“Tiana.” She grabs my hand again, urgency visible in every tense line of her face. “You’ve got to get out of here. Now. While you still have a chance.”
My voice is pained. “I can’t.”
“When will Dante go away again? Another opportunity may not come soon.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“You’re no match for him.” Her eyes plead with me. “He still has a hold on you. If you stay, he’s going to destroy you again. You barely survived the last time.”
“Dante’s men are watching the hotel. They’re at every door and exit.”
“We can make a plan.” Her tongue trips over her words in her desperation to get them out. “Reino likes me. I can distract him.”
I reel with horror at her suggestion. “No.”
Undeterred, she plows ahead. “I can put my sleeping pills in his coffee. He’s always on duty at the main door in the morning. I can take his gun.”
“No,” I say, louder this time. “You’re not going to put yourself in that kind of danger.”
She squeezes my fingers. “I can disguise us. I can take the guys at the emergency exit a flask of coffee too. When they’re out cold, we can take the stairs to the second floor. We’ll get out there and take the normal elevator to the ground floor. We can walk right out of the front doors before Dante’s men are any the wiser.”
“You don’t even have your stage makeup or wigs.”
“Honey, you haven’t seen what I can do with a sachet of instant coffee.” She lets my hand go and touches one of my curls. “I can turn you into a brunette in less than ten minutes. With my clothes, some heavy make-up, and sunglasses, no one will guess you’re Tatiana.” She becomes more animated. “I can dress Noah up as a girl. He can wear one of my miniskirts. We’ll pretend it’s a game.”
I turn to the window. “I don’t know, Jazz. If Dante catches us?—”
“He won’t.” She steps into my line of vision. “We have to be self-confident. We just have to act the role.”
“You’re the actress. I suck at it.”
“Simply stare straight ahead and walk through the lobby as if you own it. If you exude self-confidence, no one is going to stop or question you.”
“Say we pull it off. What then? We don’t have money or ID’s.”
“We can empty the guards’ wallets.”
I swear her eyes are sparkling with a deviant light.
“You know this city, Tiana. You told me so yourself.”
I think for a moment. “And you know how to hot-wire a car.”
“Exactly.” She adds with enthusiasm, “We’ll work it out from there. We just need to get away first.”
The idea is tempting—crazy, but tempting—but it will turn my only friend into a fugitive.
I shake my head. “He’ll come after us. You’ll have to run for the rest of your life, just like me. You’ll have to change your name and become a different person.”
“Acting is my life, remember?”
“I’m not putting you in that position.”
“It’s not as if I have much going on for me at home. I’m a second-grade actress who plays small roles in shows no one has ever heard of, and I live in a tiny apartment with a roommate who detests me. Hell, even her cat hates me.”
“You have family… friends.”
“My so-called friendships are superficial. None of them matter. No one is missing me right now. And my family?” She laughs. “My mother hasn’t called me in three years.”
