My hand flew to my mouth as I tried to process what he said. I shook my head and met his eyes. “It can’t be. She wouldn’t— She couldn’t— Why would—” I trailed off as my face crumpled.
“She would, and she did. I’m sorry, Harper. I know she was your friend, or made you think she was your friend, but she’s not who you think she is,” Shaker said gently.
“What do you mean?”
Shaker blew out a slow breath and looked to the ceiling for a moment before he answered me. “I’ve been here for a few days, and during that time, she shared a lot of secrets.”
“Spit it out!” I yelled, frustrated with his hedging.
“Fine,” he gritted out. “Hilarie Thaxton is actually Valarie Vine.”
My heart pounded in my ears, and my vision started to blur. No. It couldn’t be. She was dead. Oh, fuck. I couldn’t breathe.
A light slap to my cheek brought me back to the present. I looked up to find Shaker’s dark eyes fixed on me and filled with concern. “I know about your past, Harper. I’m not going to pretend to know how you’re feeling right now, but I need you to box those feelings up and push them to the side so we can focus on getting out of here. Can you do that for me? For Carbon?”
I took in a deep breath and squared my shoulders. I could and would do anything for Chase. “Okay, I’m good,” I said with a sharp nod.
Shaker grinned. “Good. I’m going to go down to the basement and make sure she can’t escape. Then, we need to get the fuck out of here.”
“No, let’s just go,” I countered as I followed him through the house.
He stopped when he found the kitchen, opened a few drawers, and pulled out a large knife. “But I have a threat to make good on,” he said with an evil smile, holding the knife in one hand and his handcuffs in the other. I hadn’t seen him pick those up.
“Wait here. I’ll be right back,” he instructed.
“Fuck that. I believe I’ll stay with the big man holding the knife.”
Following him down the stairs that led to the basement was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Everything in me told me to go the other way, to flee, to not return to the dungeon, but I wasn’t leaving without Shaker and the odds of her taking down the two of us at one time were slim to none.
We paused outside the door and listened. When we didn’t hear anything for several minutes, Shaker unlocked the door and cautiously pushed it open. The woman I still couldn’t believe was Hilarie, or Valarie, was exactly where I left her. He looked at me over his shoulder and back to her; then he did it again.
“What?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything and entered the room. Kneeling beside her, he moved her hair to the side and pressed two fingers to the side of her neck. I got a clear look at Hilarie’s face, but what had me gasping in horror was Shaker rising to his feet and dropping the handcuffs on the bed. “Is she…” I trailed off, unable to ask the question.
Shaker pulled me to his bare chest and wrapped his arms around me. Softly, he said, “You’re not going to be upset about this. You did what you had to do to save yourself, and you saved me in the process. She was going to keep you locked away for the rest of your life, and she was going to kill me in a matter of days.”
I started to shake in his arms. “She’s dead?”
“Yes, sweetheart, she is.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears. A part of me was relieved, and another part of me was scared. “What am I going to do? I killed her. I’ll be in prison for the rest of my life,” I wailed.
“That won’t happen. It was self-defense, plain and simple. We have a decision to make. We can leave the house as is until we can notify the police or we can torch the place and leave the police out of it. It’s up to you, but you’ve got to make a decision right now so we can get the fuck out of here,” he said as he closed the door and locked it.
I thought over those options for a few minutes while we went back upstairs and searched through the house for a phone or any means of communication. “Do I have to decide now?” He looked at me quizzically, so I continued. “I would rather Phoenix make that decision.”
Shaker smiled brightly. “Good answer. Your man and your brother will love hearing that.”
Our search of the house turned up jack shit, so we headed outside. I had hoped for some sort of recognition upon exiting the house, but that wasn’t the case. The house was situated in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by what appeared to be dense forest. There were no sounds of traffic or civilization nearby.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” I asked.
He looked around and shook his head. “Not a clue. I was at my apartment, and then I woke up here, cuffed to a bed.”
“She has to have a car or something around here,” I pointed out.
One trip around the perimeter of the house and a quick search along the edge of the wooded area revealed that she indeed did not have to have a car around there. “What do we do now?” I asked Shaker, trying to hide the desperation in my voice.