Page 31 of Merciless | AllFreeNovel

He’s charming.

Worse, he knows he’s charming.

But I sense danger from him as well. It clings to him like expensive cologne.

I’ve worked at Vexley House for a few years now, and this is the closest I’ve ever been to one of them. One of the men whose name is carved into the gates and stamped on my paycheck and whispered in the servants’ wing like a warning.

Before today, my closest interaction with a Vexley was Arthur on the day he hired me. He’s older, obviously, than his sons, with silver hair and darker eyes. Still a handsome man, but something about him seemed untouchable.

“Mrs. Steppe will see to your training,” he said to me.

And Audrey did.

God, Audrey did.

I shake the memory away and make my way back to the servants’ wing.

Then I stop.

The phone.

My stomach drops.

For a few minutes I forgot about the phone.

I slide my hand into my apron pocket. It’s still there.

I need to get rid of it.

I step into the hallway and look both ways. No one. Just the long corridor.

Vexley House is quieter on this side.

The staff area is never truly quiet. There’s always movement there. Laundry carts, footsteps, whispered complaints, Audrey’s voice slicing through the morning as she barks orders.

So…what to do with the burner?

Charlotte’s room. That would be easy enough. And Charlotte deserves it. Tiffany deserves it too. If the phone was meant for one of them, putting it in one of their rooms would simply be correcting a mistake. Returning lost property. That’s all.