His eyes flew up and he stepped aside, gesturing toward the open door. I launched myself into the car and he slid in beside me, closing the door behind him.

“Go!” I yelled at the driver, who raised his brow at Carson in the rear view mirror. Carson nodded and the car shot forward.

I twisted in the seat, looking out the rear window, past the long length of the trunk to see Bing shoot out the door of my shop onto the street.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I needed to call Augusta, although I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. Somehow I didn’t think telling her Bing had slowed down time to take a recipe book from me was going to impress her.

“Not so fast,” Carson said as I started to punch the numbers.

“Huh?” I looked over at him.

The phone turned molten hot in my hand and I dropped it with a squeal, pulling my hand back. As I watched it melt on the floor mat, I held my already blistering fingers against my chest.

I looked from the puddle of my phone to Carson, my brows mashed together. My brain felt a little slow on the uptake. My heart thudded against my ribcage.

What was going on?

“Thanks, Willa.” Carson reached across the seat toward the book in my lap. A glimmer of gold on his finger caught my eye—the Bates family crest ring. “I was coming for this, but you saved me the trouble. How convenient.”

I pulled the book away, instinctively trying to hide it behind my back on the other side of him. He stretched around me to grab the book, the sleeves of his navy blue coat pulled back, exposing his forearms.

My breath caught in my throat—his arms were raked with scratches.

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

The hard, musty floor pressing on my shoulder blades alerted me to the fact that I was laying down. Dampness seeped through my sweatshirt. A dank, earthy smell tickled my nose. I opened one eye, the dim flicker of light from the single bulb in the ceiling seared into my eyeball with a stabbing pain.

Closing my eye, I rolled on my side, blinking my eyes open again as I fought the wave of nausea that rolled over me. Once it passed, I stared at my surroundings in disbelief.

I’d heard rumors that the Bates mansion had a real dungeon, but I didn’t believe them. Until now. Now I had to believe it … because I was in it.

The stone walls in the cavernous room were void of windows, the only source of light coming from the one dim bulb sticking out of the screw-in socket in the ceiling directly above me. It was clear the addition of electricity had been an afterthought down here in the basement.