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“Hey,” I hollered through the wooden pane, the sound hoarse, vocal cords demanding coffee before they’d function properly. I pounded a closed fist on the wood, shouting a second time. “Grey?”
I listened carefully, closing my eyes to await the sound of footsteps, but none came. The only sounds in the Crow’s Nest were the ominous noises houses made when nobody was home. The whir andshhhof the air conditioning. The scratch of branches on window panes. The creak and groan of flexing floorboards.
Speaking of, there were no windows in this closet of a fucking room.
For all I knew itwasa closet. One they’d converted to a ten by ten atrocity of a guest bedroom. With a lumpy single pushed against the wall and a wobbly nightstand and not much else. It was clean though, not a speck of dust in the air or coating any surface.
Honestly, it was more than I’d had in Lennox, but I’d gotten used to the grandeur of my shared suite with Becca back at Briar Hall. And that shower…
Mmmm,I could use one of those right about now. I could feel dirt under my fingernails. Forest debris in my hair. Stale sweat making my skin tacky.
“Either you open this door, or I’ll open it my damn self,” I tried one last time, tipping my head to the side for a stretch as I rolled my shoulders back and inhaled deeply to force my heavy limbs to wake.
“Fine,” I growled. “Have it your way.”
I had my blades on me still, but nothing small enough to try to pick the fucking thing, and it was an exterior lock. The kind with a key. Installed with the key side in. A new one by the look of it. I had to wonder if they’d somehow managed to install it while I was asleep. I couldn’t remember noticing hardware that strong on the way in, and I would’ve noticed. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.
I was a real wreck last night. Apparently, I also hadn’t noticed the lack of alternate exits in the room.
These Crows were going to be the death of me.
At least falling asleep in my clothes also meant passing the fuck out in my shoes. The runners wouldn’t get the job done as well as if I’d worn my shit stomping boots, but they’d do.
I limbered up, stretching my quads and calves and rolling my ankles.
I just needed the right amount of pressure in the right place and…
My heel connected with the door, an inch too high, but still it rattled, the metal lock bits beginning to come apart. If this was an exterior door, I might’ve been fucked, but lucky me, it was the bustable interior wooden kind.
The second kick ricocheted up my leg and I grimaced, cursing each one of the vultures for each subsequent kick.
“Fuck.”
“You.”
“All.”
The metal lockpingedas it hit the floor and the door fell open, busted up into a mess of chewed wood around the lock and hanging on now by only one hinge.
“Bastards,” I heaved, catching my breath as I strolled out. I went to the window down the hall, clutching the sill to peer out onto the gravel drive. The Rover was nowhere in sight.
What day was it again?
Tuesday.
Right.
Still morning by the look of it. Had they really locked me in a room with no fucking bathroom and gone to class?
They told me they had to keep an eye on me. I remembered that part of the conversation. Something about Diesel making me their responsibility, and then there was the part about him not trusting me. And why should he? I wouldn’t trust me, either.
I found my way back down to the living room, scanning the low coffee table and couch until I spotted my phone. I jammed the side button, but the screen stayed dark. Dead.
Figures.
Briefly, I thought about tearing a few gashes in the expensive looking sofa before deciding they weren’t worth the trouble of honing my blades later. But I couldn’t let them get away with locking me up, they had to know I was not some pet to be caged. No matter what they thought. No matter their orders.
It took me about ten minutes to find a Phillips head screwdriver tucked away in a small toolkit in the hall closet upstairs. It took me another fifteen to remove the door handles from every bedroom and bathroom door in the house and stuff them in a pillowcase to sling over my shoulder.
