Billionaire Wolf's MateDate - Serena Meadows Page 0,30
to the kitchen and an unguarded door. Trying to remember the layout of the house as she crept through the darkened hallways, the moonlight her only illumination, she miscalculated, took a wrong turn, and found herself facing a closed door. Turning back the way she’d come, cursing under her breath, she started to retrace her steps, but the sound of voices made her freeze. Looking around like a trapped rabbit, she searched for someplace to hide, the voices getting closer every second, then ducked through the door and closed it quietly.
She found herself standing at the bottom of a staircase, moonlight illuminating the narrow steps, and she hesitated, afraid to go forward, knowing she couldn’t go back. Someone screaming in pain on the other side of the door in the hallway got her moving, and she took the steps two at a time, emerging into an attic full of cloth-draped furniture and dust-covered boxes.
Ducking under the cobwebs that hung from the ceiling, she ran for the back of the attic just as the door below opened and an angry voice said, “Either you climb the stairs yourself or I’ll drag you up them.”
Another scream of pain echoed through the attic, and she dove for cover behind a stack of boxes, then crawled under a drop cloth and crouched beneath a desk, her entire body shaking. Only a few seconds later, the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs and Phillip’s voice filled the dusty air, and she pulled the cloth aside to see him following a group of men.
“Take him over there where it won’t make a mess,” Phillip barked, pointing to the other side of the attic. “And this time, don’t shoot the head. The staff has been complaining about having to clean it up.”
Janice put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, afraid to see who the men were dragging across the room. Even when she didn’t recognize him, a wave of nausea hit her, and she couldn’t help but gag just a little, and to her horror, the men all looked her way. She held her breath, sure that she was about to be caught, but they all turned away, their attention back on the man who was pleading for his life.
“We sent you to find my daughter, but you couldn’t even handle that simple task,” her father said, his voice a hissing whisper. “Do you know how humiliating it was to have my son find her so quickly when I’ve been looking for months? This was your last chance; we don’t need dead weight in this clan.”
She watched the men wrestle him onto a tarp, the urge to scream so overpowering, she had to clamp her hand over her mouth again. Knowing there was nothing she could do, she looked around for a way out, desperate to get away before they found her. Spotting a little door right behind her, she carefully scooted out from under the desk and quietly popped the latch, relieved when it gave instantly.
Sliding across the floor, she climbed through the door, ignoring the sound of scurrying feet, then pulled the door shut. A loud click echoed through the attic, bouncing off the walls and silencing the men. “Did you hear that?” one of them asked.
Janice froze, holding her breath until another man growled. “It’s probably just rats in the walls.”
“Finish him off and then go check it out,” Philip ordered. “I’ll be in my study. Let me know, and remember what I said: no mess or you’re cleaning it up yourselves.”
Panicked, the darkness around her feeling immense, she felt around, relieved to discover walls around her and ceiling so low, she wouldn’t be able to stand. But it was a way out, so she got onto her hands and knees and began to slowly edge along in the darkness. She’d only gone a few feet when one of the boards under her had creaked loudly, and she froze again, holding her breath.
“If someone is over there, you’re going to be sorry,” one of the men called.
“Jesus, Jeff, just go over there and check it out; those noises are freaking me out,” the other man said.
“But I wanted this one; you got the last one,” Jeff said.
“You heard the boss. He gave this one to me,” the other man said.
A gun shot rang out in the attic, and Janice let out a little scream when she heard the sound of a body hitting the floor. This time, she didn’t wait