by Katie Ruggle
The clay tiles were painfully hard under her knees, but she didn’t try to stand. The roof was steep and slick, and crawling was hard enough. Thunder rumbled as she made her slow way toward the first peak, and she glanced at the dark sky. If it rained, this would all get that much harder.
A tile cracked under her knee. She jumped at the sound and started to slide. Grabbing for a handhold, she caught a metal exhaust flue, bringing her body to a jerky halt. Alice paused, trying to catch her breath, looking ahead at the mountain she still had to climb. The thought that she’d have to make up those painful feet she’d lost in her slip made her want to cry, but she’d learned long ago that tears didn’t solve anything.
Clenching her teeth, she started to crawl again. Finally, she reached the peak. She hurried to throw a leg over before she started slipping backward again. Mr. Espina moved up beside her, turning so he was sitting with his feet out in front of him. Without hesitating, he pushed off and slid down the roof like it was a playground slide. As soon as he reached the valley between the peaks, he started climbing the next slope.
Breathing too fast, Alice forced herself to follow his lead. She turned so her feet were forward and slid down the slope. The tiles were painfully bumpy under her, especially as she started moving faster. By the time she reached the base of the next rise, Mr. Espina was nowhere to be seen. Fear built in her chest as she peered through the darkness, trying to spot his dark figure.
“This way,” a voice whispered, and she gratefully started to climb toward where Mr. Espina lay on his stomach at the top of the next peak. As Alice scrambled over the top, she came to an abrupt halt. They were at the edge of the roof now. If she tried the sledding trick again, she’d go sailing off the edge and fall to the ground below—far below.
A hand on her arm made her jump and then freeze, terrified that she was going to lose her balance.
“Stand up,” Mr. Espina whispered, and she stared at him. Stand? She could barely sit straddling the ridge without completely losing her nerve. He must’ve read her thoughts, since he urged her to move across the ridgeline to the spot where a stone chimney jutted out past red tile. Using it for support, Alice carefully stood on shaking legs. The weight of her pack pulled her backward, and she bent slightly at the waist to counter it.
As soon as she was upright, Mr. Espina buckled some sort of harness around her waist and each of her thighs. Hooking a cable to one of the front straps, he wrapped the line around the chimney and held the other end in both of his gloved hands. He gave her a nod.
Confused, she looked at him.
“Go.”
“What?”
“Go.”
“Where?”
“Over the side.”
“Over the side?” Alice knew she sounded like an idiot, but the idea was crazy. She was supposed to throw herself off the roof with just a thin cable and a moody all-but-stranger to keep her from hitting the ground like a mosquito on a windshield? It was insanity. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this.”
Mr. Espina’s hatchet-carved face softened ever so slightly as he moved closer to her. “You can.” So quickly that she couldn’t even brace herself, he gave her a tiny push.
It was hardly a shove, but it was enough to put her off-balance. She took a step backward to steady herself, but the roof sloped dramatically and her backpack didn’t help matters. Her one step turned into two and then three, faster and faster until she was almost running backward off the roof. Alice knew that if she tried to stop, she’d pitch backward and slide the rest of the way on her back. The thought was too terrifying for words, so she continued her reverse, shuffling run until the roof ended and nothing was underneath her feet.
Time seemed to stop for a second. Alice felt like a cartoon character who’d run off the edge of a cliff, hesitating in midair while the realization of what was going to happen hit her. Then she dropped, free-falling for an infinite moment before the cable tightened and the harness caught her.
The tension tipped her back, and she swung toward the house. Just in time, she yanked her knees to her chest so that she didn’t put her legs through the quickly approaching window to Aaron’s study. It was located at the back of the house because, as her brother liked to say, it was far away from all distractions. Dizzy with adrenaline, Alice wondered if that was the real reason, or if it was isolated so that no one could hear people scream. She’d had several bad visits to that room.
Yanking back her wandering thoughts, Alice struggled to turn upright. She managed to straighten and get her feet underneath her as Mr. Espina lowered her slowly toward the ground. The alarms were suddenly silenced, and she couldn’t hear voices shouting anymore. The quiet made her uneasy. If everyone was running around, trying to fix whatever Mr. Espina had done, then they most likely wouldn’t be looking for her. The silence, though… Aaron could be checking on her right now.
As her feet touched down on the concrete patio bordering the pool, the cable hit the ground as well, coiling like a snake at her feet. Hitching her backpack higher on her shoulders, Alice gathered up the cable, looping it with shaking hands before clipping the coiled line to a carabiner on her harness. She unbuckled the belt and then the straps around her thighs, the dark and her fumbling, nervous fingers making it harder than it should’ve been.
By the time Alice had gotten free of the harness, Mr. Espina still wasn’t next to her. Craning her head, she stared up at what she could see of the roof, although it wasn’t much. Alice backed up several steps until she stood next to the pool, but there still was no sign of Mr. Espina. She wondered if he’d gone a different way. Now that she was out of her room, maybe his part was done, and she had to escape on her own.
If she waited here to find out, it may very well be too late.
She started to turn, to run around the pool toward the perimeter fence, when a loud boom rocked the ground. Alice crouched instinctually, her arms wrapping around her head. As two more blasts echoed through the night, a motion above her caught Alice’s eye, making her flinch down again. It was Mr. Espina, flying through the air. Her first thought was that he’d been caught in the explosion, tossed off the roof like shrapnel, and fear for him made her lungs tight.
He hit the deep end of the pool just as yet another explosion shook the ground. When he began swimming toward the far side of the pool, Alice realized that he was fine. His leap must’ve been intentional, a quick way of getting off the roof. She had a brief moment of thankfulness that he hadn’t made her jump with him. It would’ve been terrifying. Not only was she not a strong swimmer, but there was a long stretch of concrete between the house and the pool’s edge. If she hadn’t jumped far enough, she wouldn’t have had to worry about escape—she would’ve been lying broken on the patio.
Shaking herself out of her shocked daze, she ran around to the other side of the pool, reaching the edge just as Mr. Espina was hauling himself out. He barely hesitated long enough to get his bearings before running toward the back perimeter fence. Alice followed, just as two more bangs echoed from inside the house. The silence afterward was terrifying. Everything sounded horribly loud—her pounding heart, her breaths tearing in and out of her lungs, her footsteps, the crack of every branch as she tore across the decorative landscaping. Even the harness buckles jangled as she ran, still clutching the assortment of straps in one hand.
Alice couldn’t stop herself from checking over her shoulder, expecting at any second for Aaron and an army of guards to come tearing after them. Aaron would like that, to give her hope that she’d escaped before reeling her back in at the last moment. Alice wasn’t the only one with something at stake, though. Aaron would make her life miserable, but at least he’d keep her alive and relatively undamaged. After all, he needed to use her to secure his entry into the Jovanovic family. If Aaron caught them, she might survive, but he’d kill Mr. Espina in the longest, slowest, most painful way possible.
When she tripped over a newly planted lacey oak, Alice forced herself to focus on the ground in front of her. Mr. Espina pulled ahead, the distance between them growing, and Alice had to hold back a plea for him to wait. She knew logically that he wouldn’t abandon her at this point, but her anxiety was still thrumming through her. Without his help, there was no way she could get over the ten-foot wrought-iron fence.
He stopped at the fence and pulled something out of his small pack.
When Alice reached him, she saw that Mr. Espina was removing the bolts securing the brackets on the top and bottom crossbars of the fence. As she bent over, gasping for breath, he moved to the other post and did the same on that side.
A shout from the house made Alice twist around in panic. Someone with a flashlight stood right outside the French doors by the pool. The beam of light crossed the backyard and flickered over her. She hurried to turn her face away, but it didn’t matter.
“Stop!” the man shouted. With sinking dread, Alice recognized Jeb’s voice.
“Time to go.” Mr. Espina gave the fence a shove, and the whole panel fell over with a heavy thud. Grabbing Alice’s wrist, he ran across the panel and over the scrubby grass toward the wooded ravine that ran the length of the property.
There was an odd popping sound, and a clod of dirt kicked up a few feet away. It took her a moment to realize that Jeb was shooting at them. Mr. Espina pulled her to the side, leading her on a zigzagging trail. The ground was rough and uneven, and Alice caught her toe, but Mr. Espina pulled her right out of her stumble and back into a sprint. Jeb kept shooting, but Alice couldn’t think about that, not when she was trying to breathe and run.
Fear kept her heart racing, and their mad dash made it beat faster and faster until she felt like her whole body was trembling with the effort. Lightning flickered overhead, making everything too bright for a second before plunging into darkness. Thunder rumbled, shaking the ground and blotting out the sound of her pounding heart and rasping breaths.
At first, Alice didn’t realize that it was raining, that the droplets were pounding against her head and running down her neck to soak into her hoodie. Then it started to pour, falling in heavy sheets of rain, just as she and Mr. Espina entered the trees. The ground immediately fell away in front of them, dropping into a yawning ravine with a creek rushing along the bottom.
Alice tried to automatically brake, but Mr. Espina kept running, and his grip on her arm kept her in motion, as well. A cry escaped her as they flew off the edge, landing three feet down the slope. The dirt had already turned into mud, and they sank into the muck with each step. With Mr. Espina hauling her forward, Alice couldn’t do anything but keep moving her feet, sprinting and sliding and only staying upright thanks to the hand on her arm and her continuous forward motion.
The rain was loud, too loud to hear if Jeb was still shooting. Alice couldn’t look to see how close he was, though. She was too concerned with her high-speed downhill sprint. The slope started to level off, and Alice looked away from her footing for a moment. They’d reached the bottom, and she gave a gasping sob of relief. Splashing through the small creek, she risked a quick glance at the top of the ravine.
There were so many flashlights now—at least ten—bobbing and moving as Aaron’s men climbed down after them. Jeb was the closest and closing the distance quickly. He grabbed a small tree, bringing himself to a sliding stop, and then lifted his gun.
Alice sucked in a breath, trying to force her legs to run even faster. They started to climb the other side of the ravine, but there wasn’t anything close by that was big enough to hide behind, just brush and small trees and lots of weeds. Jeb had a clear shot.
The incline sloped up dramatically, and their run turned into more of a scrambling climb. Mr. Espina released her in order to use both hands. Alice grabbed a clumpy weed, but the plant pulled out of the ground. She started to slide down the slope, and she fumbled to grasp a half-exposed root. That one held, and she reached for the next handhold.
Every second, she expected to feel one of Jeb’s bullets pierce her skin. Her breathing, already rough from fear and exertion, sped up even more. Closing her fingers around a thick vine, she shot a quick glance over her shoulder.
Jeb was standing in the same place she’d last seen him, his flashlight hand supporting his gun hand. The light turned the rest of Jeb’s body into a silhouette, but Alice could clearly see the gun. The rain poured over him, but he stood perfectly still, his head cocked to the side as he aimed.
Then, the ground crumbled under Jeb’s feet. The flashlight and gun went flying as he fell onto his back. He started to slide, traveling several feet before his body ran into a pair of tree trunks that brought him to a rough stop.
“Move!” Mr. Espina’s command broke her paralysis, and she started climbing up the slope again. Temporary rivulets of water coursed down the side of the ravine, and Alice’s feet slid through the muck as she pushed herself forward and up. The tree coverage became heavier, and there were more saplings and roots to grab. Alice sped up, not wanting to look to see if Jeb had gotten up or if the other guards were closing in. She just climbed.
Alice didn’t notice that she was at the top of the ravine until she reached for the next handhold and there was nothing there but grass and weeds. She looked up to see that Mr. Espina was already on his feet and jogging toward an older-model sedan parked on the shoulder. Alice stood and tried to run for the car, but her head spun and her stomach threatened to expel its contents.
Swallowing down bile, she had to settle for a shambling jog. It felt like it took forever to reach the passenger door of the car. She was sure that, any second, Jeb—or, worse, Aaron—would pop out of the ravine. That would be the end of any escape attempt. Aaron would never let her out of his sight until he’d married her off to Logan Jovanovic.
Her hand caught the handle, and she jerked open the car door. In the back of her mind, she mentally apologized to the car’s owner, since she was head-to-toe mud, but that didn’t slow her down. Alice threw herself into the seat as Mr. Espina shot them forward. The door swung shut, slamming with the force of their acceleration, and Alice wiggled out of her backpack, dropping it onto the floor by her feet as she grabbed for her seat belt. By the way Mr. Espina was driving, she had a feeling she’d need it.
She turned to face him as they flew down the road, the windshield wipers working at their fastest speed. “Thank you,” she said.
His only response was a slight upward tilt of his chin.
“I dropped your harness.” She glanced at her muddy hands as if she’d find the missing equipment hanging there. “Sorry.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “I have others.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” She settled back in the seat, her muscles easing slightly one by one, leaving her feeling limp and shaky. They were both still alive, though.
They were alive, and she was free.
Chapter 3
“She’s up there.”
Dee stood beneath the rickety frame of the ancient windmill, her head tipped back. Otto took a moment to catch his breath—Dee might be little, but she was fast, and their run through the woods had left him winded. The air left his lungs in visible puffs, despite the warm sun beaming down on them. It was late enough in the fall that the trees were bare and the sparse grass under their feet was brown, but it hadn’t snowed yet, except at the highest mountain peaks he could see in the distance.
As his breathing slowed, Otto followed Dee’s gaze and spotted the small shape wedged in a corner between two metal crossbeams. He resisted the urge to swear.
A familiar snort of laughter brought another slew of mental cursing. “What are you doing here?” Otto asked.
“How could I miss this?”
Otto glanced over his shoulder at a grinning Hugh. “You should go.”
“Are you kidding?” Hugh rested his shoulders against a t
ree and took his weight off his injured leg. He was trying to be subtle about it, but Otto could see lines of tension and pain etched beneath the casual grin. “This is going to be awesome.”
Having grown up with Hugh, Otto knew that, if pushed, Hugh would only dig in even deeper. As jolly as Hugh appeared, there was a mountain of stubbornness behind his happy-go-lucky smile. With a resigned, silent sigh, Otto moved over to the metal skeleton. There was a ladder—well, most of a ladder, at least, since several rungs were missing—but it didn’t start until about seven feet off the ground. The first step was going to be a doozy.
“Want me to call Fire?” Hugh asked.
“No.” A part of him did. The firefighters would be able to get the cat down in minutes, but there’d be a price for convenience. Not only would the crew mock them for weeks, but the firefighters would get to play hero. Otto shot a quick glance at Dee, who was gazing at him as if he were a superhero combined with a god. He wasn’t about to let some firefighter steal all the glory. They were conceited enough as it was. “I’ve got this.”
“Sure?” Hugh asked, amusement clear in his voice.
“Otto’s got this.” The certainty in Dee’s words made Otto even more determined. He’d get that cat down even if it killed him. From the looks of the ancient metal ladder, it very well might.
With a quick mental prayer, he grabbed the first rung with both hands. It creaked loudly but held. Pulling himself so that his shoulders were even with his tightly clenched fists, he reached up and grabbed the second bar. His muscles were shaking. Not for the first time, he wished he were just a little smaller. Most of his bulk was muscle, but it was still a lot to be hauling around.
Moving his other hand to join the first, he dragged himself high enough to grab the third rung. Just one more, and he’d be able to swing his feet onto the bottom bar.