Billionaire Misery by Lexy Timms Page B

was twenty-one-thousand square-feet, and she found herself wondering what it must have been like to grow up in all that echoing space.
    Even with all the people gathered in there, and the noise from conversations going on everywhere, the place had a definite echo thanks to the cold marble floors and walls, and the massive ceilings didn’t make it any more intimate either.
    They headed for the staircase, and then Katie paused, and whispered, “The servants’ stairs would be better; nobody would notice us.”
    Jessie nodded. They worked their way around the fringes of the room and down a long deserted hallway. The door was almost invisible. They opened it and ascended to the upper floors. Jessie, ever conscious of the long hem of her skirt and the fact that, at any minute, they might be discovered, kept her footsteps light, and was glad when everyone else did the same.
    They came out on the third floor. The entryway was just ahead, and it was open all the way down to the ground floor, where too many people were gathered. Jessie eyed the distance warily. Could they cross it without being seen?
    As it turned out, they didn’t have to. Blake’s study was on the right, and as soon as they stepped in they were almost overwhelmed by the masculinity of the place.
    It took up most of that end of the hallway. Books sat in floor-to-ceiling cases, and there was a massive desk that took up most of the middle of the room. Persian rugs covered the exquisite floors, and the paintings on the wall were priceless masterpieces that should have been in a museum.
    Craig closed the door and whispered, “Fuck!” He blew out a breath. “That went much better than I thought it would.”
    Katie said, “We still have to get back out of here without anyone realizing.”
    Morgan stepped forward. “Where’s the safe?”
    Craig crossed the floor and went to one of the bookcases. Jessie expected him to pull a hidden lever or something equally spy-like. Instead, he said, “It’s in the floor. It has to come out of the floor, and there’s a certain way it has to be done. Don’t stand anywhere near that rug there.”
    He jerked his chin toward a nearby rug, and they all stepped back. Craig began to lift books off of the shelves one at a time, and then he reached into the shelves and under them. The rug shivered then lifted.
    Jessie held her breath. Was it possible? After all this time, was she about to get the evidence that she really needed to finally be paid the debt that Wilkes owed her family?
    What would come after?
    The thought hit her hard.
    What would she do after this was done?
    She had never considered that, and now it hit her that she had to. That she would be able to have a life when this was done.
    Her heart knocked crazily in her chest as she looked at Craig. They might be able to have a life...except she had collected the evidence that would see him in prison for a long time. The kind of things he had been involved with carried heavy sentences, and he already had two felonies on his jacket. The next would be a third strike, and in that state a third strike was life without possibility of parole.
    Her breath caught in her throat. There were only two options. Dump the evidence she had against Craig, and in doing so destroy her case, or don’t. Break the law or... Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
    She shook those thoughts off, but the one persisted. If this ended, finally, what would she do?
    The rug slid to one side and she stepped forward, but Craig said, “No, hold on. There’s more.”
    She stood still, trembling all over.
    Craig put the books back carefully. He said, “If you touch the safe before the books go back in, it triggers a very loud alarm and there’re about a hundred cops all over this house.”
    They all held their breath as Craig approached the safe, knelt, and began to turn the complicated series of dials and knobs. What if he had gotten the combination wrong? What if Wilkes had changed it?
    Katie groaned,