Finally. Skye felt some relief. “I’ll hire whoever you recommend. Thank you so much, Agent Shaw, for coming out to my house in the middle of the night. I feel a lot better now.”
“Good. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow.”
Karri closed the door and they both visibly relaxed. “I’m going to sleep here again tonight.”
Skye reached for her friend and squeezed her hand. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it. Why don’t we sleep in the guest rooms tonight? I don’t feel safe in my room after those photos were taken, even though I have shades.”
Exhaustion was taking over Skye’s body. It felt heavy as she climbed the stairs with Karri right behind her. Instead of turning toward her master bedroom, Skye and Karri walked to the other end of the hall and turned toward the guest suites.
“You were brave tonight, calling the FBI,” Karri told her when they stopped at the guest rooms.
“I don’t feel brave, but I feel more in control. And I’m ready to fight for that control tomorrow. I’ll find a lawyer to look over my contract and Agent Shaw will, hopefully, get a lead on how and where the person took the photo of my bedroom.” Skye reached for her best friend and hugged her tightly. “Thank you. Thank you for uprooting your life to come out here with me. Thank you for being the sister of my heart.”
With a heavy heart and heavy eyelids, Skye crawled into bed fully dressed and passed out.
Skye was dreaming of Trent and never wanted to wake up. He was reaching for her with a smile on his face and Skye was running toward him. Then his hand grabbed her arm hard. Skye gasped, but no air came into her lungs as Trent’s face loomed over hers and morphed into sneering lips and evil in his eyes.
Skye’s eyes popped open as a hand pressed against her mouth and covered her nose. It didn’t matter that Skye opened her eyes as the blackout shades were drawn and the room was completely dark.
Skye felt her nostrils flare as she clawed at the hand over her mouth. She felt more than saw a head moving closer to her face. She felt his warm breath heavy on her face. Skye tried to scream as she kicked and clawed with all her strength.
“Shhhh.”
Screw that. Skye reached for the bedside table and swept her hand in a blind panic. Her fingers connected with the lamp and she shoved it, causing it to crash to the ground. A second later her door was kicked open. The man paused to look over his shoulder, but he was too slow. Skye’s college lacrosse stick swung through the air and smashed into his face.
Karri hollered and raised it swing again as the man stumbled back. Not waiting to see what happened, Skye leapt from the bed and charged. The man was running for the balcony as Karri swung. She knocked the man in the back as Skye reached for him. She grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and jammed her knee as hard as she could into his cowardly balls.
The man cried out and bent over as he stumbled backward and into the blackout curtains, which parted where the balcony door was. As she and Karri charged him again, he pedaled backward through the curtains and out the now open balcony door. His butt hit the railing and his arms pinwheeled in the air as he tried to catch his balance. Skye and Karri grabbed for him. He looked at them, seemed to come to a decision and threw himself over the railing with a grunt.
Skye and Karri rushed to the railing to find the man sunken into the eight-foot tall hedgerow. He groaned, crawled out of the hedge, and limped off into the night.
“Still got it,” Karri said with a smirk as she spun the lacrosse stick in her hand. “But now we’re getting the hell out of here.”
Karri and Skye packed as much as they could in two giant suitcases then Skye woke Agent Shaw up to tell him what happened.
“I can get you into a safe house if you’d like.”
“No thank you. I know exactly where I want to go. I’m going off the grid. It’s best that way, isn’t it?” Skye asked as Karri wrinkled her brow at her. She hadn’t discussed it with Karri yet, but the fact was there was only one person she trusted right now.
“Are you going to your parents?” Agent Shaw asked.