Series: Lee Savino
Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
I jump before I should, jarring my ankle and smacking my knee on the earth below. But it doesn’t matter–I’m out. I take off running for the ocean as fast as I can.
I’ve been training for this, too. I may be on the heavy side, but every day, I race on my treadmill that faces the ocean, whispering to my body that the day will come when we can make a break for it. My illness makes it harder, but the medicine seems to be working.
I wasn’t ready for it to be tonight. I wanted to locate Wren and make a plan to get her to safety before I escaped. Also, I need to figure out how to access the medicine keeping me alive. The last time I tried to escape, I collapsed before I could get far. But I’m feeling stronger now and don’t have a choice. I’m out of time.
Thom let me in on his disgusting plan tonight at dinner.
Tomorrow night, he arranged to auction me and my trading services off to the highest bidder. It’s not enough that I make him billions. He must sell me to one of his buddies to cement a high society merger. His twisted version of an arranged marriage.
Sorry, no. Not happening.
This time, my escape plan will work. It has to.
The mansion’s lights come back on in a sudden blaze.
Dammit.
Run, run, run. I put my head down and sprint as fast as I can. My feet hit sand.
An alarm goes off. It will still take them time to realize I’m gone, hopefully. So long as–
“Hold it right there!” a male voice shouts.
No! I’ve been spotted.
I might still make it. I can hide in the water. I reach the shore and run in, diving into the freezing water before it’s deep enough, so it’s more of a belly flop. I use my hands on the rocks below to propel me into the deeper water.
I don’t look behind me. I don’t want to see how close they are. Whether they’re coming for me. I squeeze my eyes closed and paddle hard, forgetting that I may not survive the ocean even if I’m not caught.
But I am caught.
A strong arm loops around my neck and shoves my head under, holding me down.
I struggle, kicking out, using my elbows, trying to duck out of his grasp. I need to take a breath.
Is this guy trying to kill me?
Clearly, he doesn’t know that I’m the golden goose.
Everything’s muffled by the sound of water around me, but I hear shouts above. Lights blaze in the periphery of my vision. Stars dance before my eyes.
And then I’m up. Held by my hair above water.
“What are you doing?” Thom rages from the shore.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Thompson. I thought she was an intruder.”
“Get my daughter back to shore.”
His daughter. Every time he calls me that I want to barf.
Chip, Thom’s head of security, and another guard grab me by the arms and drag me forward, out of the ocean, onto the beach where Thom slaps me hard across the face.
I figure this is my one chance. If there’s any man who works for Thom who has any conscience at all, I need to alert him. If he doesn’t disobey now, maybe he’ll raise a flag with the authorities.
“Let me go!” I scream. “You can’t auction me off. I’m not your property! You can’t keep me prisoner here forever!”
A needle jabs into the meaty part of my arm before I even see it coming. I stare into the eyes of the man who delivered it and detect a sadistic gleam of pleasure in them right before my vision goes dark, and my legs forget how to hold me.
Darius
Billionaires have a certain sort of smell. Not just clean human skin but the extra bouquet of expensive skin care products, rare perfumes, richer food.
That’s what my bear thinks, anyway. After years living in Manhattan, my poor animal’s nose has attuned to all sorts of city smells. It’s a relief to helicopter to the Hamptons for the weekend, even if it is to rub elbows with the crustiest of Wall Street’s upper crust. I step onto the tarmac and breathe my first clean lungful in months. The air tastes sweet with a tang of salt. Across a half-mile of manicured lawn, sunlight flashes on the wind-whipped sea.
The richer you are, the more land you can afford. My host, Thom Thompson, learned about my successful real estate investment firm, Medvedev Enterprises, and my new hedge fund, Mountain Top Investments, and invited me to this long weekend, so he can introduce me to potential clients. Thom owns a massive estate on the water between wildlife preserves.
Woods, my bear points out. He wants to strip off my human skin and lumber into the wild. Keeping him caged in has been the hardest part about living in Manhattan. These woods are nothing like the wilderness of Bad Bear Mountain where I grew up, but it’s enough to remind me of what I’m missing now that I’ve made New York City my home.