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“Your office alarm has been activated. Are you able to meet us onsite? We need to confirm whether this is a break-in, a fault or a staff member forgetting the code.”
“Yes. Um…I’ll see you in about twenty-five minutes.” Hopefully, they’d beat her there and catch the culprit.
Sage called Alexander to let him know the situation, and his phone rang and rang and went to voicemail. She left a message and waited.
Ten minutes passed with no reply from her man, so she got dressed and rushed to her workplace. She parked in between two cars, jumped out, slammed the door shut and pressed her key-fob to engage the central locking.
Before she could even turn around, a sharp jab pierced her neck. Sage smacked her hand onto the injection site and tried to run. She only took a couple of staggered steps and collapsed.
“What…?” Her voice lost energy, coming out as an indecipherable whisper. “Alex…?”
“He can’t help you now.” A grim, gloating tone echoed in her ears right before she blacked out.
* * * *
“You’re awake.” Mallory’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, her deranged smile sending a shudder of fear through Sage’s immobilized body.
Darkness crowded her like walls closing in, the occasional streetlight flickering overhead. How long had she been unconscious? Her stomach churned and her pulse spiked, her heart rate hitting stroke territory.
Sage tried to take controlled breaths but could barely manage short, shallow gasps. Dizziness made her head spin. She needed more time to think. She needed Alexander. He’d know what to do.
Please find me.
The car stopped, and the back door swung open. Mallory reached in, yanked her to the edge of the seat and unlocked the cuffs cutting into Sage’s chafed ankles. “Get up.”
Pins and needles pricked and tingled through Sage’s toes all the way to her calves, the slightest knock sending a lightning bolt of electricity to her temporarily deadened nerve endings.
A sensor light splashed over the car and tree-lined, secluded surroundings. She pressed her buzzy feet on the dirt driveway. Dirt? Definitely not local suburbia, though it didn’t mean they were far away. Some bigger blocks were less than an hour’s drive from Melbourne.
Dusk had almost descended into night by the time Mallory had attacked her, cloaking them from prying eyes and keeping Mallory’s intentions hidden.
Not even the security guys had had a chance to see her, see them. Given it would be way past the twenty-five-minute mark, security should soon twig that she’d abandoned her car in the parking lot and call the police.
Fingers crossed.
Mallory grabbed Sage’s arm and wrenched her out of the car. Sage stumbled and bumped into the grief-stricken, crazed woman, sending a shock of tickly tingles the length of her legs.
Surprisingly, Mallory steadied her—probably because it would be a hell of a lot harder to lug her up from the ground a second time.
“Come on.” Mallory dragged her onto a trail leading to the rear of a farm-style house with a wrap-around veranda and porch swing. Such a sweet, serene scene, in contrast to the stark reality.
A shiver shook through her body. Although not cold, her teeth chattered, and goosebumps rose on her skin.
Focus. She had to assess the area and determine possible escape routes. A mini forest stretched out to the left, and the back of the property extended into paddocks. Where they led, she had no clue, but she’d give any opportunity a go.
Mallory stopped suddenly, right in front of a huge, sturdy oak tree, with a noose hanging down and a wooden stepladder underneath, a gun on the ground to her left.
Sage’s heart thumped in her throat, and she struggled to suck in oxygen like air through a bent straw. “What’s this?” Her voice came out cracked and softer than a whisper.
“Where you say goodbye. No, farewell.” She nudged Sage forward.
“Hang on, hang on. Is this where you found your husband?”
“So smart. Pity it’s too late to put two and two together.” Mallory pushed her a few steps closer.
“Wait! Listen to me—”
“Like my husband did? No thanks.”
