Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Daisy
Icling on to Mav as tightly as I can, afraid on multiple levels that this is going to turn out to be some kind of dream, just a figment of my imagination.
It's been two days, I think, since Stoke had me locked in the cells. I'm so cold, so hungry, but at least no one came to bother me, and Marcus didn’t arrive to make me marry him.
We reach the metal stairs, and I try to will my numb feet warm. Shade goes first, and Mav follows him. He pulls me along with him. I climb up to the top, my heart beating erratically.
How are we going to get out of here? Do they have a plan? What if we’re caught? Will Stoke call the police, or just John?
'Don't worry,' Mav whispers, as if he can hear my thoughts. 'We have a plan.'
At the top of the stairs, Shade opens the heavy wooden door, held together with pieces of rusted iron, and he looks out into the hallway. After a moment, he nods.
'Come on,' he whispers.
The temperature change is drastic, making me shiver anew as my body begins to warm up.
Shade goes to the left, but I stop him. 'Wait,' I say. He looks back at me, in question. 'There's a closer exit.' I jerk my head in the other direction.
'Will it be unlocked?'
'I don't know,' I say.
He shakes his head. 'No, Blake is waiting for us outside the kitchen. Come on.'
They take me to the hallway. He goes a couple of steps before he turns back the way we came, looking confused.
'Where's the dining room from here?'
'Straight down the corridor, all the way down, and then to the right,' I say.
We go quickly. Like mine, their feet make no sound on the linoleum floor, and I realize neither of them have shoes on either. I don’t ask now, but curiosity gnaws at me.
My hand grips Mav’s more tightly, and he glances back, squeezing me a little in response.
'We're getting you out of here,' he whispers the promise again, and I nod a little jerkily.
At the end of the next hallway, near the stairs that lead to the next level, Shade peers around the corner.
'Someone's coming,' he whispers, his head darting around for somewhere to hide.
I lead them into the closest room. Mav closes the door a little, but I shake my head, opening it all the way and urging them toward the bathroom. Colin, asleep in the bed, doesn’t wake.
From the darkness of the bathroom, we see the shadow of a head poke into the room. Thankfully, they don’t turn on the light. They leave almost immediately, and I hear footsteps going back down the hall toward the Blank’s break room.
‘Wait here,’ I say. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’
‘Where are you going?’ Shade whispers. ‘We need to get out of here.’
I squeeze his hand and poke my head out of the door.
When I see no one, I dart up the stairs.
I go straight to the art room and move the easels, pulling up the floorboard and feeling for the flash drive the reporter never took.
My fingers brush against it and I grab it, holding it tightly in my hand as I quickly put everything back where it was.
I steal back down the stairs and into Colin’s room.
The guys are right where I left them, and I can practically hear Mav’s teeth grinding in impatience. I push the flash drive into his hand.
‘I don’t have pockets I trust,’ I tell him. ‘Can you keep this safe for me? Give it to Blake if I don’t make it out?’
‘You are making it out,’ Shade snarls.
I nod even though he can’t see the movement in the dark.
‘Let’s go,' I say, grabbing Mav’s hand again, taking control of this little rescue because I know where we’re going better than they do now.
I pull Mav into the hall and make sure Shade is on our heels. I see the doors to the dining room not far away, and I listen intently. Not hearing any footsteps, I nod to them, and we go to the doors.
I pull one open, and I realize my error immediately as it creaks. I wince.
'Hurry.’
I go over the threshold and close the door quietly. It doesn't make another noise, thankfully and we run through the dining room, then through the kitchen toward the back door.
'Where's Blake?' I ask.
'He's outside.'
'Shoes?' I say, looking down at my thin-soled slippers dubiously.
'They’re outside too.’
‘I don’t have any,’ I mutter, mentally preparing myself for the cold, wet mud I’ll have to slog through in order to get out of here.
‘You’re taking mine,' Mav says immediately.
'B-But what about you? It’s winter!' I stammer.
'I'll be fine.’ He gives me a smile that reaches his eyes. ‘You know I run hot.'
My mind is in a whirl as I feel the burst of frigid air. Is this really happening?
I see Blake melt out of the shadows.
‘Daisy,’ he breathes.
He hugs me tightly as Mav puts a pair of muddy shoes on my feet and laces them up. They’re big, but they’ll work. Next to me, Shade is slipping his on as well.
'Now. Before another one comes out for a cigarette,’ Blake says, taking my other hand. ‘All these assholes are chain smokers. They come out here every five minutes.'
We head down the edge of the building in the shadows toward the parking lot, circumventing it through the bushes.
'Where are we going?' I ask.
'Perimeter fence.'
They take me down toward the jogging path, but then we veer off into the next field. I get caught in the deep mud several times as we cross through the middle, and Mav has to keep pulling me out. Luckily, he's tied the shoes on my feet so tightly that they don't slide off.
We get to the back corner of the field and go through the trees. We stop at the fence.
'Where is it?' Shade says in a loud whisper.
'Where's what?' I ask.
'The hole. It has to be around here somewhere.'
'We could make another one,' Mav says, brandishing the massive pair of bolt cutters he’s been carrying.
'Oi, lads!'
A low voice I recognize cuts through the darkness on the other side of the fence. A torch flashlight shines toward us, pointing at a hole where the fence has been freshly cut.
Mav urges me through first, and I get to the other side and stand up, my knees soggy from the wet ground.
I hear the sound of a car door opening, and I'm pushed inside. I struggle at first, but then I feel Blake behind me, and Mav gets in on the other side. Shade is in the front, and the car begins to move slowly, as if we aren’t fleeing.
I wonder who the fourth person is. The driver.
'All went according to plan then, eh?' the man asks.
'Douglas?' I mutter, astonished.
'Aye, lass.'
'What are you doing here? They said you were gone.'
'I’m still local. Your mates met me in the pub in the village. We got to talking, and, well, I thought I might be able to help…and maybe get one over on that cunt, Stoke, as well. Glad they got you out of that bloody hellhole.'
He doesn't say anything more. When we roll up to the village, a place I've heard about but never seen, we keep going.
The car drives through what sounds like a river going across the road and then Douglas puts his foot down.
'Where are we going?' I ask.
'London City Airport,' Blake says, his arms around me. Mav’s are as well. Shade's hand comes back to rest on my knee, and I clasp it.
'Turn the heat up, would you?' Shade says, feeling how cold I still am.
I’m not sure what to do, or what to say, still half afraid that I’ve cracked up in the cell downstairs, or that maybe they drugged me with something that’s causing hallucinations.
So, I close my eyes and lean my head back.
I must fall asleep for a while because, when I wake up, there's a lot more light around us and more cars on the road, but the clock on the dash says that it’s past midnight, so there aren’t enough drivers out to slow us down.
'Are we in London?' I ask.
'Not far now,' Douglas says with a nod. 'Just coming into Ilford.'
We go down a couple more roads and Shade points to a high security gate.
Douglas stops at it and rolls down the window. Shade passes the security guard a card with a black symbol on it.
'Where’d you get that?' I ask.
He looks back at me with a small smile. 'Sauvage? Who else?'
'Sauvage gave you a plane to come get me?' I ask.
'Yeah. We looked for you.'
'I don’t understand,' I whisper. ‘I only left you the voicemail a couple of days ago. How did you get me out so fast?’
‘That was four days ago.’ Shade cocks a brow. 'But we were already on our way when you called.’
‘How did you find me?’
‘It was actually Laurie,’ Blake mutters with a shake of his head, ‘if you can believe it.'
‘Laurie?' I say, unable to keep the shock out of my voice. 'How did she know where I was?'
'She didn’t. But she heard Joseph Banderville talking on the phone about a guy named Heath.' He puts the name in air quotes. 'We thought that might mean that someone had taken you back to The Heath. There were no other leads, so we came here hoping we were right.’
I take in their words. So, it wasn’t just John who had me taken. Both John and him were in on it together. That must be why I saw Joseph that day when he pretended to be a doctor like Stoke.
‘It kills me, but I have to thank the bitch,’ Shade continues. ‘She's the only reason we found you before you called us. We wasted days trying to figure out what had happened, where you could be.’
'What did happen, Daisy?' Mav asks quietly, sliding a little closer, pressing himself against me as we go through the gate and onto a huge expanse of flat concrete with a massive looming airplane hangar in front of us.
'I don’t remember much,’ I say, trying to think.
‘I was on the dance floor. I think I must have been drugged because, the next thing I knew, I was on an airplane. I heard a voice. I don’t know who it was.
They drugged me again and then I woke up in my room at The Heath.
Stoke admitted to me that John is giving him money to keep me safe at The Heath until he’s ready for me to get married…
even though Joe is dead. I suppose he’s intending to make a deal with another family. '
‘He’s still trying to marry you to someone?’ Shade asks, sounding confused.