Mr. Mysterious: A Mister Standalone (The Mister Series Book 4) (34 page)

Another indulgent smile. And then she snaps her fingers and lights begin flicking on, one by one, around the perimeter of the room.

Chapter Forty - Paxton

Five flips a switch and the lights go off, then come on again. But nothing else happens.

“Yeah,” Nolan says. “Nice hidden room.”

“You know what?” Oliver says. “You can just go back to your little fucking—”

“
Oliver
,” Five snaps. “Shut up. He hasn’t seen what we’ve seen over the years. Don’t blame him for thinking this is some crazy, fucked-up shit. OK?”

Oliver looks like he might punch Five. But Five stands his ground and meets his gaze and Oli turns away from Nolan.

Nolan sighs. “Look, you guys—”

But before he can finish, there’s a beeping sound and we all look behind us.

The shelf filled with stainless-steel mixing bowls is moving backwards into the wall, revealing a dark, empty hallway.

“What the fuck?” Nolan says.

I put a hand on his shoulder. Because I get it. When Five and Oliver started telling me about the secret hidden world they lived in, one I had no clue about, I felt the same way. “Just trust them, Nolan. Your sister is part of something much, much bigger than you can even imagine. And it all makes sense now, doesn’t it? She came into your life when you were just starting this resort project. Offered up some of her own money. And now you know,” I say. “Now you know
why
she did that.”

“She was planning on using this place as some… some…” But he can’t even make himself say the words.

“Secret headquarters,” Five finishes for him. “Come on, Cindy has to be in there.”

We all have guns, even Nolan. He looked at the rifle Five was handing him like there was no fucking way he was ever touching another weapon again after what happened out on Martha’s Vineyard. But then he had a second to finish that thought. And he knew Ivy would be dead right now if he hadn’t taken action when he did.

So he took his rifle. We all took our rifles, plus a handgun, sticking the pistols in the waistbands of our pants.

And now Five goes first, his rifle at high ready. Nolan and I go second, both of us mimicking Five’s weapon position. And Oliver brings up the rear so we have someone at our backs.

Chapter Forty-One - Cindy

Mirrors. The room is circular and the walls are lined with mirrors, so that when I look at them, I see nothing but an infinite reflection of me, sitting at this table, with Nolan’s crazy sister, Claudette Delaney.

“We call them infinity rooms,” she says.

“You have more than one?” I ask, trying not to get lost in the reflections. It’s like black magic, right? The only true representation of infinity in real life.

“Oh, yes. I’m going to destroy this resort when we leave here, Cynthia. Every outside recruit is honored with an infinity room that is only used once. After all, it isn’t often we pluck a girl from obscurity and deliver her infinite possibilities. It’s very special. Not meant for the masses.”

“Why me?” I ask, swallowing hard, my mouth dry again. I want another drink, but I finished the glass of water I was offered and there isn’t anything left but ice.

“Because your sister declined, sweet thing. And we really,
really
wanted her. We’ve evaluated your other sisters over the years. Jasmine is what, a tattoo artist, like your mother? Hmmph,” Claudette says, clearly unimpressed.

“She’s damn good at it.”

“She’s not worthy, Cynthia. And Belle takes after your father.”

“She’s an
accountant
,” I say, getting more and more pissed off as this fucking witch of a woman evaluates my family. “She runs my father’s entire empire.”

“And Ariel never even finished college.” Claudette pauses, to see what I have to say about Ariel. But I know better than to tell anyone anything about
that
sister. “No comment?”

I stay silent.

“Aurora was the perfect candidate. Star student at Princeton, beautiful, almost as beautiful as you. And in love with a man we dearly wanted to recruit.”

“Five,” I say, before I can stop myself.

“Five,” she repeats. “But you, dear, are about to deliver a man we have wanted since his mother betrayed us thirty-one years ago.”

Pax
. I take a deep, measured breath, my whole body shaking as I let it out. “You killed my sister.”

“She killed herself.” And then Claudette lifts the little silver lid off the tiny platter sitting in the center of the table and reveals a single white wafer. Like the kind you’d find in a Catholic mass.

I look at Claudette. “What is that?”

“That’s one of your choices. You can eat it, take the path your sister took many years ago and be left in this room as it goes up in flames. Or you can drink the champagne and leave here with me.”

I stare at the bottle of champagne. Then the wafer.

“You give us something—”

“Like what?”

“Little things. We set up meetings. We deliver you contracts. You sign them, of course. It’s just business. We help you rise to the top and you help us
stay
at the top.”

“So I basically give you my life either way. If I join you, I do your bidding and then you control me like a puppet. And if I say no, you kill me.”

“When you put it that way, it’s such an easy choice. Isn’t it, Cynthia?”

“Stop
calling me
that
,” I say, anger pouring out of me. I hate her. I hate her, I hate her, I hate her.
I’m going to kill you
, I think in my head.
I’m going to kill you very slowly
.

“Shall I pop the cork?” Claudette asks. “Or should I allow you the opportunity to eat that wafer and die painlessly after I ignite the room?”

I hesitate and while I do that, Claudette takes out her phone and tabs an icon.

Beneath the mirrored wall panel directly in front of me, flames erupt. Then another eruption, and another, and another. Until the whole room is nothing but an infinite circle of flames.

“Time’s up, princess. I need an answer.
Right now
.”

The room is already filling with smoke. Smoke my lungs, damaged from whatever that drug was, can’t handle. I stand up and try to scoot the chair back before I realize I’m chained. There are shackles around my ankles and I’m chained to the chair. “I’ll join,” I choke out through my wheezing, desperate to breathe. “I’ll join. Just get me out of here!”

Just as the words come out of my mouth, an alarm sounds. Claudette’s eyes go wide, then relax. Her hand comes up from under the table, a gun in her grip. She points it at my head and says, “Perfect. We’ll continue our celebration in the car.” She tosses me a key with her other hand. “Unchain yourself.”

I scramble for the key and bend over, thankful for the fresher air that is still hovering low to the ground as the room quickly fills up with smoke.

One foot shackle is open. Then both.

When I’m free, I place a hand over my mouth and try to hold my breath. When I look at Claudette, she has an oxygen mask over her face.

“Come with me,” she says in a tinny voice coming through the filter on her mask. “And bring the champagne with you.”

I get up, still wobbly, and weak. My head is spinning and I have to take a moment for it to stop. I grab the neck of the bottle and stumble forward into the thick smoke.

“Go,” Claudette says, coming around behind me, gun pointed at my head, and pushing me on the back.

“Go where?”

But one section of flames disappears and the same section of mirror slides down into the floor, revealing a dark hallway.

I take a step, slowly, carefully. We walk forward and when the darkness surrounds me, the opening closes at my back.

Chapter Forty-Two - Paxton

An alarm sounds, wailing in our ears as we move through the corridor.

“What is that?” I ask.

“Fire,” Nolan says, looking down at the security app on his phone, which is screaming the alarm from its speaker in unison with the alarms behind us back in the kitchen.

“Hurry,” Five says. “This is when they make their escape.”

“
Who
?” Nolan and I say together.

But Five doesn’t answer, just starts running ahead of us. The only light coming from the beam attached to his rifle. But only a few seconds later, we come up against a concrete wall.

“Now where?” I ask. “It’s a dead end.”

“No,” Five says. “Look.” His rifle light is pointed at a seam in the wall where smoke is pouring out. “They lit it up already,” Five says.

“Who?” Nolan asks.

“Nolan,” Five says, ignoring the question once again. “There has to be an exit. Look at the plans. Find the exit.”

“There’s nothing but a ventilation shaft leading out to the east side of the property half a mile away.”

“That’s it. How do we get into it?”

“It says it’s only a twelve-by-twelve shaft. We won’t fit.”

“The plans are wrong, Nolan. Now tell me how we get in there or Cindy is dead!”

Nolan studies his phone, turns around in a circle, like he’s trying to get his bearings, and then points to the ceiling. “There. It’s up there.”

We all look up to see a hatch in the ceiling. Oliver drops his rifle and jumps up, grabbing on to one of the exposed pipes a few feet away. He swings his body back, then lifts his legs and gives the hatch a two-footed kick. Over and over again, until the panel buckles from the stress and the tiny door collapses.

“If we climb up there—“

“We won’t fit,” I say, suddenly hating my size for the first time in my life.

“I will,” Ariel says behind us.

“We told you to go back!” Oliver yells.

Ariel smiles sweetly. “Don’t you remember what Mom always said? You’re not the boss of me, little brother. I’m the boss of me. So quit wasting time and lift me up.”

Oliver and Five do that and I turn to Nolan. “Nolan, go back into the resort and get someone to the end of that tunnel.
Right fucking now
!” He turns to leave, but I grab his shoulder with one more thought. “And Nolan? Don’t be afraid to shoot if you get there before us.”