuse and retired to the Blue Room.
I take three more cautious steps, hugging the wall as I move. On the next creak, I jump, which forces my hip into the panel wall. A door swings open. There’s a small hidden room beneath the stairwell. I squeeze inside and pull the door closed.
