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I waited until midnight. Then I grabbed all my things, popped out the screen in my window, and shimmied down to the roof on the back porch.
From there it was an easy drop to the backyard. My sneakers only made a soft thump in the grass.
A couple of men patrolled the expansive yard, but I’d timed my departure well. I slipped through the night toward the hedge between our grounds and the neighbor’s.
I already knew I could squeeze between the tall, conical bushes and—
I’d almost reached them when a brawny shape stepped out from behind one of the trees. I jerked to a halt, clutching my bags, narrowing my eyes at Rafael.
“Where the hell are you going?” he demanded under his breath, his gaze flicking to the house behind me.
If he raised the alarm, I’d simply have to run.
I stared back at him fiercely. “She killed him. She killed Balakin. I can’t live under her roof for one more day. I’m leaving, and you’d better not try to stop me.”
I couldn’t tell whether my accusation startled him. Rafael gazed back at me for a beat, and then he said, “I’ll come with you.”
I blinked. “What?”
His voice left no room for argument. “You should have someone with you who’s got your back.”
Rafael had watched over me for almost a decade, since Mom had given him the assignment. I still wouldn’t have expected him to throw in his lot with me that far.
If she found out—whenshe found out that he’d betrayed her…
But I could tell from the tension in his face that he knew the consequences of his decision at least as well as I did. The longer we stood here, the more likely it was that we’d get caught right now.
And the thought of having a little company while I threw everything else in my life away did give me a tiny rush of relief.
“Okay,” I said, pushing past him. “Just make sure you keep up.”
TWO
Luciana
The engineof the faded blue Mercury Grand Marquis grumbled more than it rumbled, but that fact didn’t shake my sense of satisfaction as I leaned back in the creased leather seat behind the wheel.
The car was mine—all mine, in a way I couldn’t say my old ride really had been. And thanks to the cash I’d been secreting away for the past two years, Mom could never trace the purchase.
Rafael and I were traveling completely incognito, which was a necessity, honestly. I could only imagine the rage that’d flared behind Mom’s eyes when she’d realized I’d flown the coop.
In the passenger seat next to me, Rafael stretched out his legs and frowned at the glove compartment. Or maybe at the base of the windshield. It was a little hard to tell.
My bodyguard had frowned at the car a lot when I’d picked it out from a buy-and-sell website. But after peeking at the engine and taking a test drive around the block, he’d stepped back while I handed over the wad of hundred-dollar bills.
We’d put a lot of miles on it in the past couple of days, and it hadn’t failed us yet. So I figured I’d earned my satisfaction.
Rafael rolled his shoulders. “We should make a pit stop soon. Get the joints moving before they totally stiffen up.”
I made a face, but I had to admit my back was pretty achy. “I guess sleeping in a car for two nights will do that to you.”
We hadn’t wanted to risk getting rooms in motels along our way, even paying cash. And it hadn’t seemed safe to stop driving for very long, period. During the nights, we’d taken turns napping in the back seat while the other drove.
But the bright sunlight streaming over the lush forest on either side of the narrow country road lifted my spirits all the same. “We’re almost there, though. Why stop now?”
Rafael took out his phone and squinted at the GPS as if verifying my statement. His frown deepened. “Are you sure a place like this is going to be safe enough? It’s not really your typical scene.”
I snorted. No, Hobb Creek—a tiny town that was barely a speck on the map of Ontario, Canada—was the exact opposite of the chaotic city where I’d grown up. But that was what made it perfect.
