Page 82 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

He gave me a friendly grin. But there in the dingy basement, under the orange bulb, it looked more like the cold smile of a killer.

Chapter 26

Conor (Lucien)

Was it just me, or was Laura nervous of me? It was like she’d frozen up around me. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I had to keep my eyes on the road. We were heading through a treacherous landscape now. By the time we were approaching Caluga, the Jeep was throwing up a slew of water and debris around it, and visibility was poor even with the windscreen wipers on full blast.

“Come on,” I muttered, as I pulled us round a particularly narrow corner. Immediately, there was the blast of a horn, and a huge semi rounded past us. Laura shrieked as its headlights momentarily blinded us. It was nearly dark now, and with twenty minutes left to drive, I slowed and began to move at a crawl.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” said Laura sulkily, as we began to make our way down to the bottom of the valley. The Falls were briefly visible on our left. From here, we had to drop into a narrow gorge, before rising up again to the turning, which would take us back to Lakeview and Laura’s home.

“I’m working on it,” I said. “Just trying to stop us from getting run off the road.”

But I could already see that we weren’t going anywhere further on this road. At the bottom of the gorge, water had run into the road. It must have been half a meter deep or more, and I cursed, bringing the car to a stop.

“Oh no,” said Laura.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m sure the Jeep can get through.”

Slowly, I eased into the floodwater. It was so deep that the Jeep’s headlights were shining eerily on the surface, illuminating the twisted lumps of branches and twigs.

“Why can’t I get any cell reception?” Laura asked, looking at her phone.

The sky thundered up ahead, and I gave her a grim look.

“Lightning,” I said. “Probably struck the cell tower in Caluga.”

“This is perfect,” sighed Laura.

“Could you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Try and be, oh, I don’t know,” I said, as I finally pulled us out of the mire. “Fifteen percent more optimistic?”

“Easy for you to say,” said Laura.

“How is it easy for me?” I said incredulously. I knew that this whole thing was stressful. It was dangerous on the road at night. But I wasn’t a bad driver. Laura was nervous about something else. What could she have found in the archives that would make her so wary of me?

We rounded the corner, and I was about to floor the accelerator and carry us up the hill into the Caluga Valley. But then, I saw the road ahead and groaned.

“What is it?” Laura leaned forward.

“Landslide,” I sighed.

I stopped the Jeep. Gingerly, I opened the door and looked out. Rain soaked my head as I stared in front of me at the pile of stone and mud that had slipped down from the gorge above us. We were lucky it had happened earlier. I looked up at the gorge above us, checking for weak spots, before wiping the rain from my eyes and shutting the door.

Resigned to the situation, I put the engine into neutral and turned it off.

“Lucien,” Laura said warily. “What did you just do?”

“There’s nothing for it. We’ll have to go around.”

“Around?” frowned Laura. “Like, off-road?”

“On foot is more like it,” I gestured to the right. Laura leaned over and looked into the dark forest ahead.

“There’s no way I’m going in there.”