Chapter One #4
“Listen, I need my tools. I’ve told you before, I can’t work under these conditions,” Detroit said. “If you’d let me go to a hardware store—”
“So you can run off again?” Stocky interrupted.
“Why are you acting like you make the rules here? I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you who’s in charge. Get to it,” Tall Guy said, now tossing the shovel at Detroit’s chest.
Detroit caught the shovel, turning ever so slightly in Dani’s direction, but not far enough. Dammit. She still couldn’t see him, not with the shadows and the poor lighting.
“And what are you going to do while I try to cut through stone with this?” Detroit asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tall Guy said, resting on the dirt and pulling a knife out from behind him along with a piece of fruit from his satchel. He started cutting off chunks of the fruit, bringing it up to his mouth with the knife. “Want a piece?” he offered.
“Only if you’re finally trying to kill me,” Detroit responded. “I’m allergic to apples.”
Dani gasped and quickly put her hands over her mouth. Theo.
But it was too late. All three men’s heads shot in the direction of the opening. She immediately backed away but tripped on a rock and came crashing down on her ass.
“Someone’s out there!” one of the men yelled. “Get them!”
Dani scrambled to her feet and ran. Her hand trembled as she fumbled with her phone to turn the flashlight back on. She had been right: these men were up to no good, and she didn’t need to find out any more than that.
As she made her way through the tunnel, she heard the grinding of stone behind her, likely them pushing open the doorway to the room they’d been in.
Moving as quickly as she could, she ran through the underbelly of the palace and all its twists and turns, not stopping for even a moment to look behind her.
She didn’t miss this part of taking risks and breaking rules.
The light from the outside was ahead, signaling she was almost out of danger. When she emerged from the tunnel, she stopped for a moment, shielding her eyes from the sun’s rays, and a brief wave of relief washed over her.
“There she is!” one of the men called from behind her. “We can catch her.”
Forget about that relief. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. This was it. This was how she was going to die. But at least she wasn’t going to go without a fight.
Thankfully, she’d gained a bit of distance in the tunnel even though her short legs weren’t exactly doing her any favors.
Especially when she had to climb back over the railing.
She pulled herself up, damning herself for quitting that CrossFit class that might have earned her the upper-body strength to do a pull-up.
But she dug her toes into the side of the wall, using all her might to scale the six-foot embankment.
As she was about to swing her leg up over the side, however, something grabbed her ankle.
No, not something. Someone.
“Not so fast,” Stocky said.
But where Dani failed in upper-body strength, she excelled in leg power. She may have been small in stature, but that didn’t keep her brother from teasing her about her “tree trunks.” So, with as much force as she could muster, she jerked her leg like a bucking horse.
“Get…your…hands…off!” she growled in sync with her kicks.
The bottom of her hiking shoe connected with what she could only assume was the man’s face—she didn’t bother looking—which was followed by a grunt and a string of profanities as she pulled herself the rest of the way over the ledge.
The dry, pebbly dirt scraped against her skin as she skirted away from the edge, stirring up a cloud of dust around her.
As she rose to her feet, she kicked as much of the dirt as she could, hoping it would get in the man’s eyes.
Then, like a bat out of hell, she booked it across the courtyard, down the pathway toward the exit, out the gates, and straight for the tour bus.
“Ticktock, missy,” Cosmo called out from fifty feet away, tapping his clipboard on his watch. “Just because we bent the age requirement for you, doesn’t mean the rest of the rules don’t apply.”
Now wasn’t the time to say Fuck off, but the words were on the tip of her tongue. But she didn’t need to piss Cosmo off when the only thing standing between her and those guys was (hopefully) the bus.
“Noted!” she called out as she ran up to him. “Now please, let’s go!”
She yanked on Cosmo’s arm, pulling him into the bus behind her and shouted, “Go, go, go,” to the driver.
Cosmo smoothed out his shirt, apparently oblivious to the fact that Dani had been running for her dear life, then told the driver to get them on their way.
The whoosh of the bus exhaust and release of the brakes signaled they were getting ready to pull out as Dani made her way to the back beside Harold.
He scanned her filthy clothes, then furrowed his brow.
“Looks like you’ve been off having some fun,” he said, suspiciously.
“ ‘Fun’ isn’t how I would put it.”
Right as the bus started to drive off, however, the three men ran up to the side, right to the window where she sat looking over Harold.
Detroit took off his ball cap as he eased up his running and he looked straight at her. Dani’s heart skipped a beat. Beard or not, she’d recognize those cerulean eyes from behind those dark-framed glasses anywhere.
It was Theo. And he was back from the dead.