Gabrielle cut her eyes up at him. "Like you weren't playing up the sexy bodyguard bit to the hilt for the females ogling you?"
"Just doing my job." His eyes crinkled with humor that downplayed the stern frown he gave her, then his face turned all serious. "Tell me how we get to the tunnel."
She explained the back way to the stairs and the room where the access point to the tunnel should be if it was still there.
"What about the code to our door?" he asked.
She smiled. "I've set it so we can bypass security by keying in a secondary code that will not show up on their panel. But the original code will still go through if someone tries to come in."
"I'll leave a set of eyes to catch anyone who might try, but I doubt they'll bother Mademoiselle Tynte Saxe." He winked and her blood pressure spiked. "The minute we step out of here, don't say a word and do everything I tell you to do."
"Like that ever changes?"
Carlos ignored Gabrielle's jab and took her hand, opening the door, then leading her into the living room, where he positioned her next to the exit door. He didn't like her ditching the panic button, but they didn't need to draw attention either. He was not letting her out of arm's reach from here on out, which would be an issue later tonight, but he'd face that then.
Opening the glass doors to the patio where the wind was blowing, he placed an open magazine next to the glass figurine where the bug was planted. The pages fluttered intermittently from the breeze.
He placed his psuedo-iPod on the top of a cabinet with a laser beam set to trigger the video recorder in the unit if the door opened.
At the door to the hallway, he entered the secondary code, then pulled her out behind him. Carlos kept a steady pace, moving them down the hall silent as a shadow. The door to the stairs creaked, but no one appeared in the thirty seconds he waited, so they descended three floors down to the basement. Carlos flipped on a small LED light and let Gabrielle lead him to a room that smelled as damp and musty as it looked.
"It should be on this wall." Her whisper echoed and she froze.
"No one should hear anything down here unless there's a bug, and they have no reason to put one in this spot. Stand still while I check." He shone the light across the wall, running his hands over the stones. No obvious breaks. Cobwebs reached across the walls with wispy fingers, tying several weathered trunks to a long cabinet that hit Carlos chest high. He carefully moved the trunks, checking behind them. Nothing. The cabinet weighed as much as a full refrigerator. He gripped the side at the back and put everything he had behind, pulling it away from the wall.
"There's a panel," Gabrielle whispered, softer this time.
He put a foot against the wall for leverage and strained every muscle to widen the gap to three feet. Enough for them to squeeze into the opening.
Four tarnished brass pins held the panel on the wall. He unscrewed the pins, then put the panel on the cabinet and forced his body through the angle into the dark hole. Reaching a hand behind him, he waved her forward.
She touched his fingers, letting him know she was there.
He pinched the LED light and stood up, banging his head on the hard ceiling. He held back the curse he wanted to yell and caught her by the shoulder before she made the same mistake. "Don't stand up too quick."
Wasted effort since she was able to stand without touching the ceiling.
"Must have been a damn small bunch of warriors living here back when," he muttered, drawing her along behind him.
Gabrielle whispered about the two turns they had to find to reach the student housing. Her slender hand was cold in his, gripping his fingers with all her strength.
He towed her along, wanting to chuckle at the fast flip in personality. She was a study in contradictions. One minute she was quiet and flush with embarrassment, then the next she was taking him to task over not finishing the kiss.
She had to think she'd done something wrong. He owed her an explanation or at least an apology for being a jerk.
Or a kiss. He wouldn't mind owing her a kiss if not for it sending the wrong message and crossing all over the lines of a mission. He'd never had this issue with a prisoner, and never with any one woman.
But all he had to do was hear her voice or get a whiff of her perfume or the smell of her shampoo and he wanted her.
"This is where it should be," she murmured when they reached the middle of a long passage with no doors.
At the next corner, Carlos saw a dust of light breaking through from above.
"There it is." He let go of her hand and shone his light up the opening that rose eight feet above them. Long fingers of light pierced through a grate at the top. Rows of spikes had been driven into the wall at one-foot intervals from the grate, forming a ladder that ran down to waist-high above the ground.
He pulled her close. "I can't put you up there first since I don't know what's on the other side."
"Go ahead. I can get up the ladder by myself."
"Okay, I'll wave you up as soon as it's clear. Keep this." He handed her the light and reached two rungs up so he could catch his foot on the last one, then started climbing. When he reached the grate, it appeared to open into a storage room with hot-water heaters and cleaning equipment.
He used one hand to push up on the grate, holding himself to the ladder with the other. He put his shoulder into inching the heavy metal to the side. It slid on a track.
That was the good news.
The bad news was a squeak caused by friction at one point.
He listened. No footsteps came running. Once the grate was open far enough he climbed through and turned to wave a hand at Gabrielle. All he could see was a black hole until his light flashed twice. Smart woman.
A scuffling noise was followed by a feminine grunt, then her face appeared. He took her arm and helped her onto the floor, then to her feet. She immediately started dusting off her pants. Every bit the lady until she realized he was waiting.
"Oh." She glanced around. "We go up the stairs."
"Tell me now what the upper-floor layout is before we get there so we won't have to talk."
She explained, using her hands. "Amelia's room is 210. If nothing has changed, everyone should be in their room or at the meal hall, because we were never allowed to linger in the hallways. But we might run into someone coming or going."
"We'll deal with that if it happens." Carlos took her hand and led the way. When he pulled open the wooden exit door to the second floor, the hinges whined.
She held her breath, then shoved up close to see past his shoulder. A metal door twenty feet away on his right closed off the hallway, with an alarm-code panel on the side. A sign above stated no access.
Gabrielle whispered, "That's the staff quarters and security entrance for this building. Go left to the first turn, take a right, and 210 should be halfway down on your left."
He nodded and eased into the hallway, where hand-blown glass sconces lit the passageway, painted a dusty rose and white. Each door was still marked with metal numbers in gold. She stayed close behind Carlos, careful not to make a sound. When they turned the corner, a door shut with a click in the hallway.
Her whole body shook with the fear of getting caught. On some buried level, she was still the frightened teen who never broke a rule or took a risk while here. She'd never wanted to be taken to the "special building" at the back of the property. The place she'd once thought was for exceptional students until a rumor floated around of someone screaming out a window.
Could have been a fabricated rumor just to scare students, but she hadn't risked finding out.
Carlos reached back, taking her hand as if he'd sensed the terror she felt and knew the simple touch would ease her fears. He moved forward, forcing her from her spot. At the door to Amelia's room, he listened, then tapped his knuckles lightly. No answer. He slipped something from his pocket.
Feeling clingy all of a sudden, she released his hands so he was free to jimmy the lock while watching both ways.
He opened the door and she followed him into the room.
The room hadn't changed much other than newer floral brocade linens, the priceless French Provencal antiques still elegant and feminine. Clothes were tossed across one bed just as she and Linette had done on weekends, though they'd kept the room neat all week. Nostalgia flowed over her in slow waves, reminding her of happy nights sharing dreams and sad times once Linette disappeared.
Carlos moved around the room silent as a ghost.
Both of these beds and dressers had photos, books, nail polish, hairbrushes, and other items scattered about. If one bed was Amelia's, the school still expected her to return.
A humming noise drew her attention to the loo. The fan was on, which meant...
Carlos stepped backward just as the commode flushed.
She cringed at the noise.
He had her out in the hallway in half a second. The sound of the bathroom door opening and shutting came through the wood separating them. They barely got out fast enough.
Carlos took a step the way they had come when a door to another room between them and the turn for the stairwell opened.
A young woman with long, silky brown hair backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. She fiddled with the lock.
Something whispered from Carlos's lips that Gabrielle bet was a curse. If they went the other way, the student might report strangers in the hall and LaCrosse would immediately know who they were by the description.
If they walked forward, they'd have to interact, and any lie might hang Gabrielle if the student told someone.
She clenched Carlos's hand, fighting a panic attack. Didn't take a genius to figure the probability of escaping without notice was too small to calculate.
What would LaCrosse do if he heard about this?
Sweat trickled down her collar.
Carlos started forward, pulling her with him. Her heart bounced in her chest. What was he going to do?
When they were within ten feet of the girl, she must have heard them approaching. She swung around with a wide-eyed look that washed away when surprise burst across her face.
"Gabrielle, what are you doing here?"
SEVENTEEN
ME? WHAT ARE you doing here?" Gabrielle demanded.
Babette flung herself into Gabrielle's arms. "I sent you an e-mail that I was being exiled. Why didn't you call me?"
"Who is she?" Carlos asked at the same moment Babette said, "Who is he?"
Gabrielle took a breath, hugged her half sister to her, then looked around. "Oh, dear. Do you have a roommate?" she asked Babette quietly.
"Yes, but she's eating right now. I don't like the food in the meal hall so I keep snacks stashed here." Babette kept her voice down, picking up quickly on the conspiratorial atmosphere.
Gabrielle bet her sister's resistance to dining in the common area had more to do with being new than the food since the school had fabulous chefs.
"Let's talk in your room." Gabrielle glanced at Carlos. His lips were drawn in one unhappy line, but he nodded.
"Sure." Babette opened the door and closed it as soon as everyone was inside. "So what's going on? How did you get permission to visit? I was told that would take forever and an act of parliament to get approved."
"Babette is my sister," Gabrielle told Carlos, stalling while she came up with an answer for why she was in the dorm. She turned to Babette. "He is-"
"-her bodyguard," Carlos answered for Gabrielle, which reminded her to be careful about what she shared.
"Really?" Babette's animated face crumpled with worry. "Has that scumbag tried to hurt you?"
"No, I, uh..." Gabrielle looked to Carlos for help.
"Scumbag?" he asked, not helping one bloody bit.
"Roberto, her ex-husband, I told Gabby he had to be behind those attacks. Don't you know who you're protecting her from?" Babette glowered at Carlos, who cut his eyes at Gabrielle as if she should now help him.
She crossed her arms in silence.
"Yes, I do know about him," Carlos lied since Gabrielle hadn't shared that much about Roberto with him or his black-op friends. "I'm here to ensure he doesn't even try. Gabrielle's here to help the school with their computer system and wanted to see her old dorm room again, but there's a couple girls in it. This is a stuffed-up bunch so we don't want them to know we were over here. LaCrosse would probably get his panties in a wad."
What a brilliant story. Gabrielle's knees were weak with relief.
"You can trust me. I won't tell a soul, especially not the head troll." Babette delivered that with all the sincerity of an accomplice. Then her gaze softened when she took full measure of Carlos to the point of ogling.
"Don't speak disrespectfully of Monsieur LaCrosse." Annoyance heated Gabrielle's neck at yet another female drooling over Carlos, but she couldn't fault an impressionable teen.
It was his fault anyhow. A woman couldn't possibly take in all of him in just one glance. But her younger sister had been taught better manners. Gabrielle cleared her throat, pulling Babette's focus back to her.
"Why didn't LaCrosse mention your sister?" Carlos asked.
"He probably assumed I knew." Gabrielle shrugged.
"Do you know the girls in Gabrielle's old room?" he said in a voice as smooth as fine cognac and loaded with just as much intoxicating charm.
Gabrielle sent a sharp glance of warning at him for turning that power on her little sister.
He winked at her. The bugger.
"I wanted Gabrielle's room, but all Papa remembered was that she had been on this floor." Babette's attention never moved from Carlos as she pushed the long sleeves of her gray T-shirt back to her wrists and smoothed her hands over the jeans she wore. "Papa never said much about her time in this dungeon. Which room?"
"Two ten." Carlos smiled and Babette's cheeks flushed pink, then she looked away.
Gabrielle knew he was trying to get information while they were here, but her maternal instincts surfaced when it came to her sisters. She kicked her foot against his ankle.
His jaw clenched, but his understanding expression never wavered except for the eyebrow he lifted.
Babette missed the silent exchange. She was staring off in thought, nibbling on the corner of a fingernail, then pulled her hand away and snapped her fingers. "Beatrice and Amelia. Beatrice and I have classes together. She'd probably let you take a look at your old room if she's there. I've only met Amelia at lunch a couple times. Talk about an extreme mouth. She's got an opinion on everything to do with civil rights."
Gabrielle smothered a chuckle. Babette had to be sorely put out to meet someone more opinionated than herself. Carlos was far better at this espionage part than her, but she picked up the thread he'd started and guided Babette back on topic.
"No, no, I don't want anyone to see me here," Gabrielle assured her sister. "So these girls are friends of yours?"
"Beatrice is okay." Always animated, Babette moved her hands up, shoving hair off her face, then she fiddled with the edge of her T-shirt and finally settled her hands at her hips, fingers hooking the top of her jeans. "Her mum is a duchess who just remarried, so she got dumped here while the luuuv birds have a first year alone. Bet she's here longer. Amelia's a dorfy one. Beatrice doesn't really know her since they just got moved in together. I'm betting Amelia probably got tossed by her last roomie. I don't want anything to do with her."
"Why?" Gabrielle asked.
"Because the one time I tried to have a conversation with her she said..." Babette paused then straightened her posture, lifted her chin, and pulled her hands together in front of herself emulating a formal stance that was in direct contrast with her usual slouch. She raised her voice and said in an overdone snippy accent, "Biting one's nails is a terrible habit and socially unacceptable."
Babette made a face. "I haven't missed Miss Prim and Proper Salsa one bit since she left last week. Beatrice says Amelia's okay, just programmed that way because her dad is some big-deal coffee guy in South America." br />
"Was there a school break last week?" Gabrielle asked conversationally.
"Not really. Beatrice and Amelia are ahead in credits for the quarter so they could take off, but Beatrice got the same answer I did when she called home to ask for a vacation-no way, no how." Babette's eyes shone with dampness, but she shook it off. "She's been stuck here with me, but Amelia got six school days off. She left with some girl who got hurt or sick while they were gone, so it sounds like her trip got screwed."
"Do you know if anyone else is gone right now?" Gabrielle asked.
"I don't know that many kids yet. Why do you want to know?"
Gabrielle cut her eyes to Carlos. Had she said too much?
He answered Babette, "Your sister is helping them cross-reference files. It seems a few high-profile students like Amelia have slipped out without permission, but that doesn't mean Amelia did. Anything you hear could help Gabrielle, make her look good to the management here so they might ask her to come back and work some more."
Gabrielle narrowed her gaze at him for raising Babette's hopes, but his trick worked to enlist her sister's help.
"I'll keep my ears open for anyone coming and going in this building."
Carlos checked his watch. "We have to get back."
Babette lost all interest in him and turned to Gabrielle with pleading eyes. "Are you coming back to see me?"
Gabrielle's heart broke at the realization she didn't have a clue if she'd be free to visit her sister again. But she wouldn't worry the child. "As soon as I can, but I've got to keep a low profile right now because of..." What could she say and not cause alarm?
"The scumbag," Babette finished for her, and turned to Carlos. "If he comes near her, I hope you plow his face down to his socks."
The smile of assurance Carlos gave her was outright evil. "If anyone tries to hurt her, I'll do worse than that."
Babette sighed with adoration for Carlos.
Gabrielle jerked his sleeve. "We going or not?"
"Getting testy?" he murmured.
Babette launched herself into Gabrielle's arms again. "Come back as soon as you can and call me."
"I don't have my cell phone with me," Gabrielle told her. Because the guy you're mooning over destroyed it.
"Why not?" Babette looked up at her worried. "What if I need to reach you?"