In a split second, our eyes meet, and hers fill with a kind of despair I’ve never seen before. Jill screams out loud. I almost let go of the wooden structure in shock but manage to recapture myself and clench my fingers around it. That’s when I move. As fast as a rat trying to escape its cage, I shimmy down the trellis along the prickly vines that grow up against the walls of the mansion. The thorns scratch me everywhere, and my bathrobe rips after it catches on one of the thorns. But the fabric of my robe is the least of my worries with Jill’s head hanging out the window.
“Charlotte! No! Come back here!” she screeches. “You’ll fall!”
But I’m completely transfixed by the freedom within my reach. Consequences be damned, even the repercussions of what I’m doing are real. Escaping endangers both my father’s and my life, but when I find him, I’m going to keep him safe. That’s a promise I’ll make to myself right here, right now as I’m fleeing for my life.
The moment my feet touch the ground, they take me away from the castle as if they have their own mind. In mere slippers, I manage to cross the garden and run through the grass and beautiful flowers along the thick trees and bushes scattered across the property until I come to an overwhelming fence that’ll be impossible to climb. What now?
I spin around to try to find a way out. Another gate is not far from here, but my surroundings are suspiciously quiet and devoid of guards. They must be somewhere watching, right? Or are they taking a break now, and it’s this the only time I could ever possibly escape?
With Jill probably rushing down to alert them, there’s no time to think about it, so I run toward the gates with the speed of a gazelle. My bathrobe barely stays together, but that’s the last thing I care about right now as I sprint toward the gates. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
The moment I reach it, I grab it with both hands and start climbing. It takes me a few tries to get my feet on spots that allow me to push forward, but I refuse to give up. I’m not ready to give up hope or the freedom that lies beyond these gates. If only I could push just a little farther. I’m so close I can almost taste it.
Suddenly, hands wrap around my leg and drag me down the gate. I desperately hold the gate as a last sliver of hope.
“No!” I cry out in desperation while someone pulls me down, away from my only escape. Freedom slips right through my fingers as my feet touch the ground once again.
“Let me go!” I scream at the two, who seem to be guards employed by Easton. “I need to get out of here! I’m being held captive,” I say to them. “Don’t you see? Help me, please!”
Instead of acknowledging my pleas, one of them picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. Neither of them speaks, so I keep pounding on his back, trying to get his attention.
“Let me go, you asshole!” I yell, as the gate becomes farther and farther out of reach.
Tears well up in my eyes at the realization that my attempt failed. I’m not going to see the outside world even though, in my mind, I thought I would. I’d already prepared myself for facing the people outside—for talking to them, asking them for help, and begging them to take me somewhere safe. I’d seen it all in my head. Every moment from the time I climbed over the gate.
I was so close … I could taste my freedom.
And then it was all ripped away from me.
“Please …” I mutter, staring at the wall in front of me as they’re undoubtedly taking me back inside. Who would do this job they’re doing? What price is high enough for them to ignore these wrongdoings against an innocent girl? They’re being paid blood money, and none of them even care.
“Shame on you,” I hiss, punching the man again. “I don’t give a fuck who you are; you’re aiding and abetting a criminal, you hear me?”
“If you don’t shut up and stop hitting me, I’m going to make you,” he growls back. “Understood?”
“Fuck you,” I spit back, and I bite him in the shoulder.
He growls out loud and then smacks my ass harshly with his bare hand. I screech in agony from the searing pain.
“It’s time someone taught you a goddamn lesson,” he says, putting me down before we even reach the entrance. Instead, he’s placed me against the wall outside the mansion near a side entrance covered by low hanging trees. I try to run off, but he holds me back with his thick arms while his buddy walks a few steps away and checks his surroundings.
“Easton’s been far too lenient with you,” the guy says, and he looks at his buddy who nods at him to give him the all clear.
I look up to find a camera overlooking the area, but it’s not pointed at this spot. This man is using the single blind spot outside of the mansion to his advantage to come at me.
He steps closer, his hands on the wall, trapping me inside. There has to be something I can do, anything … The pager! I could call Jill for help.
What was the number again? Fuck!
I reach for it in my robe’s pocket, but the moment I fish it out, the man snatches it out of my hand. “No, no, little girl.” He chucks it away like it’s nothing.
The wind blows underneath my bathrobe, causing it to rise and expose my thighs, and his eyes immediately follow the draft. Biting his lip, he growls, “Maybe it’s time a real man made you submit.”
He grabs me by my hair and shoves me against the wall hard, and I groan in pain. My eyes widen when his hand immediately moves to my throat and squeezes tight, trapping the air in my lungs. His other hand rips open my bathrobe, exposing my naked body.
“Don’t make a fucking sound …” he grunts into my ear. When his tongue dips out to lick me, I’m ready to hurl. My stomach clenches as he unbuckles himself and zips down. I feel completely powerless and shocked, and I can’t fucking move or fight him off as he spins me around, shoving me up against the wall.
Tears spring into my eyes as this bastard pushes up against me, whispering, “Spread those pretty legs for me, little girl …”
Suddenly, a loud bang makes me close my eyes, and I cover my face with my hands. There’s complete silence, followed by another bang and then hysterical screaming. My eyelids crack open again, and the bloody scene in front of me makes me do a double take.
Easton’s right in front of me with his arm stretched out, hand curling around my arm, protecting me behind him. In the other, he holds a gun. The man who was about to force himself onto me lies on the ground mere inches away from my feet with a bullet wound right through his head. The other guard lies on the grass a few feet away, squirming in pain. Blood oozes from his abdomen.
“Fuck!” the man yells, grasping at his wound.
“You’re lucky I only gutted you instead of putting a bullet through your head like your accomplice here,” Easton spits on the dead body lying below us.
“I didn’t do anything!” the guy yells.
“Anyone who tries to touch my property dies.” His voice is gravelly, darker than I’ve ever heard him speak before, and it brings goose bumps to my skin. His grip on my arm is gentle, but I’m not scared of him the way I am of these two men.
Easton glances at my bathrobe over his shoulder, and says, “Cover yourself up.”
I immediately grab the fabric and clench it around myself tightly, still shaking from the ordeal.
Easton approaches the man from behind and shoots him in the foot. I jolt from the violence. The man weeps and begs. “Please … don’t kill me.”
“Kill you?” Easton laughs. “No, I want you to suffer. Just like she did when you decided you were going to help your buddy over there take what doesn’t belong to you.”
He covers his head with his arms as if that’ll protect him. “She was trying to escape! I swear, we were only going to take her back to you …”
“No, you were looking for a spot to use her for your own despicable greed. How fucking dare you touch my princess?”
My princess. He claimed those words, licked them as if they belong to him just as I do, and it makes a cold shiver run up and down my spine.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the man rambles. “Please, I wanna live.”
I swallow away the lump in my throat as Easton cleans his gun with a steadfast hand. It’s as if he didn’t even break a sweat while shooting them.
The sky breaks open, and rain starts to pour down. More staff members exit the mansion, all appalled by the scene in front of them.
“Nick. Call the guys from the company,” Easton says to one of his employees.
Nick nods and fishes his phone from his pocket before going back inside.
“Are you okay?” Jill suddenly whispers into my ear, and she places her hands on my shoulders. “I was so worried about you climbing out that window.”
“I’m fine,” I whisper back, trying not to alert Easton, who’s still busy trying to take care of that one guy on the ground … and the dead body lying mere feet away from me.
“Why did you do it?” she asks while I start to shiver from the cold rain soaking my bathrobe. “You could’ve died.”
“Because …” I shrug. What answer can ever satisfy her or Easton? Freedom is all I ever wanted but not like this. Not when I risk one of his own men attacking me… and for one of them to die right in front of me.
Jill picks up the pager from the ground and checks it thoroughly before tucking it back into my pocket.
After talking with a few staff members, Easton suddenly turns around to face me and looks me dead in the eyes. “Are you hurt?”
The bluntness of the question brings heat to my cheeks. I shake my head, still unnerved by his ability to change the subject this fast even though he just killed someone in cold blood. “A bit … rattled. That’s all.”
That’s an understatement, but I don’t want to put him further on edge by telling the truth.
He licks the droplets of rain off his lips, his intense eyes blazing with a fervor I’ve never seen before. He’s soaking wet, but he doesn’t even seem to care about the rain. “Did they try anything on you?”
“I …” His deep stare disorients me. I look around at all these people staring at me, and my throat jams completely. “I—” I stutter, my lips trembling while my mind contorts as it tries to twist these awful memories into something palatable.
“Jill,” Easton interrupts. “Take her inside and make a bath. Get her clothed and fed.”
“Yes, sir,” Jill says, and with a warm hand, she grabs mine, and says, “C’mon.”
The sweet smile on her face lures me back inside, back into that mansion I call my prison. But that same place calms me and allows me to breathe. Even though Easton’s still outside while I’m being pulled inside. Even though he just killed a man and the mere thought brings shivers to my body. I don’t know what made him such a violent man, but it saved me from a fate worse than death.
The melancholic look in his eyes is the last thing I see as the door behind me closes, maybe for good … But I’m not fearful anymore.
