Just as he’d said, I waited twenty minutes, then crept out of my unlocked cell and followed Lochlan’s directions. The other prisoners were sleeping, and I was grateful for it. I knew several from past missions and had no interest in their waking up and shouting about my presence. Even if Lochlan had distracted the guards, there was no way a full-on riot would be ignored.
Ambrose was right where Lochlan had said, and once I ensured that there weren’t any guards nearby, I carefully withdrew the lockpicking tools from where I’d hidden them down my shirt and began fiddling with the lock.
Within a few minutes, it clicked open, and a slight grating noise came from the hinges on the cell door as I entered.
I went over to crouch beside Ambrose and poked him awake.
He blearily opened one eye. “Gil? What are you doing here?”
“Shhh,” I hushed him. “I need to ask you something, and you have to be honest with me. Are you the Employer?”
He looked utterly baffled and still in that half-awake phase that made everyone’s tongues looser. “Me? No. What would give you that idea?”
“I found a note with your handwriting signed by the Employer.”
Ambrose slowly shook his head. “I don’t know what note you found, but I’m not the Employer.”
CHAPTER 30
“We’re getting out of here,” I told Ambrose under my breath while I tucked the lockpicking kit back into my shirt. “Right now.”
“What?” His voice went up an octave.
“Keep your voice down. Do you know a safe place we can go?”
Ambrose watched me tinkering with the locks.
“If you aren’t the Employer, do you know who they are and where to find them?” I asked.
He bobbed his head up and down and I was irresistibly reminded of a turtle. “I can take you there if you can get me out.” He looked more awake now, and though he said it very casually, his eyes kept darting over to look at me.
I grabbed his upper arm and hoisted him to his feet. “Good. Because I don’t have anywhere else to go. Would the Employer be willing to take us in?”
“I’m sure,” Ambrose said, a sly smile on his lips.
This weasel wasn’t much better than Elvin. He was planning to bring me in himself and walk away with the bounty set on my head. I couldn’t believe I’d ever imagined that this pathetic excuse for a man was the Employer. But then, who was theEmployer? He had to be rich, if he paid out all the bounties. He also had to be well connected and competent in battle. And if such a person existed, why would they be interested inme, of all people? What had I done to attract their attention?
I cracked open the door just enough that Ambrose could squeeze his way out without making the cell door groan.
“Come on,” I told him, leading him out past the other prisoners. A few stirred in their sleep, but we managed to get nearly to the exit before one woke up.
The prisoner’s shout came just as we reached the door. “Hey!”
I didn’t wait to see if he was calling out to be freed or trying to alert the guards. My fingers clamped over Ambrose’s wrist and I wrenched him through the exit and out into the hall.
We didn’t have time to be stealthy. As we ran, I quickly concluded that if I was ever to enter a sprinting contest, Ambrose would be one of the last people I wanted on my team. He was so slow that I kept yanking on his arm and wondering if he was actively trying to hold me back. His breathing came in wheezing gasps that were easily audible even over our pounding footsteps.
“Hurry up,” I snarled at Ambrose, who was running with a choppy gait that made me think he mustn’t have gone for a good run in at least several years.
“My…knees,” he huffed, wincing with each footfall.
“It’ll be your neck if you don’t hurry.” I wrenched on his arm again. Why weren’t there more guards? Was it because Lochlan really had diverted their attention that successfully? Had Marta bought them off so they’d turn a blind eye? Perhaps it had been a combination.
I heard a few shouts from guards, but there was no one between us and the side door I’d seen when Lochlan took me in for my interrogation, and no guards were posted there either.Ambrose was dragged along with me as I sprinted for the courtyard beyond.
I didn’t stop running as I went through the courtyard, past the exterior wall, and began darting through the city streets I knew so well.
“I…need…a…minute…” Ambrose wheezed, his voice coming in short, halting gasps before he collapsed, unable to go another step.
