“I’m checking all the fucking doors during this security breach. Alarms are messing with my head. Get up to your bedroom.”
“I’m supposed to be going on a date. Someone needs to take me.”
“You’re not going fucking anywhere,” he yelled back. “Get upstairs!”
He grabbed her arm, shoving her forcefully towards the staircase.
She scrambled to her feet right as he tested the door and it opened. She looked around frantically for something to help her. Spying a heavy candlestick, she picked it up and swung it at his head as he turned towards her. He fell to the ground with a thump.
Shoot. What had she done? She couldn’t just leave him here. She quickly opened the door to the office then dragged him inside. It took a lot of effort, but adrenaline flooded her, giving her added strength.
When he was in the room, she raced back out, remembering to lock it in the hope that bought her some extra time. She didn’t know how much longer the cameras and alarms would stay down; she knew Brody would try to give her as much time as possible. She had to get out of here before he woke up. Breath sawing in and out of her lungs, she quickly moved towards the kitchen. She figured the back entrance might be the easiest way out of here. Someone yelled out from the front of the house and she bit back a cry of fear.
She couldn’t think beyond what to do past getting out of the house safely. There were guards outside, dogs and a wall. If the cameras came back on and she was seen…she was so terrified that all she wanted to do was find the nearest safe space, crawl in there and wait until she was rescued.
But no one could help her. If the guards found her, she was a dead woman once Forrest returned.
It was now or never.
There was no one in the kitchen and she slipped out the back. She was grateful for her dark clothing and the fact that she had shoes on as she moved down a pathway towards the gardens. The alarms wouldn’t be down for much longer. Out the back was a lot of taller trees, densely packed in. Good for hiding. But not easy to move through quickly. But to go out the front or sides of the property, she’d be far more exposed.
She could get away with this. She could.
Branch
es tore at her, scratching her skin. It wouldn’t take much for her to be tracked. She just prayed that they didn’t discover Thing One or that she was missing before she got out of here. She pawed at her bra, feeling for the burner cell phone and pen drive. She’d left the phone Kit had given her in her room. Not that she could risk stopping to call Ink. And all he’d do was worry anyway. Or try to come get her.
No, she’d wait until she was well away from here to call him.
She ignored the pain of the scratches, just focused on getting through the trees towards the huge fence. This was going to cause the biggest problem.
How was she going to get over it?
In the distance, a dog howled. She told herself it wasn’t coming for her. She had nothing to worry about. She reached deep into herself to keep herself from falling apart.
She could do this. She could do this.
The trees started to thin and she saw it. The fence. She didn’t know if the alarms were back on. She guessed they probably were. She was only going to have one shot at this. The fence was solid brick, no obvious way of climbing it. She hid behind a tree, and watched as one of the mounted surveillance cameras started moving back and forth.
Shit! She figured that meant they were back on. She had to get out of here!
What to use to climb over? She wanted to give in. Wanted to climb a tree and hide…
Climb a tree. She looked around. There were some trees on this side that were close enough to the fence that if she climbed up and moved out on one of the branches, maybe she could jump over the other side.
And break something in the process.
She had no other options. They could have discovered she was gone by now. Have found an unconscious Thing One. Even though she was trembling with fear, weak from exhaustion.
She had to do this. She moved along the tree line, careful to keep herself hidden until she spotted a large tree. One of its branches reached out towards the fence. There would still be a bit of a jump. But if the branch would hold her, she thought she could make it.
She moved the pen drive and phone to her zip-up pocket on her pants.
Now, if only she had some experience at climbing a tree.
Little ladies don’t climb trees, Elizabeth Victoria.
Well, it seemed this Little was going to have to learn. Fast.