Sunset Rivalry: The Caliendo Resort (By The Lake: The Caliendo Resort Book 2) (8 page)

He felt sympathetic that she’d discovered the truth about their relationship. Anya didn’t need sympathy...especially not his.

“I need you to take your file and leave.”

Without waiting for his response she tugged her arm free and walked away. She didn’t stop until she was behind her closed and locked bedroom door.

Ha! Locked. What a joke.

The man on the other side wouldn’t let a little household lock keep him out if he wanted in. But he didn’t want in. He never wanted into any part of her life except access to the file.

Anya stepped in the shower and tried to wash away the emotions involving Quinn. It was next to impossible, but after tonight he would be gone and she would let him go and take their past with him.

QUINN REDIRECTED THE security camera monitoring the Caliendo suites foyer as he had the night before, a temporary loop until he switched it back. They would be in and out in a half hour and no one would notice.

He met Anya after midnight at the door of her suite, as she requested. To his surprise, she answered when he knocked. He hadn’t been one-hundred percent convinced she would, but the look of defeat across her solemn face when she’d left him in the living room earlier that day semi-assured him that her promise was true.

Anya looked better this evening.

The warm color of her skin had taken over the white ghostly appearance that stole her radiance and, for the first time since she’d returned, she’d let her hair down. It was longer now, and the curls fell loosely around her shoulders.

He tried to ignore the rising desire that scorched all other thoughts, knowing those curls were her “after shower” curls. He remembered from being engaged in countless showers together, which had nothing to do with bathing, her hair always dried soft and wavy, and finger ready. Ready for him to dig his hands into. Quinn preferred her natural curls opposed to her product styled locks for that reason alone.

He also appreciated that she wasn’t hiding behind the oversized, black jacket she’d been wearing but it amused him that she chose a vibrant teal, short-sleeved chiffon blouse to pair up with her black skinnies. Teal wasn’t exactly a sneaking around color.

All the positive aspects of her appearance softened Quinn’s guilt at having tricked her back into her family’s lives, where she obviously need to be.

Anya noticed his observation and the fact he hadn’t stepped out of her way. 

“What?” she asked crossly.

Shaking his head at her irritableness and his poor lack of gaping restraint, he automatically went to move aside and let her pass, but then recognized this would be the end of their time together. After they located the files, he would leave the resort and Willow Valley permanently. That meant he wouldn’t see her again.

Quinn leaned in first and kissed her cheek. He felt her stiffen beneath his touch.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

He moved away and caught her glare.

“You showered in my bathroom,” she accused accurately.

Quinn chuckled. “I live out of town, so it was quicker for me to shower here.” 

He was glad to see some of her sassiness had returned after worrying about those haunted eyes of hers all afternoon. Her beaten down spirit had forced him to back off until midnight. He had headed through the bushes and hung out at the rickety cabin for a couple hours only to come back again.

Quinn wasn’t bothered by the waiting, walking and sneaking around. All three actions had become a daily basis in his life. 

Now it was Anya’s turn to look him over. Her eyes dropped to the clean black slacks and black long-sleeved shirt he wore. He knew how to dress for camouflage in the night. 

He answered her questioning look. “I had spare clothes in my truck.” 

“Where is your truck?” 

“At the cabin.” 

“You walked here?” Her shock also amused him since she’d been walking the exact trail for three days. 

“Yes.” 

Anya waved her fingers across his outfit. “I don’t look like
this
after I walk through the bush.” 

“Is that a compliment?”

“It’s not an insult.” 

He grinned. “Well in that case, thank you.”

Quinn was aware the longer they stood here staring at each other like love struck teenagers, the higher their risk of being seen. It was a strange and annoying feeling to struggle between the need for that file and the need for a few spare moments with Anya before they separated forever. 

“We should go get the file,” she said. “That is what you spent months telling me I’m beautiful for, right?” 

That wasn’t true. 

Anya didn’t give him a chance to clarify and pushed past him.

Quinn didn’t like that these were her memories of them, but it was better for her if she didn’t know the deep, emotionally attached and protective feelings he had for her. Better for him too.

They kept close to the building, ducking under Marc and Violet’s suites like professional criminals who had already scoped out the layout.

Anya used her key card to get them back inside the foyer of the living quarters.

Quinn moved in first. In charge of being on the lookout, he glanced to the right down the empty corridor that led to the resort. It was a long glass hallway which provided no privacy, but was hidden from the rest of the resort. Then he looked left, where the glass doors led to the pool room.

Clear and clear.

He moved and nodded for Anya to pass.

At the door, he noticed her pause a moment and stare at the chip on the card, slowly rubbing her nail across the edge. She was thinking about his betrayal, he knew it.

Sweetheart, hating me is better than wanting me.

She didn’t look at him and quickly swiped the key card.

Finally, inside the office, they left the lights off and shut the door behind them. 

Quinn had already ransacked through the drawers of Robert’s antique desk and the filing cabinets along the far wall. He hadn’t known what he was looking for, but he was guessing it would either be the manila files he’d delivered the requested information to Robert in or USB sticks he’d transferred the information onto.

That was all Quinn had to go on, and his search had been extensive, just like his paid jobs, but still he’d come up empty-handed. The couch was clean, the pictures hung on the walls had no safes behind them, and there were no hiding compartments or pouches in the furniture. Quinn knew how to meticulously search an entire room and this one was clear.  

Quinn’s previous search prevented him from diving into a search now. He stood back and watched the magic Anya was going to pull out of her black top hat. The unsettled feeling in his gut that they were walking out of this office without any files plagued him. 

Once their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Anya walked to the far wall and touched a picture.

I checked behind that picture and there was no more than a hanger.

As if reading his thoughts, her fingers moved away from the picture and ran slowly across a seam on the panelled wall.

Alright, I didn’t do that
.

She stopped at another picture and pulled it from the wall.

Quinn sighed inwardly.

This was getting them nowhere.

Just as he’d seen when he checked for a safe, the only thing behind that picture was a thick, industrial style picture hook. It wasn’t alarming considering Robert had extreme taste in expensive art. Using the proper hook to ensure their safety was wise. 

If Quinn took anything out of tonight, he supposed that it would be the time he’d got to spend with Anya. He hadn’t known how much he missed her until he saw her again. Not that it made a difference and her hatred and distrust for him was the only thing keeping them from expressing their real feelings.

Anya glanced over her shoulder at him and even in the darkness he could see that she was entertained by something...but what?

She answered his question turning back and pushing the hook up. The solid hook moved upwards like a light switch.

That wasn’t what dropped Quinn’s jaw.

The wall wasn’t a wall at all. It was a door...a secret door.

Anya disappeared beyond the shadowed opening as Quinn struggled to register what had happened. He didn’t understand what he was witnessing until light filtered from the room beyond the door.

Quinn took a surprised step forward.

Past the wall, Anya stood beside another old desk touching the lamp she’d lit and looking pretty proud of herself.  

A hidden room? A hidden room! 

Quinn would have smirked at the brilliance of it if he wasn’t mentally kicking himself for missing the switch when he’d swept the room. He had been one fake wall away from having that file after Robert died.
One fake wall away!

Quinn walked inside the room, deliberately taking his time to absorb the surroundings. His question about what format the files would be in was obvious. The entire room−
hidden room
−was lined with antique large wooden filing cabinets. 

It was incredible and terrifying at the same time.

Quinn was constrained momentarily in his own world of twisted emotions. Happy at being steps away from his sister’s file and fearful that every filing cabinet might contain the lives that Robert’s greed and control had shattered.  

The embossed brass alphabetically labeled plaques gleamed in the light illuminating Quinn’s inner success, but yet he couldn’t move.

Anya crossed the room to the cabinets he feared.

This was it. This was the moment he had been anticipating and had consumed the last four years of his life. His hands were eager to dig into the cabinets, but the results petrified him. What would he find? How could Robert have been responsible for Nikki’s death? Quinn didn’t explore that question because Robert was relentless and his motives were corrupt.

Anya’s shoulders rose deeply inhaling as her hand touched one of the shiny brass handles.

Quinn felt his breath catch in his chest as each second passed before she pulled the drawer open.

She stiffened right away, unmoving.

Why? What was in there? Was it far worse than they’d both expected?

If those drawers were full of files, that would mean Robert had “handled” thousands of individuals.

As many times before, Quinn wondered how the rest of the Caliendos were either not aware of Robert’s private business or how they could so easily turn a blind eye on what was so obvious.

After Robert’s death, Marc and Carl had indirectly expressed their aversion with Quinn’s side position. At that moment, being given an “out” so to speak, regarding his job with the resort, Quinn had ruled out the family participation in what Quinn believed was Robert working to control the town−or the man in charge of the town: the Mayor.

It wasn’t a surprise that the mayor of Willow Valley wasn’t exactly who he portrayed either and digging up his background had been quite a task for Quinn. Along the way, people had gotten hurt, or been forced by Robert to do things in order to keep their secrets hidden. To add to the suspicion, Melissa, the mayor’s daughter, was a long standing employee at The Caliendo Resort. For the wealthy woman she was, position as the Caliendo’s personal assistant, seemed shady. It all seemed connected, Quinn knew it, but he just hadn’t linked it together yet.

Pulling himself back into the present, he noted that Anya stood staring far longer than the shock of finding the mass amounts of files should take.

Was she evaluating? The files? Or...them?

Quinn wanted to do the same, but it was a useless debate that would have him slamming his head against a wall. There was nothing to ponder between them. Her father was responsible for the death of his sister. How could they live with each other with that hanging over their heads?

Anya moved to the drawer below and pulled it open. She stopped short again and stared. Now moving faster, she opened the one drawer underneath before moving onto the next filing cabinet and then the next.

With each movement her body seemed to grow more hysterical. Finally she turned to Quinn.

“They’re empty,” she said.

She pulled another drawer open, as if the half dozen she’d already yanked out weren’t enough proof.

“They’re gone. All the files. There is not one in here,” she said. “They were here. I saw them.”

Another drawer, and another, in a straight line down the row of cabinets. 

“Where are they? Where would they be? Did someone take them? Mom? Uncle Carl? Marcus?” She was talking to herself, consumed in her own horror. She gasped. “Did Dad destroy them? He wouldn’t. But why would he keep them knowing he was dying? Knowing that I knew about them.”

Anya’s evolving worry was turning into a panic attack with every step she took, every empty drawer she opened, and every word she spoke.

Quinn wanted to tell her to calm down but he was working on his own clenching jaw and trying to control the panic arising within him. All these years this was the closest he’d ever come and the files were gone?
Gone?

Was he wrong about her family? Were they somehow involved? Had they taken them? Or had Robert eliminated them?

Quinn walked over, quicker than he would have liked with the sickening feeling in his gut. He glanced into the empty drawers.

Disappointment sunk in.

He helped Anya until every drawer in the room had been thoroughly checked, followed by the walls, the desk, everywhere.

They came up empty-handed, standing in the middle of the hidden room and unsure about the next step.

Hopelessness consumed Quinn. So close just to be shoved back was maddening.

What the hell were they supposed to do now?