Phone. Check.
Gun. Check.
Courage. Still working on it.
I stuffed everything into my bag and slipped the strap over my shoulder before sucking in a breath and letting it free with the last bit of my sanity.
Moving through the house felt like walking a tightrope strung over broken glass. The soles of my boots whispered against the floor, and each creak of the boards made me wince. Last I checked, Evan was watching the security footage, but he wasn’t the only guard on the grounds tonight. I pressed myself against the wall at each corner, listening before I turned, but I couldn’t shake this horrible feeling that I would run into Kreed, and the whole night would be ruined. If that happened, who knew when I would get another chance like this? I had to believe everything was aligning for a reason. It was as if the universe was carving out a path for me.
My breath came shallow and quick as I crept down the west wing. There would be a time and a place for Kreed to find me. I wanted him to follow, just not too soon. Not before I’d gotten far enough that he couldn’t simply drag me back inside and lock me in my room.
As I hooked a right, the west side of the estate stretched dark before me. This part of the house was mostly unused, which was why I chose it for my escape. I opened the back door, headed out into the nippy night, and deliberately stepped into the motion sensor’s range.
Harsh light flooded the space, and I squinted against it, making sure to pause long enough in full view of the camera mounted in the corner. The red light blinked as the recording device kicked on. Good.
Then I ran.
My feet hit the grass, dew covering my boots and making the yard slippery, but I kept going, kept my focus on the wall looming ahead. Itwasn’t an easy task to scale the stone surrounding the property, but with a muffled curse and muscles burning as I hauled myself up and over. I dropped onto the other side, knees buckling slightly on impact, the dark and empty road spanning before me, empty except for a single car idling a few feet away.
A shiny BMW waited for me, its midnight paint catching the moonlight. The headlights were off, and if it weren’t for the low purr of the engine, I would have thought it was parked for the night. But I knew differently.
The driver’s door groaned open, and Carson stepped out. My chest twisted. He had his hood up, obscuring half his face. His shoulders were hunched and tense, those dark-blue eyes darting left and right behind me as if expecting someone to jump the fence after me.
It was a valid concern.
He looked guilty.
Perfect.
“I swear that took forever,” he whispered, shifting his feet as he blew warm breath into his hands.
I shrugged. “Less than a minute, but we shouldn’t linger.” I stepped closer, gravel crunching under my shoes. “Evan will be on our ass in no time.”
The frown lines around his mouth deepened. “I was hoping you’d changed your mind.”
I paused at the passenger door, one hand resting on the handle as I searched his face. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. His fingers drummed an anxious rhythm against the roof of the car.Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.He kept glancing down the road, head swiveling as if he expected lights to come screaming around the corner any second.
He was nervous, justifiably so, but I needed him to keep a cool head.
I pulled the door open and climbed into the passenger seat as Carson slid behind the wheel, his movements stiff. The car lurched into motion as we pulled onto the road, tires crunching over loose gravel before finding smooth asphalt.
“It’snot too late to change your mind,” he said, fiddling with the heat vents though they were already blasting warm air. “I can turn the car around. I can help you sneak back inside.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You know I can’t do that, but you don’t have to be here.”
His eyes flicked to me before darting away again, focusing back on the dark ribbon of road unwinding before us. “I’m not leaving you. Not this time.”
As we drove, I traced aimless circles on my thigh, nervous energy sparking under my skin. The gun stashed in my bag on my lap taunted me. I shifted, and it shifted with me, a cold reminder of what I was walking into. “Where is he?” I asked.
“A cabin in the middle of nowhere,” Carson muttered, easing the wheel through a tight curve. “This couldn’t be any more like a horror film if a guy with a chainsaw sprinted out of the trees.”
I let out a disbelieving snort. “Of course, he would go there. Why hadn’t that been the first thing to come to me?”
“You’ve been to the cabin?” he asked, eyes widening briefly.
I nodded. “Yeah. He took me there after he told me about the Corvos’ deception. Did he give you directions?” My voice came out steadier than I felt.
Holy shit. This is happening.
