AllFreeNovel
Share Us
However, with Mr. Too-Good-Looking-for-His-Own-Good conspicuously absent, I smelled opportunity. Cue Operation Freedom. Attempt number three.
I frantically searched the bedding. Last night I took out my bobby pin and laid on it, afraid that if Drake or Reginald saw it, they'd take it away. I dug around in the sheets and had to throw off the covers to finally find it. And I said a silent prayer of thanks.
Time to pick that damn lock.
With each tick of the internal metronome in my head, the minutes passed as I tried to wedge the end of the bobby pin in the internal mechanism latch. Several times it slipped past and I cursed under my breath.
My palms grew sweaty, and I scowled at the lock. Why wasn't this easier? It should be easier. It always looked so simple in the movies.
Well, this isn't a movie. If you don't get out of here, Mr. I-Have-a-Face-Like-a-Greek-God will probably kill you. How's that for an incentive?
It was true. He would probably kill me. Good looks be damned, the man had kidnapped me.
I took a deep breath and tried again, crouching down beside the lock. Bobby pin in my right hand, left hand on the doorknob. My eyes desperately tried to get x-ray vision so I could see the damn mechanism.
Another minute went by as I poked and prodded. Any second now...
Suddenly the door swung toward me and I fell on my arse, narrowly avoiding a blow to the head on the corner of the corner chest.
I looked up to see Drake grinning at me like the Cheshire Cat. "Having fun, hellcat?"
I blinked up at him, the bobby pin slipping from my fingers as I tried to shove it into my back pocket.
He tilted his head as he studied me. "What were you doing, hellcat?"
"Please refrain from calling me nicknames," I bit out.
There it was again, the smile that just tugged at the corner of his mouth, the slight one. The one that told you he was probably biting back a wider one. The idiot was having fun.
"I feel like this is the point where I should tell you that the door has an electric lock." He swung the door wider and I could see it on the other side. It was electric with a handle on the other side. I’d missed it yesterday when he’d carried me in here. There was no way to pick the lock from this side. The keyhole I’d been fiddling with was for show.
I said nothing, just continued to stare at him mutinously.
He bent down to my level. "I see you don't want to talk. OK, I'll talk enough for both of us. "That means, sweetheart, that whatever you tried was going to fail anyway. There's no way out of this room unless I let you walk out of here."
"Go to hell."
I got more of a full smile this time. It was just as deadly as the personal one. But it was the kind of smile reserved for a man who thought he'd won.
Little did he know that I was just this side of crazy. Leveraging my heels and pushing myself up, I launched myself at him, fists flying. I managed to get him just below the jaw.
I dodged his grip, ducking under his arm, and bolted. I heard him behind me, but I didn't dare look back. I turned right this time trying for what I thought was the opposite hallway I'd run down last night.
He was right behind me and I could hear his boots on the hardwood floor. I didn't have time to think, just to run.
When I reached the end of the hall, it finally hit me just how big this house was. The decor was giving modernized Downton Abbey vibes as I ran, trying door after door.
When I saw the winding staircase leading downstairs, I frowned. The was not the way I'd come up last night.
Nevertheless, I made my way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. When I reached the bottom of the steps, I darted for a door tucked in the corner. It was a pantry filled with canned goods and other supplies. But perfect for hiding.
I held my breath as I heard him thumping down the stairs. He took them two or three at a time, his heavy footsteps echoing through the space. As he ran past, I heard him swear under his breath but thankfully he didn't stop to check if anyone was hiding in here.
Without wasting another second, I pushed open the door again and started running in what seemed like an opposite direction from where he'd gone.
My feet flew across the floor as fast as they could go until finally, after what felt like I’d run up and down too many hallways that looked far too similar to each other for comfort.
When I made a hard right, suddenly I hung suspended in the air with an arm like steel around my waist.
