Page 88 of Deadly Charade

“Some kind of lever.” One way to find out. Kira pulled up.

The rock wall groaned. If she’d just started an avalanche, they’d both be dead.

Not an avalanche. The wall in front of them separated like elevator doors.

Kira eyed Sophia, and the woman shrugged and said, “After you.”

Of course. Kira always had to go first.

She stepped through the opening and felt the wall until she found a light switch. Kira nearly stopped breathing at the sight before her. Electric lights lit the room that was carved out in the rock, with high ceilings and wall-to-wall shelves.

“I—I can’t believe this exists.” Sophia spun around. “There is a century’s worth of missing art. And very well preserved.”

Cool air flowed through Kira’s hair, and she found the source near the ceiling. They’d built an air-conditioned room in the side of the mountain to keep the art in mint condition. Kira moved deeper into the room. The place resembled an art gallery, with paintings and sculptures set up as if on display. Each painting had a light to show it off, and there were even a few chairs spread around the area. Paintings hung on stands on either side of the room, and the walls of the cave shone with amber glitter. A gallery for the enjoyment of one.

“It’s the missing crate from the Amber Room.” Sophia gaped at the ornate wall. “The jewels. The wall sconces. They’re all original pieces.”

Two panels—rectangles five feet high and four feet wide—hung on a fake white wall. Made entirely of amber, they shimmered in the lights. Jewels ran up and down each side, along with intricate designs carved into the panels. Mirrors added to the brilliance of the piece.

Sophia stepped to the left, taking in every inch of the twenty-by-ten room. “We can’t let the Society find this place.” Then she stopped and looked at Kira. “We can use this as leverage to get my son back.”

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. We have no way out and one gun to defend ourselves from anyone who followed us in.”

Sophia reached out to touch some of the amber stones from the piece, attempting to break a stone off. “I have to get my son back. They’ll make a trade. They blackmailed my husband, so they understand the language of money. I can give them what they want.”

Kira placed a hand over Sophia’s. “If The Goonies movie taught us anything, it’s that booby traps are everywhere. Don’t touch. We don’t know what we’re up against. These men protected this art for centuries, so what’s to keep them from having a trip wire to blow up the entire cave?”

The woman hesitated. “Then what do you suggest?”

Kira had convinced her. That was shocking.

But the question hung in the air between them. How were they going to get out of this? If only Kira had a way to communicate with the FBI and see what was happening on the other side of the mountain. And Bryce . . .

Did he survive the shooting? She’d been desperately trying not to think about him so she could focus on staying alive, but now the thought intruded, and she whispered a silent prayer to the one who knew.

She ran a hand through her hair, shaking out a layer of dust. “Maybe we should head back over the bridge. We need to find Alex and Bryce.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Kira spun. A woman with her face hidden in a black cloak stood in the entryway.

She knocked back the hood on her cloak, and Sophia gasped.

Kira stared. “Natalia? But you’re dead.”

Bryce resisted the urge to pound on the rock wall that housed the secret door. It had been over twenty minutes since he’d last seen Kira. She’d crossed the threshold into a spooky cave with no backup and no weapons. The place was probably crawling with booby traps.

Agents worked around the cave, collecting evidence.

“How are we going to get her back, Violet? Without the keys, we can’t open this door.”

Violet put a hand on his good shoulder, the one that didn’t throb with every heartbeat. “Kira is strong. She’ll make it. And we’ve got an engineer on the way to see if he can get this rock wall open.”

FBI agents had swarmed the area and rounded up all the gunmen who’d arrived to defend the Society’s interest in the bunker.

An agent escorted Alex out of the cave to wait while they searched for Sophia. Alex mouthed, Find them, to Bryce, and he nodded.

He paced in front of the invisible door. “Who is the woman in the cloak?”