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“Uh, I have a small problem!” I shouted from the bathroom.
“Deal with it,” called the unfamiliar man’s voice.
“Not an option! The toilet is flooding and I’ve really got to go. Unless you want to tell my father you made me piss on the floor, I think you should get in here!”
The man sighed heavily, then I heard a set of keys jingle. A moment later, he unlocked my door and started through the bedroom and toward the bathroom.
The toilet was to the left once you came through the doorway, so I waited to the right. I was banking on him looking at the toilet first, which would hopefully expose his back to me. My father made me take jiu jitsu for self-defense until I was twelve. I had the muscle memory to take down a large man if the conditions were right. I hoped. Of course, I hadn’t practiced at all since then.
Not the time to be thinking about that, Jules.
The guy came through the doorway and my jaw dropped. He was huge. He actually had to duck his head slightly to get through. Worse. He didn’t look at the toilet. He looked to his right, where he saw me crouched with my hands out like I was getting ready to pounce.
“What the-” he started.
I cut him off by leaping for his neck. I’d been hoping to get on his back and get my arms around his neck. The idea was I’d choke him out, snag the keys, and run.
But he stuck out a meaty palm and I felt like I hit a small, hand shaped brick wall. I bounced off, smacked into the wall, and slid to the ground to land hard on my ass. “Ugh,” I groaned.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“Blurry,” I said, slurring my word a little and letting my eyes go out of focus.
The man scratched the back of his huge head, looking around. “Shit,” he muttered. I had no doubt my father would be furious if he knew one of his men hurt me. He knelt down and reached for my eyelid, opening it and peering into my eyes. “You’re fine, right?”
“My medicine,” I muttered. “It’s under the sink. I have a condition… if,” I made a croaking sound, then put the back of my hand to my forehead.
“Right,” the guy said. He was on his hands and knees, sloshing around in the toilet water. He scooted to the cabinet beneath the sink. There was no medicine there.
I let out a warcry and jumped for his back. I landed on him like he was an oversized horse, then got my arms locked around his neck, which was about as thick as a tree trunk. I could barely reach my elbow to pull the arm lock tighter on him.
That was when I learned all the people I’d practiced against when I was little were going easy on me. None of them had ever reached back and plucked me off them like I was an annoying rodent. I felt his big paw grip the back of my shirt and start to yank me free.
“Wait!” I said. “If you hurt me, my father is going to fire you.”
It was ridiculous trying to reason with a man I was attempting to choke out, but he actually paused. “What?” he said, voice tight from the pressure I had on his neck.
“You’re better off letting this happen. If you hurt me, he’ll make sure you never work again. If I get loose, he’ll just let you go at worst.”
“Really?” The man whispered. He had sank to his knees now and I could tell I was almost there. Just a little longer.
“Yes,” I said. “Just let it happen, big boy.”
“Big… boy?”
After what felt like forever, the man finally fell face first, unconscious. I worked quickly to find his key ring, pocketed it, and then got up. I looked in the mirror and saw I looked like I’d just been in a scuffle with a giant. My shirt was splattered with toilet water and stretched out from where he’d tried to pull me. My hair was a complete mess and my makeup was smeared.
I closed the door to the bathroom, then moved my dresser in front of it to hopefully wedge it shut. I wasn’t sure if it would stop that beast of a man once he regained consciousness, but it’d have to do. At the last minute, I ran to my window and yanked it open. If someone happened to come in here, I wanted them to think I’d escaped and went straight outside instead of risking them searching the house for me. With any luck, I could practically clear the house out and have a straight shot for the laptop.
I went through the open door to the hallway beyond my room, trying my best to look natural. I passed a few of the cleaning staff, but none of them would’ve known to try to stop me. They just gave me strange looks when they saw how disheveled I looked.
