Her lips pulled into a thin line. “No,” she answered, anger edging that word. “And that’s the problem.”
Stepping away, she reminded me, “Seven o’clock. Don’t be late.”
She ran down the hall to turn a corner.
Mrs. Callan Rose.
I stood silently in that moment, caught in the storm of opposite forces.
On one hand, all I wanted was the freedom she offered me.
But on the other, I wanted to tear that name from her throat and claim it as my own.
. . .
I was in the staff dining hall hours later, still dressed in my maid’s uniform because I had nothing else. As usual, Holly was beside me, her voice quiet as she filled her plate from the dinner bar that had been set out.
It was five minutes to seven and my stomach threatened to expel anything I tried to eat. I’d decided to leave tonight, to accept the woman’s offer, to run away if for no other reason than to teach Callan I wasn’t a pet to be caged.
He’d done a damn good job of knocking me to the ground, and I wanting nothing more than to drag him down beside me.
I was so angry. So hurt. I’d hated how my eyes had scanned the rooms we cleaned with the hope I might catch sight of him.
But he never showed up, and I assumed it was because he was sleeping off the fight or in the gym preparing for another.
I would leave, even if I didn’t know where I would go and how I would afford to eat. I would leave and just keep running until I decided I’d run far enough.
If there ever was such thing as far enough.
I knew the influence the Rose family had in this state, knew how far their resources ran even when it came to law enforcement.
My father had made sure of that. It’s why my mother kept moving us throughout the years, never stopping in one place long enough for us to catch our breath.
The clock kept ticking forward, and my eyes scanned the room for any sign of Gretchen or Edward. They were both absent, not that Edward made an appearance that often. As for Gretchen, I assumed she’d slept in. She’d stayed up all night to keep an eye on me. She had to be tired.
I almost wanted her to show up. For some reason, I needed her little pep talk for me to lay claim to my power. It occurred to me that she probably wouldn’t stop me. If anything, she’d give me her usual scowl with feminine pride shining behind it.
One minute and I knew I had to go.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I whispered to Holly. “Will you take my plate and save me a seat?”
She nodded and took the plate from my hands. I felt guilty for lying to her, but she couldn’t be involved in this. It would only get her in trouble.
Putting one foot in front of the other was more difficult than I would have thought, indecision flooding me, my nerves like live wires snapping and spitting with electric arcs. My muscles were locked and rigid, my heart hammering to a point of being painful.
I was so on edge that I could hear every sound around me, the blood rushing through my head, the thud thud thud of my heart, my footsteps against the ground as I weaved from one hall to the next.
When I finally reached the exit, I almost turned back. I was too scared. Terrified, really. But then the woman’s eyes met mine and she waved me forward, her gaze scanning the room with a sense of urgency.
I stepped up to her, and she took once last look around before turning to the keypad to type in the numeric code. Beyond the glass doors, there was darkness with only spots of low light through the garden.
The door clicked open, and I swallowed hard, my heart now lodged in my throat.
“Good luck,” she whispered. “There are guards outside, so stay out of sight of them.”
“Thank you,” I whispered in response, unsure if I meant it.
She didn’t say another word as I slipped out into the cool evening breeze, my chains unlocked as the world opened up around me. I should have felt like I was flying, but instead I felt heavy as a stone.
It didn’t stop my feet from moving.
Keeping to the shadows, I inched through the garden, time kept by the beat of my heart, a metronome