Page 58 of Broken Mercy
I grunt and nearly hit my head on the way back out. Tallie’s standing right behind me. “Could you just stay quiet?”
“I might be able to help.”
“Doubtful.” I press on into a different guest room and repeat the process, searching the closet, the walls, the fireplace, every inch.
Tallie tags along, seemingly content to watch, comment, question, and badger me. She’s clearly getting a kick out of my frustration.
Four more rooms and I come up empty-handed. Cursing, I try a fifth, and this time Tallie stays on my hip like a bored toddler.
“Can I help? I can knock on wood too. See, look. Bang bang. Amazing. Was that good?”
“Enough,” I say, rounding on her, fury boiling over. “I’m having a hard enough time right now and I don’t need you making it harder. I’m not doing this to entertain you.”
“What are you doing, exactly?”
“Searching for the secret fucking hallways!” I bark it at her, seething, and instantly feel like an asshole. “I know how that sounds, alright? But everyone I’ve ever talked to agrees, there are hidden passages in this house. If I can find them?—“
Tallie puts a hand up like she’s trying to talk in class.
“I know where one is.”
That shuts me up. My heart’s racing as my anger and frustration slams into the brick wall of that one stupid sentence. “You… know… where one is?”
“Oh yeah, sure, I found one a while back when I was a kid. There used to be more but they covered over most.”
“And this one still works?”
“Last time I saw.” She holds a hand out, palm up. “How much will you pay me for it?”
“Tallie,” I say, grinding her name out like I’m throwing up stones. “Don’t play around.”
“You’re hot when you’re mad.”
“You should see me when I’m furious.”
“Can I get you there?”
“Tallie.”
“Fine. God, you’re no fun.” She spins on her heel. “Follow me, Mr. Pissy.”
I keep my mouth shut, despite wanting to snap at her. Mr. Pissy?! I’ve been knocking around in closets for twenty minutes and all along she could’ve taken me to exactly where I need to go.
But as we walk down the hall and to a different wing, I have time to collect myself. In fairness, I never told her what I was doing. Sure, she was being as annoying as possible, and she was probably doing it on purpose. If I had been more forthcoming with her up front, I could’ve avoided all this nonsense.
Truth is, Tallie’s done nothing but impress me. She’s beautiful, clever, and competent. When she decides to do something, she gets it done, damn it, no matter what, and I respect the hell out of that. She has a wild streak hidden underneath her layers of propriety, but best of all, she moves like a thief.
“Here we go.” She takes me into a home gym with equipment that looks like it’s never used. She heads straight for the back where there’s another door that takes us through into a locker room. “This used to be different when I was little. We used it for a playroom. They stored a bunch of stuff back here, but I guess they changed it sometime in the last ten years?” She shrugs as she leans her shoulder into a locker and pushes it aside to reveal a small, square hatch roughly cut into the wall.
I stare, heart rate picking up. “Are you sure?”
She kneels down and gently gets her fingers around the edges. “When I was little, I used to run around in the darkness in there. I’d come out with cobwebs in my hair. Annie and Sam would pretend to be monsters. Davit hated that game and he’d cry like a baby. Gor played too, but he was older and wasn’t as into it.” She puts the hatch aside. “Here you go.”
I get down on all fours and shove my head into the empty cavity in the wall. “Tight fit,” I murmur, shuffling so I can get my arm in with my phone set to flashlight. The beam scrapes across a narrow passage, big enough for an adult to move throughuncomfortably. But for kids, it must’ve seemed like a paradise. “Where’s it go?”
“All over.” Her voice is muffled on the other side of the wall. “Those passages are all connected and there are dozens. We didn’t go too far because there’s not much light.”
I start to shimmy my way through when she grabs my ankles.
