Barefoot in Pearls (Barefoot Bay Brides Book 3) by Roxanne St. Claire

Author:Roxanne St. Claire [St. Claire, Roxanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: South Street Publishing
Published: 2015-01-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Nothing made sense. Nothing. Not the way this was done, not the timing, not the work, not the…neatness of it all. Luke turned to take in the destruction, which looked like it had been done by a surgeon, not a demolition team. At least not any team he’d ever worked with.

Behind him, he heard Arielle’s footstep and soft gasp of disbelief as she gingerly entered the main room.

“Oh, Luke,” she sighed. “Who did this?”

“I don’t know.” But whoever it was, they were thorough.

The walls—the old-fashioned plaster walls—had been sledgehammered out, exposing the studs of the building. Cabinets had been torn off their studs, the ceiling pounded out to expose the rafters, and every single floorboard ripped up, leaving a concrete foundation and some studs.

Luke blinked as the realization hit him. This wasn’t demolition—this was done by someone looking for something.

“Where did they put everything that was here?” Arielle asked.

“Good question. There’s no dumpster outside and nothing in the back. But all the trash and furniture are gone.” Luke had his phone out, clicking through contacts for the demo subcontractor on the off chance they had subbed out to someone who didn’t get the word to hold off.

It was the only explanation, he thought as he tapped the number and watched Arielle slowly walk around the foundation flooring, carefully avoiding the treacherous nails in strips of wood that had secured the floorboards.

Why the hell would they take up the floor?

The demo subcontractor was on the line in under a minute, and after Luke talked to him, it was clear he was just as perplexed. He’d done nothing to the house. Frustrated and not sure who to call next, Luke went to the back bedroom, where he found Arielle in the doorway of a closet.

“Every single wall’s been taken out,” she said, turning to him.

“It wasn’t my demo guy.”

She threw him a look. “I never thought it was, Luke. You made a promise, and I believed you.”

“Except I promised that this wouldn’t happen.” And he hated that. Inching by her, he stepped into the long, narrow closet that ran the length of the room, marveling at the work that had to have been done by some kind of professional. “This isn’t a demolition.”

“Obviously, they wanted what I want, and if it was here, they got it.”

He turned to her, frowning. “Arielle, I respect that you think there are things around this property that have some value.”

“Things? You heard the archaeologist. Artifacts, tools, weapons, utensils, some dating back a thousand years or more.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t the way to go about looking for them, even if they had street value.”

“I know you think they don’t have value, and honestly, they wouldn’t get much on the black market, I’m certain, but to some people, those artifacts are priceless.”

But to whoever had done this? Not likely. He put his hands on her shoulders, sensing how close she was to tears, feeling her tremble under his fingers. “Those kind of people don’t steal and empty out a house in the middle of the night.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.