AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d just dealt with a particularly nasty bout of morning sickness — although why they call it that when it lasts all goddamn freaking day, I don’t know — when she knocked on Dante’s bedroom door and told me it wastime.
“How the hell do you expect to get us out of here without anyone noticing, Joey?” I snap, fueled by irritation and fear as she leads me down a hallway I’ve never seen before. This house is like a goddamn maze.
“Dante and Maximo are out tonight. Now is the perfect time.”
“But there are guards everywhere,” I remind her.
“Not down here though,” she says with a mischievous grin. “I used to sneak out this way all the time when I was in high school. It’s a secret entrance.”
“A secret entrance? Really? What is this place? Like Hogwarts?”
Joey stops dead in her tracks and glares at me. “Look, Kat, do you want out of here or not? I mean, I was even kind of getting to like you these past few weeks, so if you’d rather stay and be my brother’s little plaything for the rest of your days, then be my guest.”
She folds her arms across her chest and waits for my reply. I suppose I’ve kind of gotten to like her a little too. Once you get beneath all the snark and sarcasm, she’s actually really smart and funny.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m just nervous. If he catches us…” She’ll be fine, she’s his annoying little sister, but he’ll kill me.
“He won’t,” she says with an eye roll, full of that Moretti confidence that she and her brother have by the ton. “My guy is solid. We got this.”
I take a deep breath. I have to get out of this place. I have to get us away from him. “Okay. Let’s go.”
She smiles and then carries on walking down the hallway until we come to a small store room. Once we go inside, she moves a metal shelving unit out of the way and pushes a brick in the wall, and sure enough, it opens to reveal a hidden passageway.
“Wow,” I gasp.
“Told ya,” she smiles triumphantly.
“Doesn’t Dante know about this though?”
“Nope. Don’t think so. Like I said, I used to sneak out this way all the time.”
“Where does it lead to?”
“Like some kind of underground bunker or something. I don’t know what it is, but there’s a door that leads out onto the street. My guy will be waiting with your documents and a car and then you’re out of here,” she says as she steps inside the dark passageway and flicks on the torch on her cell phone.
I’m hit by a flood of emotion that almost knocks me off my feet. I feel something about leaving this place, about leaving him, that is not pure joy. And I feel so grateful to Joey. Whatever her agenda is, she’s giving me an out and I will always owe her for it.
I intend to change my name and get new papers as soon as I’m far enough away from this place, I mean she’s still a Moretti and if Dante wants to find me badly enough then she’d probably tell him. But I figure he might be pissed for a little while that we duped him, but he won’t bother coming looking for me. He’ll move onto the next warm body. At least that’s what I hope anyway.
“Thank you for this, Joey. I don’t know how to repay you.”
“Seeing the look on Dante’s face when he realizes you’re gone is payment enough for me,” she says as she heads along the dark tunnel.
I follow behind her until we reach another door. “Almost there,” she whispers. “Here, take this.” She passes me her cell as she starts to draw back the huge steel bolt. It creaks loudly like old, rarely used metal does, and I wince at the sound echoing off the stone walls. What if someone in the house hears?
“There,” she pants as she draws it all the way back and pushes open the huge metal door. I’m still holding her cell phone, pointing at the open doorway. It almost slips from my fingers when his face comes into view and my racing heart stops beating as time literally freezes around us.
“Going somewhere, ladies?”
“Maximo! What the hell?” Joey shrieks. “You scared the shit out of us.”
He shakes his head in amusement as he flicks on his torch and shines it in our faces. “And I’m not even the entrée,” he says with a cruel laugh. “Wait until you get back to the house and see how pissed Dante is.”
“N-no,” I stammer. “I’m not going back.”
“Oh, you are,” Maximo says.
“How the hell did you know?” Joey snaps, her body shaking with fury while I’m trembling with fear.
