Chapter 20 - Nikki #2
One thing stuck in her mind, though. She needed to get out. She had to rely on herself to do it. And more than anything, she needed to leave before Lucas struck the Silverrose Pack.
***
Her eyes flew open, and she sucked in a startled breath. She blinked, glancing around, disoriented. The scant amount of light peeking in through the crack had shifted. At some point, she had fallen asleep.
Outside the door, there was more sound and movement.
“Let’s get going,” Lucas said. “We’ve got things to do before we strike.”
“What about her?” she heard Vincent ask. She could imagine him jabbing his thumb toward the shabby door she was currently lurking behind.
She heard Lucas laugh. “She’ll be fine there for a few hours. Might even do her some good.”
She sucked in a breath. Were they leaving her here? On her own? She listened, barely willing to breathe, her heart thundering. Rustling and thumping mixed with the sounds of conversation. It certainly sounded like they were leaving. Would they really leave her without a guard?
“Let’s move out,” Lucas said.
There were more mumblings, and then the sound of the front door groaning open, then swinging shut.
A few moments later, she heard the crank of an engine and the sound of tires on dirt.
She waited for a long moment, barely daring to hope.
But there were no other sounds, no other signs of life in the cabin beyond her own shallow, quiet breath.
This was it. This was her time to get out.
Her heart pounded in her throat, and she began running through the steps she had figured out earlier.
As much as she itched to get moving, she waited, wanting to make sure that they truly were gone this time.
Once she had satisfied herself that no one was coming back, she pushed herself to her feet and pressed her ear to the door once more, just in case.
She shoved her shoulder against the door.
It groaned and creaked and gave just a little.
Her eyes narrowing, she did it again, harder.
Her shoulder throbbed painfully, and she grimaced.
She wasn’t going to give up. She wasn’t going to stay locked in here, waiting for Lucas to come back.
She needed to get out, and she needed to warn Jasper and the others. Gritting her teeth, she shoved again.
The lock broke away from the rest of the door, and she stumbled out into the main room. Splinters of wood lay like landmines at her feet. One wrong step, and she wouldn’t be able to run far.
She didn’t make a move, not at first. She listened for the sound of pounding feet, of someone rushing to see what the noise was about. But the only sound that drifted to her was the wind brushing through the creaks and crevices of the drafty cabin.
She took a deep, relieved breath and hurried toward the cabin door.
It was locked and a lot sturdier than the one she had managed to break.
Her shoulder was still throbbing. Instead of trying to ram into it, she hurried toward one of the windows.
There was no latch, no way to open it, but that didn’t matter to her.
There were other ways to get through a window.
She started hunting for her shoes, hoping that she might be able to find them in the other room, or even in the trash.
But she couldn’t find them. For all she knew, Lucas had thrown them into the woods.
It didn’t matter. She’d just need to figure out something else.
After a moment, she found a set of oversized boots and stuffed her feet inside.
They were several sizes too big, and she was going to get blisters, but it was preferable to running through the woods barefoot.
The next problem was getting out of the cabin.
Her eyes scanned the area, looking for anything heavy enough to get through the window.
They landed on the chair, and she rushed over.
The wood felt scratchy and brittle in her hands, but it had the satisfying weight that she had been searching for.
She hefted it for a moment, testing its weight, and nodded to herself.
Grasping it by the back, she hurried back to the window.
Before doing anything, she peered through the window, glancing out, checking for any signs of anyone looming outside. There was no one. Bracing herself, she slammed the chair into the window, two chair legs connecting with the pane.
Her ears rang out when the glass splintered, and her heart leaped into her throat.
Another blow, and the glass exploded out of the frame, spilling onto the earth below.
She knocked the lingering glass out of the frame and clambered outside, made more difficult by the manacles.
She landed on the hard ground, the chains rattling, the grass crunching beneath the too-large boots.
The air outside was colder than it had been all year.
She shivered, crossing her arms and rubbing her biceps.
Glancing around, she tried to orient herself.
It was getting close to dark. Wind whooshed through the trees, sending goosebumps running along her skin.
She shoved the discomfort away. She didn’t have time to think about it.
A dirt road ended at the foot of the cabin.
If she followed that but stayed far enough away in the woods, she might be able to get out unseen.
She would need to be careful, but it was either that or stick around here and explain the broken window.
She would much rather take the potential hazards of the dark woods over the guaranteed dangers of the cabin.
Taking a deep breath, she began trotting forward, heading toward the woods.
A branch snapped.
“Did you really think you’d be able to get out that easily?” a familiar voice called from behind her.
Her head whipped around, heart leaping into her throat. Shock and terror paralyzed her. Vincent was walking around the corner of the house, marching toward her at a brisk pace, eyes narrowed, lips curled into a sneer.
“You didn’t think Lucas would have someone stay back to keep guard?” he asked. “Come on, Nikki. I know you’re smarter than that.”
“Stay away from me, Vincent,” she hissed.
To her surprise, he stopped. His head tilted, arms folded while he regarded her.
“What’s your plan here, exactly?” he asked.
“Run into the woods and hope you’re going in the right direction?
You’ve still got shackles on. It’s dangerous out there.
Mountain lions and bears. Plenty of things that would kill you in a heartbeat. ”
“Like you?” she asked.
He had the audacity to look genuinely wounded. “What? No. Of course not. I’m here to help you. The last thing Lucas wants is for you to get hurt. Why don’t you come back into the cabin? There’s tea. We could talk this over and figure it out.”
The worst part was that he still had that cordial, almost polite tone.
It would be easy for him to think that he legitimately wanted to help her, that he wanted what was best for her, and cared about her.
He had that pleasant, kind expression she remembered from the past. His hands were dangling nonthreateningly by his side.
Her heart thudded in her chest, and her mind flicked back to him looming over her in her apartment, the way he had laughed at her when she’d tried to struggle free.
A chill that had nothing to do with the cold sneaking through the air crawled along her skin, followed by blinding rage. Her eyes narrowed.
“Go to hell,” she spat.
Vincent sighed. “So be it.”
He lunged toward her. She turned and sprinted into the woods. She could hear him behind her, but she didn’t twist to look around, too intent on navigating the woods as darkness continued to descend around them.
The terrain was smoother than the time she had raced down the mountain, fleeing from Vincent, but it came with its own hazards.
The manacles clanking with every step made it impossible for her to hide, and it was equally impossible to run at full speed.
She knew that it wouldn’t take long for Vincent to catch her unless she did something about them.
She wouldn’t get away on speed, not here.
She needed some advantage, something that could help her.
The problem was she had no idea where she was and no idea what sort of advantage she could scrounge up in the overgrown forest.
The manacles caught on a branch, and she fell to the ground.
The crunching behind her sounded even louder.
She pushed herself to her feet and kept moving.
A stitch formed in her side. She grimaced, but forced herself to keep moving.
She couldn’t stop, because the second she did, Vincent would be on her.