Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (great books for teens txt) 📗

“Do you have video from inside the apartment building?”

“There’s a camera at the entrance and one in each hallway.”

“Pull up last night’s video.”

“I don’t have to,” Tech said, leaning back in his chair. “Grady and Sebrina shared his room last night. They went inside around eleven and didn’t come out until seven this morning.”

I wrinkled my nose but didn’t say anything.

“What’s he doing, Kelsey?”

“I don’t know. There are several reasons he could be watching Sebrina. Maybe he loves her but doesn’t trust her not to cheat on him. Maybe he’s not sure if she’s involved with Santiago. Maybe he’s faking the whole relationship. It doesn’t matter.”

“What if he’s faking it? What if this is all some misguided attempt to keep the family safe? Can you forgive him?”

I thought about the question before shaking my head. “I don’t think so. Maybe I could find a way to forgive him for cheating on me, but how could I ever forgive him for hurting Nick? He broke his heart.”

“We both know Grady wouldn’t intentionally hurt Nicholas. He loves that kid.”

“Like he loves me?” I asked, pointing toward the video. “Damn it, Tech. I can’t trust him.”

Tech nodded. “Sorry. I guess I’m feeling betrayed by Grady, too. I just want him to be innocent of all this. I want to believe he was the man we all thought he was.”

“You’re not the only one,” Donovan said, entering the room. “He’s been my best friend for nearly a decade. I keep searching for an excuse that would make his behavior somehow excusable.”

“Why are you home so early?” I asked, wiping a stray tear away.

“Tyler assigned me the task of feeding the prisoners lunch,” Donovan said, holding up a brown paper bag.

“I’ll go with you.” I looked at Tech. “Anything else I need to know?”

“No. I’m screening all the videos for Sebrina and Daphne, but so far everything has been as expected.”

Donovan looked at Tech. “One of these days, you’ll burn out working these crazy hours with Kelsey. If you worked for me, you’d have steady hours.”

“I’d die of boredom,” Tech said, smirking as he turned his attention back to his laptop.

Chapter Thirty

I practically ran from my thoughts of Grady as I followed the tunnel to Alex’s. Exiting the other side, I looked around the room. I walked toward the small kitchenette, peeking around the corner, but no one was there. A closet spanned the other end of the room. I walked over and opened all the doors.

“What are you looking for?” Donovan asked.

“No one. Nothing.”

“No one? As in someone?”

“I feel like someone’s been in here,” I said, turning around in a circle, looking about.

“You mean other than Alex, Carl, Bridget, Haley, and Tyler?”

“Ignore me. I’m not making any sense.” I walked down the short hall and unlocked the deadbolt. After opening the door, I stepped back and held my sleeve over my face. “Oh, holy. That stinks. I’ll get the gloves so I can empty the buckets.”

“Damn. What are you feeding them?” Donovan asked, stepping away from the room.

“Wild Card likely gave them ex-lax again.”

Donovan took a deep breath and entered the room. I went to the kitchenette to get a pair of gloves. When I returned, Donovan was relocking the door.

“What are you doing?”

“We have a problem,” Donovan said, leading me by the elbow back into the family room. “They’re dead.”

“What?”

“Their throats were slit.”

“Are you messing with me?”

“Not in the slightest. Who knew they were here?”

“Shit,” I said, sitting on the love seat. “I don’t know. Tyler, a few of the Devil’s Players, Nightcrawler, Shipwreck, Wild Card, you, Alex, the girls…”

“Too many people. Anyone could have talked about it and been overheard.”

“We’re practically stacked on top of each other lately. It’s not easy to find somewhere private to talk.”

“Tyler checked on them this morning,” Donovan said. “That means in the last five or six hours, in the middle of the day, someone snuck in here and killed them while we had guards posted everywhere.”

“Head back to the main house. Call Katie and tell her to close the store. Keep everyone safe until I get back.”

“What are you going to do with seven dead bodies?”

“Seven?” I asked. I didn’t wait for an answer. I followed the short hall to the room and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, I counted seven bodies. “Son of a bitch.”

“What?”

“There were eight of them.”

“I’m heading to the main house!” Donovan said as he jogged toward the tunnels. “You armed?”

I pulled my gun as I shut the door. “Go! I’ll be there when I can.”

Wild Card and Bones walked through the tunnel as Donovan was running toward it.

“Where’s the fire?” Bones asked, but Donovan didn’t stop to explain.

Wild Card watched me and slowly pulled his gun. “What do I need to know?”

“The same guy who escaped last time is missing.”

“He knew about the tunnel to Donovan’s.”

“Go! Search Donovan’s. I’ll search the rest of Alex’s house.”

A scream sounded from upstairs, followed by a loud thump and glass breaking. Bones led the charge up the stairs. We found Bridget standing in Alex’s dining room over the body of our missing guy. He was knocked out cold from the vase that lay shattered around him.

“He hurt you?” Bones asked as he moved to Bridget’s side.

“He came out of nowhere and tried to grab me. Alex is going to be so pissed when I tell him I broke his vase.”

“I’ll buy him another vase,” Bones said, pulling her into his body.

Wild Card checked the man for a pulse and nodded that he was alive.

“Roll him over,” I said, keeping my gun pointed at the man.

Wild Card rolled him over, and sure