The Perfect Bride - By Kerry Connor Page 0,37

likely. As far as she knew it wasn’t occupied, and what were the chances someone would be cleaning it right now?

She pulled the lever.

The door unlatched. A thrill of excitement racing through her, she put her shoulder to it and began pushing it in. It only took a few inches for Jillian to see exactly what she’d expected.

It wasn’t exactly the same as the room in the other tower where Courtney had stayed, but the layout was nearly identical, only reversed. And if there was a hidden passageway in this tower, Jillian had no doubt there was one in the other, most likely in all of them.

This was it, she thought, anger and certainty hardening into a tight knot in the pit of her stomach. This was how somebody had gotten to Courtney. She probably hadn’t even seen them coming. They’d come in through the passageway unannounced, managed to get her to the balcony and then—

Jillian swallowed hard at the images that played out in her head.

The only remaining mystery was whether she’d been dead before she’d gone off the balcony—or after.

Wincing at the thought, Jillian turned away from the scene. She didn’t want to think about that now.

She would love to go back to the other tower to confirm it, but she didn’t know if Adam still had the sensor in place. She couldn’t have him catching her there, couldn’t let him know she was aware of the hidden stairs. There was far more she needed to explore.

Grabbing the latch on the inside of the wall-door, she yanked it hard and pulled it shut. All right. So she knew the tower bedroom and her own were both accessible from the tunnel. Now to see where else it led.

As she made her way back down the stairs to the second floor, she remembered that Meredith was the one who’d put Courtney in the tower bedroom and Jillian in the room she was in. Just another coincidence, or had Meredith known exactly what she was doing to give someone—herself?—access to her guests?

Jillian thought back to Meredith’s reaction at breakfast. She hadn’t given any indication she knew about the passages, but then, Jillian had mostly been paying attention to Grace’s reactions.

More questions, she thought with a grimace. Every time she found an answer, it only led to more puzzles. All she could do was keep moving forward and hope she eventually arrived at the ultimate answers she needed.

She passed the second floor, where the door to her room was still slightly ajar, and continued on. The stairwell spiraled downward into the dark.

Another door finally appeared up ahead in the beam of her flashlight. It was on the inner wall of the stairwell. She figured that must mean it led to a room inside the tower. At the same time the stairs continued going downward beyond it.

She hadn’t been on this side of the house in the first floor, had no idea what room could be in the tower here. She needed to know, though. Needed to learn what room this was to figure out how her attacker had most likely accessed the passageway to get to her.

Only one way to find out.

Loosening the latch, she opened the door, then began pushing it in. With any luck, this room would be empty, too.

Once she’d created a large enough gap, she straightened. She caught a glimpse of a wall full of books. From what she could see, it was a library of some kind, maybe a study or office....

She took a couple steps in, then came to an abrupt stop.

It appeared her luck had run out.

Adam stood a few feet in front of her, eyes wide, his mouth open slightly. There was a desk behind him, and she realized in an instant she’d been right. This was an office.

His office.

He looked shocked—because he really hadn’t known about the passageways, or just because of her sudden appearance from them?

“What the hell—?” He stared first at her, then at the gap she’d opened in the wall. “What are you doing in there?”

“Just exploring these secret passages. You know, the ones that don’t exist?”

“How—? What—?” Evidently unable to settle on the question he wanted to ask most, he finally clamped his mouth shut and gave his head a hard shake. “Get out of there. I don’t know how you managed to find that, but I can’t have you wandering around in there. It might not be safe.”

“It’s fine,” she said patiently.

“You can’t know that for sure, and