Steel Rush (In the Shadows#5) (3 page)

Releasing her, I shift the book under my arm and quickly knock before she can argue more.

At the same time the men’s voices suddenly quiet, I turn the knob and open the door.

“Celeste—”

I pretend not to hear the sharp warning in Gregory Carver’s tone as I step into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but this can’t wait,” I say to Celeste’s father before I turn to Phillip, who’s sitting in a chair across from the desk, a mixture of anger and disbelief on his face. “This is a private family matter. Would you mind if we had a moment alone with our father, please?”

Phillip glances down and casually flips a piece of paper to the next one in the portfolio on his lap. “Now isn’t the time for theatrics, Celeste.”

His condescending manner makes me want to roll my eyes, but before I can say anything, Gregory stands behind his desk. “Phillip
is
family and you will pay him the respect he’s due, Celeste. Apologize and don’t come back in here again until you’re called. This sudden obstinate streak of yours ends now. Am I understood?”

“I tried to tell her…” Beth’s voice is quiet, but at least she followed me into the room.

Resisting the urge to step back under Gregory’s hard glare, I curl my fingers around the edge of the book under my arm and speak to Beth. “Please shut the door. I don’t want to disturb your mother with this.”

Giving me an odd look, Beth quickly shuts the door, mumbling, “This sounds ominous.”

The moment the door clicks closed, the sound of Gregory’s fist slamming down on the desk makes my heart lurch. “That’s it! I’m glad your mother went to stay with her sister yesterday so she doesn’t have to witness this utter lack of respect. You’ve just lost your credit cards. All your accounts will be frozen until you can act accordingly. No daughter of mine will completely disregard my authority—”

“That’s because I’m
not
your daughter,” I say in a raised voice to be heard over his tirade.

“That’s a line you don’t want to cross, Celeste. Maybe you should take a breath.” Phillip’s calm words overlay Gregory’s stunned grunt of silence and Beth’s quietly uttered,
oh boy
.

I shake my head and keep my voice even. “This isn’t an act of defiance. I waited as long as I could, for a text or a call, but I can’t any longer.” Inhaling slowly through my nose, I hold Gregory’s gaze. “You need to call the police, Mr. Carver. I’m truly worried something has happened to your daughter.”

“You’ve taken this charade far enough, young lady!” Gregory quickly finds his voice, his face red with outrage.

“Stop antagonizing him, Celeste.”

Celeste’s father and sister’s elevated voices don’t faze me. I expected their resistance, but the sudden suspicion in Phillip’s narrowed hazel gaze sends a chill of apprehension down my spine. I still don’t know who’s behind those threatening notes that showed up in Celeste’s text feed last night. I’m almost certain the source was a man, but one thing is for sure: Celeste had given the sender the codename Deceiver for a reason. The culprit could be a family member, a family friend, or even her security guard.

Tamping down the tension coiling in my stomach, I put a hand on Beth’s shoulder and meet her worried gaze with a sincere one. “It’s the truth, Beth. I’m not Celeste.”

She clamps a hand fiercely on mine and directs her anger at her father. “She’s doing this because you sprang that stupid engagement on her last night.”

“That’s enough! Both you girls are beyond spoiled,” Gregory growls, crossing his arms. “Maybe a stint of honest, hard work, where you actually have to earn your own way, will jolt you back to reality.”

“I had a feeling I might need this.” I sigh and pull my hand free of Beth’s tight grip. Opening the high school yearbook I found on a shelf in Celeste’s room, I set it on Gregory’s desk and point to the senior picture of me. “That’s me, Cassandra Rockwell.” Thumbing to the front of the alphabet, I point to Celeste. “And that is Celeste Carver.”

Beth leans over my shoulder and flips back and forth between the two pages, then skims a shocked gaze over my face. “My God…it’s uncanny how much you look like her. That certainly explains a lot about last night. You definitely seemed…off.”

Exhaling a long breath, I nod. “Our resemblance was the whole point. Celeste knew how important last night’s party was for your career, Mr. Carver, so she asked me to ‘be her’ while she kept an appointment she couldn’t miss.”

“What appointment?” Beth and her father demand at the same time.

“She didn’t say.” I shrug and slide a sidelong glance Phillip’s way. He’s staring at me with anger and shrewd wariness now. I’m sure he’s replaying all the threatening, authoritative comments he’d said to “Celeste” last night through his mind. They were vague enough that only Celeste would truly understand the subtext, but they definitely revealed a strange power-struggle dynamic between them.

Phillip adjusts his expensive tie as he stands to glance over the yearbook photos. Sliding his finger along the page with Celeste’s photo, he says, “You really have no idea where she is?”

“No,” I answer honestly, keeping my expression perfectly composed.

“If you’re close enough to my sister to take her place, then why has she never mentioned you?” Beth asks, crossing her arms.

I slowly shut the book. “Celeste and I weren’t that close in school, but she knew I could pass for her and that’s all she needed.”

“Celeste is obviously off pouting somewhere, but what I want to know is…what did you get out of this stand-in game you two played?” Phillip cross-examines me like I’m in a courtroom. Setting the portfolio on the corner of the desk, he continues his suspicious line of questioning. “
Why
would Celeste let a complete stranger into her home and allow her to mingle with her family?”

I start to speak, but he overrides me, his voice darkening to a menacing rumble. “Whatever you’re holding over her, I will bury you if you try to disclose anything personal you’ve learned about the Carver family to the public.”

“Hold that thought, Phillip…” Gregory interjects, furrowing his brow. “Rockwell sounds familiar.” Opening a folder sitting on his desk, he turns the letter inside with Celeste’s signature on it toward me. “Do you know a Jason Rockwell?”

I straighten my spine. “He’s my father. And yes, that was my agreement with Celeste. In exchange for me being her for an evening, Celeste offered to try to help my father get his development plan in front of the right people with the city.” I wave my hand. “But none of that matters right now. What does matter is that your daughter never came home. I wanted to say something last night while the police were here, but Celeste was adamant that I not tell anyone about our switch. The last thing I wanted to do was cause a scandal. She’d pushed our time to meet back until midnight, and as far as I knew, I had her real ID, so the other one the police found couldn’t have been hers. But now that it has been over eight hours since she was supposed to reconnect with me, I think it’s time to call the police.”

Gregory shakes his head and gestures to Phillip, who’s typing something on his phone. “I agree with Phillip. I’m sure this is Celeste acting out. She’s done this before.”

“What? Run away?” Beth cuts in, her voice tense. “That was when she was
fourteen
, Father.”

“Phillip found her then. I trust him to find her now,” Gregory says with confidence.

Beth throws her hands out, her voice elevating. “What if something really has happened to her? Are all of you forgetting they found blood along with that ID? We can’t ignore the possibility!”

“I agree with Beth,” I quickly add. “You need to—”

“Let’s go with your theory that something has happened to Celeste, Miss Rockwell, shall we?” I don’t like Phillip patronizing me, but I need them to believe me so I wait for him to continue. “How do we know
you
didn’t have something to do with Celeste’s disappearance, and the police caught you off guard and that’s why you delayed until today to come clean?”

My stomach plummets at his unexpected attack. “I would never hurt another person—”

“But if you really believed something happened to her, you would’ve sounded the alarm last night,” Phillip cuts me off as he slides his phone into his pocket.

“I just told you why I didn’t say anything last nigh—”

“Unless…” his gaze hardens, anger firing in the hazel depths. “You’re insisting we call the police to throw suspicion off you?”

I gulp back my shock at his aggressive conjecture about my motives. “Are you serious? I could’ve just walked out and resumed my life without saying a word to any of you. I didn’t have to get involved, explain a thing, or even tell you my name. I really hope I’m wrong about this. Truly I do.”

“I know Celeste wasn’t thrilled by the idea of the engagement, but she understood the commitment when she took over as Carver Enterprises’ CEO,” Gregory says, seguing back to his original theory as to where Celeste might be.

I glance his way, thankful he isn’t accusing me, but still worried he’s holding onto the belief that Celeste is pouting. She didn’t sound that way to me. She seemed to accept she would have a marriage in name only.

“No more fake concern, Miss Rockwell.” Phillip waves his hand dismissively. “We’ve let you spin your tall tale, but you and Celeste are done with this game. Where is she?”

Pressing my lips together to keep from screaming at the arrogant man, I slip my hands into my slacks pockets and exhale a calming breath. “You’re choosing not to hear me, so I’ll say this one more time to be perfectly clear. This is
no
game. I had nothing to do with where Celeste went, but she
never
returned.” Pulling my hand out of my pocket, I set the phone Celeste gave me on the desk. “The police’s tech people can start with this. Celeste cloned her phone onto this one and gave it to me to use for the evening. Hopefully it’ll give them a way to trace back to her original phone and locate her. At the very least it should help them follow where she went yesterday.”

When the lines around Phillip’s mouth deepen, Gregory’s salt and pepper brows pull together and Celeste’s father shakes his head, clearly at a loss. Phillip sees Gregory’s reaction, then speaks to me in a calmer tone. “Miss Rockwell, would you mind stepping outside so I can discuss this with Gregory?” The lawyer’s mask is back, cool and collected.

I sigh, done with this whole crazy situation. “Look, I’m not here to argue with you. I honestly hope Celeste
is
having a bit of fun at your expense. No one should have to marry someone they don’t love.” When both men frown at my comment, I shrug. It felt good to get that off my chest. “I’ll just call a cab. Before I go, I will leave my contact information with Beth if the police do need to get involved and want to talk to me.”

As I start to leave, Phillip commands, “Please wait outside, Miss Rockwell. You too, Beth.”

Beth lets out an annoyed huff, then turns and opens the door. Stepping out with us, Phillip calls Marco and Anthony over from their positions by the staircase. “Mr. Carver and I have something to discuss. Please make sure the ladies remain here until we’re done.”

Once he closes the door, I mutter to Beth, “So much for them listening.”

“Did you really think they would believe a fraud?” she says under her breath so the guards can’t hear. “Just because you look like her doesn’t mean you deserve our trust.”

When Beth turns her back on me, it hurts more than it should. My chest actually aches. And, yet again, I’m being treated like I’m less than nothing. I didn’t expect the conversation with her family to go over well, nor did I expect to be treated like a guilty party, but Beth is acting like I’m a lowlife who actively and willingly betrayed her.

Blowing out a breath, I lean against the wall and try not to freak out at the thought Phillip will act on his earlier accusation. What if Phillip was playing me and he’s actually in there right now convincing Gregory to call the police to question me in suspicion of Celeste’s disappearance? God, how did this turn into such a screwed up, tangled mess?

After several minutes, the escalating angst and worry over what’s being discussed behind that closed door makes me realize that calling a cab is
my
best course of action regardless what her family decides to do. They have Celeste’s cloned phone. That should give them a head start. Ugh, which means now I don’t have a way to call for a cab while standing here. Leaning close to Beth, I ask, “Would you mind if I borrow your phone?”

Her only answer is to glare at me over her shoulder.

A couple more minutes tick by and my stomach churns tighter. As my heart rate elevates with the continued rumble of voices in the other room, my wrists begin to sting uncontrollably. I can’t make out what they’re saying, which only amps my nerves.

I try to fold my arms to assuage the need to scratch, but when nausea washes over me in rolling waves of heat, I instantly start for the bathroom. Marco steps in my path, his mouth curled in a determined smirk. “You were told to wait here.”

Swallowing several times to settle my angst, I move back to my position against the wall and cross my arms.

I jump when the door finally opens. Gregory dismisses the men and waves us in. Shutting the door behind us, he addresses Beth first. “Most likely your sister is doing this to prove her displeasure with me, but we’re not going to wait for her to return on her own; we’ll treat this as if she’s gone missing.”