Page 202 of The Heart You Kept

“I don’t want to get arrested.”

“The police are on my fucking payroll,” he fires back. “Who the hell is going to arrest you?”

“She said you broke up with her.”

“That is none of your business and your high horse is a fucking donkey. Do your job and do not let her out of your sight.”

Click…. The phone goes dead.

Stefan raises an eyebrow. “Well?”

“We stay.”

ALORA

With my garage door down and hidden from the world I put my suitcase into the trunk of my car. Today’s the day, and I’m not telling anyone but Helene where I’m headed. I’m going to pick her up and she’s going to bring an empty suitcase with her and then she’s going to drop me at the airport under the guise I am taking her there. Just as I suspected, the guards have turned up this morning, and our only goal is to outrun them.

I do a last check of my place, water my plants and grab my purse.

It’s vacation time.

I start my car and the garage door slowly goes up, they’re both leaning up against the car chatting away and I floor it and drive right past them. I glance into the rearview mirror to see them scrambling and I put my foot on the gas.

I giggle, proud of myself.

Catch me if you can.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

EDWARD

“And then moving forward I want to build….”

Bzz, bzz, bzz, my phone vibrates on my desk and I glance at the screen.

Philippe

Why is he calling me?

“I have to take this,” I tell the four people at the board table. I stand and walk to the window and look out over the view. “Yes.”

“We’ve got a problem.”

“Such as?”

“Alora drove off this morning and we’ve followed her but we got caught in traffic and have lost sight of her car.”

“Where are you?”

“At the international airport.”

What?

Fury fills me.

“Alone?”

“No, Helene is with her.”