“Please. I’ll be so embarrassed if I have an accident. Not to mention the mess of it and?—”
“All right. Stand back. Don’t try anything funny. I’m armed.”
“Thank you. I understand.” I grab the zip tie and drive before he can open the door and take a step away with my arms behind my back. The ancient door creaks open, and in walks an attendant who can’t be any older than I am. He’s tall but thin, and it’s almost unfair. Especially when his eyes go wide.
I smile a flirty smile, and he blushes ever so slightly. Cute. “Thank you. You’re my hero.”
His gun is pointed at me, but the fool has the safety still on. Before he can step foot in the room, I swing up, and I kick thegun out of his hand. It bangs into the wall before it skitters across the floor, and the guy shouts, trying to dive for it. I drop an elbow to the middle of his back, knocking him to the floor in a sprawl.
He grabs for my legs, managing to catch my ankle and jerk it up. It’s enough to throw me off balance, and I fall back, the air shooting from my lungs as I hit the stone floor. He takes my moment of stun and attempts to crawl over me—again, rookie mistake—and I throat-bar him with my forearm, thrust up, and push him off me.
I throw a punch that hits him in the jaw and hop to my feet. He groans and swipes at me, and I nail him in the ribs with my foot when he tries to catch my ankle a second time.
“Help!” he cries out. “Help. She’s trying to escape.”
Asshole, shut up!
But he doesn’t stop. He doesn’t give up. He stands and comes at me, shouting at the top of his lungs while his hands fly about, trying to catch me. I twist to the right, ducking under his arm grab, rear back, and punch him in the face. It knocks the poor guy off his feet and to the ground. He hits the back of his head, rendering him unconscious.
I listen to his chest. His heart is still going strong. But shit. I really got his nose.
I place my thumbs on either side of the bridge of his nose and, in one swift move, I crack it back into place. He whimpers and jolts, but it doesn’t wake him. Still, he’ll be happy he doesn’t have a displaced nasal fracture tomorrow.
I grab his gun, slip it into the back waistband of my pants, snag the key from his pocket, and lock him inside the room. I glance down the hall. No one is there. So much for people manning the cameras or the prisoner. It’s almost as if they want me to escape.
And best of all, my backpack is sitting on the floor right beside the door. I snatch it up and toss it over my shoulder. Idon’t hesitate. I don’t think twice. My feet carry me on instinct, and I race toward the stairwell that they brought me down. I slam through the heavy door, staggering back into the blinding sunshine and pervasive heat.
There’s no way I’ll be able to make it out of here on foot. It’s impossible.
The garage is on the left, and there’s a side entrance that will get me inside it. It’s my best option. I break through the unlocked door and quickly survey my options. I need something inconspicuous but fast enough to get me there. Two large, black SUVs that I know they use when the family goes out, which are equipped with tracking, take up the first two bays. After that, it’s the SUV they brought me back here in, a smaller SUV, and a couple of expensive sedans and sports cars.
I don’t know which car to take.
Down on the end is a small sedan, not as flashy or exciting as the others. I grab the keys hanging off the hook on the wall and race down there. The garage door opens, and my heart hammers faster with every second it takes for it to slowly ascend. At this rate, I’ll have a heart attack before I can even get out of here.
“Come on!” I growl impatiently.
The moment the door is up, the car roars to life, and I peel out, swiveling around on the rocky driveway and speeding toward the gate. This is another issue. They could have been alerted that I broke out. If the guards attempt to stop me, I have to keep going.
I shift the gun out of the waistband of my pants and put it into my backpack on the front passenger seat. I approach the exit and wave at the guards with a pretty smile. They give me a nod and a wave and open the gate. Just like that. They’ve seen me before walking the grounds and when I left this morning on foot, but that feels too easy.
Then again, who cares?
I drive away from the palace as fast as I can while I pull up the tracking on my work phone. It’s the only one I have with active internet access. She’s in the car, heading southeast. The attendants must not have gotten to her in time, or they’re tailing her. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I head in that direction, going down the long, winding road that will take me to the autoroute to intersect her path.
She’s ahead of me by at least forty-five minutes, and that terrifies me.
A lot can happen in forty-five minutes.
I glance in my rearview mirror, but I don’t see anyone behind me.
I told Rowan I loved him. Well, I told the king that I loved his brother. I love him, and I’m leaving him behind, but it has to be done. That’s what I keep telling myself. My whole life has been have-to, and maybe that will change someday, but that day is not today.
The road winds and curves, taking me around quaint countryside and small villages. I don’t see any of it. I’m hyper-focused on the path ahead of me and the view through my rearview mirror. She’s driving in the direction of the palazzo, but before she can cross to the route that will lead her there, her car takes an exit off the highway and goes a different direction, due south.
It takes me a moment to figure it out until it all clicks into place. The bay house.
She’s going to Samil’s bay house. I know it. That’s the only thing in that direction that would compel her there, and it’s the perfect place to keep Jaqueline. It’s been abandoned since Samil died. For all I knew, they had sold it along with many of his other properties and possessions, but clearly she’s held onto it.
