Secrets of the Guardian (Waldgrave Book 3) Read Free Page B

Griffin?! Open the door now!
    She stood up and pounded on the door. She twisted the door handle back and forth, and then tried to shoulder the door in, but quickly realized that she was far too short and light to have any effect on it. She braced herself in the small inlet of the door frame and braced her foot on the door handle. She kicked it hard several times, until it loosened and finally fell free. With the lock broken, she forced the door open.
    Griffin!
    She looked wildly around the room—he wasn’t there. She checked the bathroom and the closet, but they were both empty. It was only then that she settled down enough to actually take stock of the room itself. There were suitcases on the bed; Lena turned back to the closet and the realization that that it wasn’t just empty of Griffin. There was nothing; no clothes on the hangers, no shoes next to the wall, nothing folded on the shelves.
    And there were blue, higher-end model, wheeled suitcases perched ever so carefully on top of the gold velvet comforter, largest to smallest, left to right. A voice spoke from behind her.
    “What are you doing? And what the hell did you do to the door?”  
    Lena spun around; Griffin was standing in the doorway, looking bewildered and slightly vexed as he explored the empty hole that his door handle had once filled. She rushed over toward him and hugged him, but he pushed her away.
    “Don’t touch me now.” He pushed passed her and went over to the suitcases, and moved them with his good arm, one by one, to the floor.  
    Lena crossed her arms and tried not to feel too rejected. He was, at least, acting like himself; in a bad mood, perhaps, but she had dealt with this behavior before. “I’m sorry…I was, well, Mrs. Ralston said that…the door was locked and I worried, and…”
    “You were worried about what? That I’d end up like my father? But then, he wasn’t a real suicide. You know all about that.” Griffin paused and gave a wry smile. “And why did you kick the door in?”
    “Because it was locked and you weren’t answering.” Lena said flatly.
    “I always lock my door when I’m away. I’m surprised you don’t know that by now.” Griffin used his good arm to stack one of the smaller suitcases on top of a bigger one and then started wheeling them towards the door.
    As he neared, Lena used her body to block the frame. “What are you doing?”
    Griffin readjusted the weight of the smaller suitcase, which was starting to slip, and gave Lena an annoyed look. “I’m leaving. I believe we discussed this back in Texas, remember? You don’t want me here, and now I don’t to be here. It’s lucky the market is so bad now—I never actually sold the house in California.”
    He tried to push past her again, but she stood her ground. “But—no. I mean, you can’t just leave like this. I mean, how are you going to manage things from California, Griffin, for God’s sake—what about Rollin? What about Devin? What about—Jesus, Griffin, you’re not even gone yet and things are all going to hell so fast that I feel like my head is spinning! This is your responsibility! You can’t just walk out on all of this!”
    She thought she saw a twitch of a smile on his face in response to her fanaticism as he put the suitcases down and pulled her back into the room so that he could close the door. He leaned against the door momentarily, just looking at her, before he started talking again.
    “None of it is my responsibility, Lena, because he was a fraud. None of this…” He gestured around the room, “Is mine. This is the responsibility of the Daray family, which you have so ably exposed as a lie. This—all of this—is over a religion that is dead. Because—“
    “But it’s not! I mean, it could—“
    “Just let me finish!” He barked, glaring at her. “The religion is dead, and who knows for how long. Nothing of what I know makes sense with what we saw yesterday. None of it. I’ve wasted my life on lies,