Chapter 11
“We had a deal,” the evil bastard bit out as he struggled to pry her fingers free from the edge of the desk.
“Consider the deal over, you sick son of a bitch!” Kristen snapped, tightening her grip around the edge of the large desk that she’d been eying all day and-
“Goddammit!”
-struggled to grab hold of the desk only to release a frustrated growl when the large bastard that lied to her threw her over his shoulder with a satisfied sigh.
“It will be over before you know it,” Garrett said, shifting her over his shoulder as he made his way to the front door, pausing along the way to grab her coat and toss it over her.
“I didn’t agree to this!” Kristen pointed out as she tried to grab hold of the front door only to have the large bastard shift to the side, effectively blocking the move before he closed the door behind him.
“You agreed to this and so much more the moment you walked through my front door,” Garrett said, tearing a pained grunt from her when he took the opportunity to shift her over his shoulder.
“Look,” Kristen said, nervously licking her lips as she struggled not to panic, but it was a quickly losing battle, “I know that I owe you two hours, but I honestly don’t think that I can do this.”
“It’s four,” Garrett said, opening his truck door and tossed her inside before she could give diving off his back and taking her chances with the pavement serious consideration.
“I deducted two hours after you stole my lunch,” Kristen pointed out, her gaze shifting between Garrett and the door handle as a plan began to form. As soon as he shut the door and started making his way around the truck, she was going to open the door and make a run for it.
The only question was, should she race to his house and barricade herself inside since it was closer or take her chances and try to make it across the street before he could stop her.
He was bigger and had at least fifty pounds of muscle on her, but she was quicker and more than willing to cry if that’s what it took to-
“Damn it,” Kristen mumbled sadly when he turned the child safety lock on.
“So fucking adorable,” Garrett said with a heartfelt sigh as he closed the door and made his way around the truck while she sat there, wondering what the hell she was thinking when she’d agreed to do this.
Not that she actually agreed to do this because there was no way in hell that she would ever willingly do this, but she couldn’t believe that she’d agreed to spend time with the life-ruining bastard currently releasing another heartfelt sigh as he climbed into the truck.
She should hobble him, Kristen thought, nodding solemnly as she pulled her coat on.
For a moment, she debated trying to talk her way out of this only to remember who she was dealing with here, so instead, she settled for glaring.
She glared. Oh, God, did she glare as the bastard drove, putting every ounce of murderous outrage into that glare.
When he pulled onto the highway, she narrowed her eyes, taking that glare up to the next level, something that she normally wouldn’t do knowing exactly how terrifying her glare was, but the bastard deserved it.
She kept that glare up for the next twenty minutes, knowing that he was mere minutes away from breaking.
So, when he pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later and there were still no signs of him trembling in fear, she decided that it was time to bring her A game.
Keeping her eyes locked on the bastard that knew better than to do this to her, Kristen released a shaky breath, mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do and-
“You really just can’t pull that off,” Garrett said with a heartfelt sigh as he parked the truck.
“Then, why do you look like you’re seconds away from begging for mercy?” Kristen asked as she found herself looking to her right and-
“I really don’t think that I can do this,” Kristen mumbled weakly as she sat there, really wishing that she’d made a run for it when she had a chance.
She didn’t want to be here.
God, not here.
What she wanted was to go back to his house, keep writing, and pretend that this never happened. Instead, she was sitting here, staring helplessly at hell on earth.
The mall.
“This will be fun,” Garrett said with a satisfied sigh as he opened his door and climbed out of the truck only to reach over and grab hold of her leg before she could drop to the floor and lodge herself beneath the dashboard.
“Please don’t do this to me,” Kristen mumbled weakly as she found herself dragged across the bench seat, placed on her feet and-
“Umm, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she found herself wondering as she took in the large hand holding hers.
“Ensuring that you don’t try to run off,” Garrett said, closing the truck door before giving her hand a gentle tug, leaving her with no other choice but to follow him.
“Do you really think that’s going to stop me?” Kristen asked, deciding that it would be in her best interest to ignore just how good his hand felt wrapped around hers, mostly because he was evil and she hated him more than anything.
“Yes,” Garrett said, giving her hand a gentle tug that had her reluctantly walking into the one place that she avoided like the plague.
While most women loved shopping, she didn’t.
In fact, she did everything that she could to avoid it.
She ordered everything online and when that wasn’t an option, she made late-night runs to the store and she kept those short, to the point, ensuring that she was in and out of the store in under ten minutes flat.
“You do remember that I hate the mall, right?” Kristen asked as she found herself dragged past two coffee shops, a yoga store, a video game store, and a middle-aged man getting the crap slapped out of him by a five-year-old determined to get his hands on a toy.
“Couldn’t be avoided,” Garrett said, leading her further into the depths of hell.
“I’d be more than willing to go back to your house and work while you think of something else that we could do,” Kristen said with a hopeful smile only to grumble when he kept going.
“You’re going to love it,” he said, but something, mostly her intense hatred of all things mall-related, told her that he was wrong.
“Are you going to tell me why we’re here?” Kristen asked even as she searched for the nearest exit.
“And ruin the surprise? I would never do that to you,” Garrett drawled, tightening his hold around her hand when her eyes locked on the set of glass doors to her right.
“You really could, though,” she mumbled, releasing a pathetic whimper as they made their way past the exit.
“If you must know,” Garrett said, sighing heavily.
“I must,” she assured him, turning her head so that she could keep her gaze locked on the direction of those glass doors and-
“We’re here to do that,” Garrett said, drawing her attention in time to watch him gesture towards something to his left.
Frowning, Kristen followed his gaze and-
Oh, crap…
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kristen said hollowly as she took in the large sign announcing fifteen different escape rooms to choose from, each one more difficult than the last.
“This will be fun,” Garrett said, shooting her a reassuring smile while she struggled to figure out a way to get out of this before it was too late.
“It really won’t,” Kristen mumbled hollowly, knowing that she needed to get out of here before they figured out who she was because she really didn’t think that this was going to end well once they did.
“You’re not getting out of this,” Garrett said, making his way inside the store while she struggled to come up with a way to stop this before it was too late.
“Maybe we should talk about this?” Kristen said, swallowing hard as he led her inside and-
“Welcome to No Escape Game Rooms,” came the warm greeting that left her struggling to remember how to breathe.
“It will be fine,” Garrett said, shooting her a wink as he shifted his attention to the middle-aged woman with the warm smile and a name tag identifying her as Susie.
“I have a reservation for two,” Garrett said, releasing her hand so that he could pull his wallet out of his back pocket.
“What’s the name?” came the question that had Kristen taking a healthy step back.
“Bradford,” Garrett said, only to sigh heavily as he reached back and grabbed her hand again before she could take another step.
“I have you at seven o’clock for Jack The Ripper’s Escape room,” the woman who was in way over her head on this one murmured absently as she typed something. “Have either one of you been to an escape room before?”
“Yes,” Garrett said while Kristen went for a hesitant, “No?”
“You’re going to have a lot of fun,” Susie assured them as she gestured to the tablets that were about to seal her fate. “I just need you both to fill out our disclaimer forms agreeing to our rules and then you can join the rest of the group for Jack The Ripper’s Escape.”
This definitely wasn’t going to end well, Kristen thought as her gaze shifted to the small group waiting on the other side of the large waiting area and took in everyone from the bored-looking college kid wearing a football jacket to the two large men sporting military haircuts wearing matching shirts with the Marine emblem on them and-
This definitely wasn’t going to end well.
Swallowing hard, Kristen forced herself to step up to the tablet in front of her, and after one last hopeful glance at the exit, she reluctantly filled in her information and when she was done, she hit Enter with a resigned sigh and waited for the words that would lead to questions that she didn’t know how to answer.
She watched as Susie shifted her attention back to her screen and-
“You’re all set.”
Sure that she’d misheard her, Kristen asked, “Are you sure?”
“Mmmhmm,” Susie murmured absently as she grabbed a set of keys and gestured for them to follow her.
Kristen hesitated as she told herself that she should come up with an excuse and leave before it was too late, but…
When would she ever get another chance to do this?