?Chapter 0169


    People didn''t just vanish.


    Bookcase after bookcase lined the walls. I gently dragged my fingers over the spines. Some of the books seemed ancient, others newer. They sat side by side on the shelfs, a bnce of new and old.


    When I reached the wall behind the couch, I noticed, there on the ground, a tiny bit of ck sticking out from under the bottom former of one of the bookcases. I knelt down and pried it away from the furniture.


    It was a small ck feather, just like the ones that had graced the shoulders of the mysterious woman''s dress.


    So she was here.


    I knew she was real, but to have the extra validation did wonders for my tired mind.


    The fact that the feather was under the bookcase... Could that mean there was a secret passage here?


    Tucking the feather into my pocket, I searched closer. No books were jutting out further than the rest. The


    sconces didn''t budge when I tugged them. If this was a secret door, the trigger to open it wasn''t as obvious as something that would be in the movies. Still, there had to be something.


    I continued searching, running my hands along the wooden dividers of the shelves.


    "Piper?"


    I nearly jumped out of my skin.


    Behind me, Nichs walked into the room. He was handsome in a three-piece suit, and his piercing gaze stole my breath a moment.


    In another life, this could have been the perfect spot for a secret tryst. As it was, he had caught me somewhere had no ce or permission to be.Published by N?v''elD/rama.Org.


    "The servants told me they saw youe down this way," he said. Inwardly, I cursed myself. I hadn''t been careful enough! "What are you doing here?"


    I looked at him closely. He didn''t seem particrly annoyed that I was here. His face wasn''t that neutral. Instead, one of his brows curled slightly in the middle, like he was worried.


    Worried?


    Oh, I supposed that could make sense. Thest time we had been in this room together, he had saved me from a horrible man-shaped monster.


    I didn''t want to lie to him about what I was doing here. But as things were, I knew he wouldn''t approve.


    "I was just thinking about that night," I said. That wasn''t a lie. Nor was it incorrect to assume that thinking of that night led me to think about Terry''s assault on me.


    I had been singrly focused on finding evidence of the woman in ck''s existence, but now that I had that, my thoughts were free to wander. And they did, back to that couch, to how powerless I felt, to that man''s vile touch on my skin.


    Nichs came further into the room. He rounded the couch to draw nearer to me. He didn''t touch me, but his closeness was afort all on its own.


    "I wish I would have found you sooner." He looked down at the floor. "You never should have been in that position."


    "Surely you don''t me yourself," I said.


    He didn''t say anything, making it clear that he did.


    "Nichs..."


    He looked up at me and the intensity in his gaze kept me from saying more.


    "While you are here, it is my responsibility to keep you safe. I failed that night. But I won''t fail again."


    My heart leapt in my chest. The way he said it, so earnest and strong, made me believe it. His confidence chased away some of the demons that remained wing at my chest.


    "Thank you," I said.


    He nodded.


    I wished I could tell him about the feather, or ask him the location of the secret door.


    I wished we weren''t on opposite sides of the investigation into the underground organization. How much I would have loved to have his help!


    But, unfortunately, he wanted me to stop my search. So, for Elva''s sake, I had to keep Nichs in the dark.


    So I kept the feather that I found, and my questions, firmly locked away.