[BAD 07] - Silent Truth by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

handle and pressed her thumb on the lever, which moved smoothly.
    Please don’t let an alarm go off.
    A small snick sounded then, hallelujah, the door opened.
    Gwen hadn’t tricked her. Yet.
    A little too late to worry about being arrested for trespassing in a secured area of the mansion.
    Still following instructions, Abbie crossed a paneled library that smelled of history and ink, then passed through a set of open glass doors into a sunroom twenty by forty feet. She kept walking across hand-painted tiles and through another set of open doors to a pool and patio area enclosed by a vine-covered stone wall that was chest high and appeared to be more an architectural decoration than a security measure. The fortress-looking wall a hundred feet away and partially hidden by trees should intimidate most of the population out of trespassing.
    Armed security took care of the rest.
    When Abbie stepped farther onto the patio, heat wafting from the walls warmed her, balancing the chilly evening temperature to a tolerable one. She watched for any sign of alarm or men with radios charging forward.
    Nothing moved, not even the tiny candles hung on a stained glass screen. The tea lights offered just enough visibility for her to move around without falling into the pool, the surface of which lay still as a sheet of glass illuminated from below. Burgundy and yellow wicker furniture with bloated cushions covered in a sunflower pattern sat around the pool as if posed for a magazine shoot.
    “You arrrived here faster than I expected.”
    Abbie whirled, hand on her chest. “You scared me to death.”
    Gwen stood in a shadowed corner. “Seems only fair since you weren’t exactly subtle in the ballroom.”
    “I don’t have time to be subtle.”
    “So you say.” Gwen continued in a rich voice Abbie recognized as cultivated to sound both exquisitely feminine and professional. Her creamy skin and smooth cheeks were taut with stress lines, her eyes searching everywhere.
    Abbie waited in silence.
    Gwen had to make the next move, before Abbie said another incriminating word.
    When the heiress lowered herself to a wicker chair next to a glass table, Abbie took the chair that faced Gwen and the grounds beyond the patio. She drew a breath, preparing to gamble her future and very likely her freedom.
    Gwen held up a finger. “First, I want the truth about why you’re here.”
    “I told you. I found out the real reason my mother has been going to the Kore Women’s Center every year and about the experiments going on there.” Abbie’s heart pounded loud as an angry fist on a door.
    Dr. Tatum had warned her not to speak to Gwen inside the house where her conversation might be caught by electronic listening devices. She had to make Gwen believe they had to meet somewhere private outside.
    Gwen sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Any facility like Kore has a research division.”
    “Not like Kore’s. I know about what happened to women like my mother. Fertile women with rare blood.”
    Gwen didn’t say anything for several seconds. “What do you think you know?”
    “I know about the scam,” Abbie started. “The Kore Women’s Center convinces unsuspecting women to come in for free tests and lab work, then they use that information to vet potential candidates to be blackmailed into their secret program.”
    Gwen’s eyes widened with each word. Her skin rivaled her white dress for lack of color. She visibly struggled for control, then regained it quickly. “You do realize how absurd that sounds.”
    “You think I’d be stupid enough to come here without evidence?” Abbie had bluffed her way into a lot of situations, such as getting her first chance in the news business, but the line of hooey she’d just handed Gwen took the prize. She didn’t have anything more than a belief in the doctor who had cared for all the women in her family for over twenty years. Time to start negotiations. “If you help me, I won’t incriminate