frozen limbs loosened with her resolve to do what she’d been planning for the last few weeks. She backed away on silent feet, and though she didn’t run, she left the man who stared down at the young lady he’d used like she was nothing. The man who in cold blood killed his child and an eighteen-year-old girl and talked as if he ruled the good people who lived their lives in peace at Sunrise.
She tiptoed down the hallway to the home office she’d worked in since she was fourteen, when Gabriel’s father noticed her aptitude for math. He taught her accounting and gave her a purpose greater than the farm chores she’d performed her whole life.
She didn’t bother to go to the phone and call the police. Gabriel’s corruption had spread to them as well and it disheartened her to know she couldn’t turn to the authorities for help. Which left her only one option: run. There had to be someone outside their community and town who could help her stop Gabriel and what was coming.
The threat of discovery made her heart thrash, but she tried to stay focused, fought the fear, and did what needed to be done so she could get what she needed. Otherwise she’d never be able to take Gabriel down.
She went to the rug in front of the sofa, folded it back, and pushed it away. She pressed her shaking hand on one of the boards and the secret panel popped loose, revealing the safe embedded in concrete. She spun the dial, her trembling fingers barely working. She didn’t know how much time she had before Gabriel left Lucy and called for his trusted “guards” to help him cover up his crime. Every beat of her heart amped her anxiety as she twisted the dial to each number, gripped the handle, turned it, and lifted the door open. She didn’t sort through folders and envelopes, just pulled everything out.
For a split second she stared at the stacks of cash, disgusted by how Gabriel earned them. She thought about the other women he was hurting and the people who’d get hurt if he carried out the plans she’d spent weeks uncovering.
She hadn’t stopped him from killing Lucy, but she would find a way to stop him from hurting anyone else.
She wasn’t a thief. She believed they were all better off when they worked together and shared the rewards with everyone.
But if she was going to get away, she needed help.
She snatched one of the thick packets of cash and stashed it in her cargo pants pocket.
As she’d uncovered Gabriel’s illicit activities and the threat of being caught meddling in his affairs drew ever closer, she’d feared she’d have to run, but she never thought it would happen like this.
There was no time to cover her tracks. She stuffed the files and papers into the messenger bag hanging on the back of Gabriel’s desk chair, pulled the strap over her head and across her body, stared at the picture on the desk, and wished the man she’d admired had been a better father. If he’d disciplined instead of spoiled and coddled, maybe Gabriel would have turned out to be a better man.
With little to no consequences ever imposed on him, Gabriel had become entitled. Now he wanted to be some “Supreme Leader.”
She rolled her eyes at the absurdity of it.
Ironic when Sunrise taught cooperation and equality for all.
No one person, not even Gabriel, dictated their lives. His ego had grown to astronomical proportions. Lucy paid the price for his belief that he could say and do whatever he wanted without repercussions.
Skye planned to teach him a lesson he should have learned long ago.
But to do that, she needed to get out of here before Gabriel discovered what she knew, what she’d done, and came after her.
Even with the police on his side, Gabriel would not get away with Lucy’s murder. She’d find a way. And she knew someone who could hopefully help her. And the others.
Infused with fear and desperation, she ran from the office for the front door and snuck out with barely a click when the door closed behind her. She leaped down the porch stairs and hit the gravel path leading back to the great hall and other cabins. She wanted to follow Lucy’s command, but she kept her head and walked like she had not a care in the world when she had a million thoughts and fears circling her mind.