False Security (33 page)

Her lips tightened. “No, you
can’t. No one can protect me from him.”

Jonathan held his hands up in
resignation. “Go then. If that’s what you have to do.”

“It is.” Relief flowed through
her, and she realized she had been holding her breath. He was allowing her to
leave much easier than she had anticipated. “I have to do this on my own. Well,
as much as possible, that is. I, uh...” She swallowed hard. “I wish things were
different.”

“I understand.” He moistened his
lips and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Rachel, be smart about your moves.
Don’t stay in one place too long, and don’t put yourself in a position where he
can find you.”

“Okay,” she said.

“This money comes with the
condition that you will keep me updated on where you are. When you settle in
somewhere, call that number and tell me. When you leave a city, call me before
you go and let me know where you’re headed. If you are even slightly tempted to
go back to him, call me and we’ll talk about it.”

He was doing far more to help
her than she ever dreamed. “I will, Jonathan. I swear to you that I will.”

“Good,” he said. “It’s important
that you keep me updated. Since you’ve lived at his estate for so long, no one
knows that you exist. Outside of him, I’m the only one who knows you’re out
there. But unlike him, I’m the only one who cares, and I’m the only one who can
help keep you safe.”

Rachel believed his words, that
he did care about her and would help her however he could to ensure her safety.

“When you’ve had a bit time to
yourself to sort through some of this, I’ll come get you and take you far away
from everything. If it’s too dangerous for you here, we’ll go somewhere else.
We’ll leave the country if need be, but as long as I’m around, he will never
touch you again.”

Her watch beeped, reminding her
to leave, but she couldn’t stop herself from leaning into him and kissing him
again. He put his hands on her arms and avoided touching her back, much as
Donovan had done the day before. His kiss was much softer than Donovan’s, and
she found it near impossible to stop kissing him.

She realized there was more
waiting for her out in the world. Here she stood, kissing a man who promised to
take care of her and to never hurt her. She didn’t know that was an option
before tonight. She had been taught to believe that love and pain were
synonymous.

Jonathan was right. She needed
some time to sort through what she was feeling, but she would still do
everything he asked of her, and make sure that he always knew where she was.
When he did come to find her, she would go with him and trust him to keep her
safe. She wanted to stay with him now, but Donovan would soon find out what she
had done. This would be the first place he looked for her.

She ended their kiss, knowing
she had to leave before Joe came in after her. “Listen to me, Jonathan. He
wants you dead, and when he finds out you’re still alive, he’s going to come
after you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Jonathan
said. “Only worry about yourself and getting somewhere safe.”

She thought about giving herself
so freely to Donovan yesterday in the conference room for the purpose of
convincing him to give her this job. “You don’t understand. I sold my soul to
come here tonight.” Tears formed in her eyes, and she whispered, “Please don’t
let him kill you. I don’t want you to die.”

“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m
not going to die, not when there is so much to live for.” He touched her cheek.
“It’s not too late for you to stay with me.”

“I’m sorry.” She picked up her
gun from the desk. She gave him one more kiss before saying, “I’ll call you
soon.” It took all her strength to turn and leave the room.

“I’m going to
get a beer. Want one?” Rachel asked Joe once they were back in the basement of
the estate.

“You’re in good mood,” Joe said.

She was in the worst mood of her
life, stressed she had gone too far to turn back, and anxious to finish her
plan. Her thoughts rested with Jonathan, and she prayed he had enough sense to
run before Donovan found out he was still alive.

Instead of displaying her real
feelings, she smiled at Joe and said, “Of course I’m in a good mood. Donovan
will be happy with our work tonight.”

“You’re right,” Joe said. “He’s
wanted to eliminate Thomas for some time now.”

“So how about that beer?”

“Might as well.” He followed her
into the kitchen.

Rachel took two beer bottles out
of the stainless steel refrigerator and handed one to Joe. She opened the
bottle and leaned forward on the island countertop. “One of us should check in
with security and make sure they’re okay.”

He regarded her with suspicion.
“You know I’m not supposed to leave you alone.”

“Come on, you left me alone at
the Thomas house for almost an hour. If I was going to do anything, don’t you
think it would have been then?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

“All you have to do is go grab
your radio and call them. You’re going to leave me standing here by myself for
five minutes, max. If I was going anywhere, I’d have to go all the way upstairs
and right past you to get there. Besides, what can I possibly do in the time
you’re gone? Finish this beer?”

Joe relaxed and laughed at his
paranoia. “I guess you’re right. I’ll check in with security, since it is their
first time out here. Need to make sure the estate is secure.” He left his beer
on the counter and walked out of the kitchen.

Rachel reached into her pocket
and removed five of the oval pills Paul gave her, saving the rest for her to
take later as needed. She took a butcher’s knife out of a drawer and rested the
blade on top of the pills. She pressed the palm of her hand against the blade
and smashed the medicine into a fine dust.

She gathered as much of the dust
as she could and shoved it into his beer bottle. The liquid fizzed with the
addition of the pills. “Dissolve, damn it,” she whispered to the bottle. She
wiped the knife clean on her jeans and put it back in the drawer.

The last bubble floated to the
top as the door opened and Joe came in. She was leaning against the counter
again, smiling with her beer bottle next to her lips.

“Everything’s okay with
security,” Joe said. “I think I’m going to finish this beer and then see if I can
help outside.”

“Good idea.”

They stood in silence for a few
minutes. Rachel tried to focus on her escape, but she could only think about
Jonathan. She shouldn’t have left him behind unprotected. Donovan would go to
him first to look for her, and he would not allow Jonathan to live. As soon as
she made it away from the estate and found her way to a phone, she would have
to call him and convince him to leave.

“You know, Rach,” Joe said, “I’m
sorry about that whole thing. I didn’t want any of that to happen to you.”

She waved her hand. “It’s okay.
You were doing your job.”

“I feel bad,” he said. “I’ve
always considered you a friend, even when you were an obnoxious little rug rat.
Well, maybe you weren’t that little.”

Racked by guilt over drugging
him, she faltered. Joe was not responsible for Donovan’s actions, yet he stood
between her and freedom. She recovered before he detected anything was wrong.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s over now.” She looked at the level of his beer.
Three-quarters gone. He was drinking much faster than she could have hoped.

Joe put a hand to his head.
“Man, this is something else.”

“What’s wrong?”

“This beer is starting to hit
me. I probably should have eaten more today.”

“Shouldn’t drink on an empty
stomach. Do you want something to eat?”

“No, I should be okay.” Joe
tilted the bottle and finished it. He walked to the other side of the kitchen
to throw the bottle away.

She decided the drugs weren’t
working fast enough and she needed to take further action if she was going to
get away. She gulped down the rest of her beer. Her eyes watered from the
bitterness on her tongue and she shivered. “Do you mind getting me another
one?” she asked, as she started toward him.

Joe shrugged and opened the
refrigerator. When he leaned over to grab another bottle, Rachel walked up
behind him and broke the empty bottle over his head. He fell to the floor,
unconscious. Kneeling beside him, she checked his pulse, and then kissed his
cheek. “I’m so sorry, Joe,” she said, as if he could hear her. “I hope you
understand that I had to do this.”

Rachel removed two bottled
waters out of the fridge and ran down the hall to her room. She pulled a few
sets of fresh clothes out of her dresser and threw them into her black duffel
bag along with the bottled water. On top of the clothes, she laid down wire
cutters and the baseball cap her dad bought her before he died.

She rushed into her bathroom and
grabbed some personal items to add to the bag. From her closet, she removed a
small compass and a penlight, and put both into her pocket. She also took her
stethoscope that she used for safecracking.

Rachel checked the safety on her
gun, and laid it down on her bed. That was a part of this life she was not
taking with her. She would have to pick up a different gun for protection
somewhere along the way.

With everything she needed to
survive for a couple of days in her duffel bag, she raced upstairs to Donovan’s
room with the bag slung over her shoulder and her stethoscope in her hand. She
would need money until she could retrieve what Jonathan had given her, and
Donovan kept money and valuables from recent jobs in a safe in his bedroom.

Rachel hesitated in front of his
door. In over thirteen years, she had never set foot inside this room. She
opened the door and flipped the light switch. It was a typical bedroom. She let
out the breath she was holding. “What were you expecting?” she asked herself.
“A coffin instead of a bed?”

As she looked around, the
similarity to her own bedroom struck her. Both of their rooms had no more
furniture than required. No paintings or photographs hung on the walls, no rugs
or plants sat on the hardwood floor. It was as if he didn’t want the
distractions of material possessions when he retired at night, and he longed
for the same peace Rachel did when she retreated to her room to gather her
thoughts.

There were three closed doors in
his room, and she found his safe behind the first door she tried. On impulse,
she pulled down the safe’s handle, smiling as the door opened to reveal money.
He had forgotten to spin the dial the last time he closed the safe.

She put her stethoscope in her
bag, and grabbed as many banded stacks of bills as her bag would hold. She
closed the safe door, but didn’t spin the dial in case he left it open on
purpose. She didn’t want him to know right away that she had taken anything.

On her way out of his room, she
glanced back at his bed. On it laid the jacket he wore before he changed
clothes for the Pierson job. She moved to the bed and lifted the jacket,
despite the screaming objections inside of her.

She closed her eyes and pressed
the material to her face, inhaling the warm, inviting scent that was distinctly
him. It filled her heart as well as her lungs, and placed tantalizing thoughts
in her head.

She didn’t have to leave. She
could stay and it would be okay in the end. She could easily explain her
actions to him and he would forgive her, as she had forgiven him so many times
before. After all, he loved her and he was sorry this time for the way he had
hurt her. He would change and it would never happen again. Maybe things could
go back to the way they were in the beginning. Or maybe they would be better
than ever before.

She opened her eyes and put the
jacket back down, eyeing it as if it was the embodiment of evil. As good as it
sounded, she knew it would never happen and there was still the matter of
Jonathan. She had left him alive and Donovan wanted him dead. Donovan would be
furious to know she hadn’t completed the job. Then there were those pesky
feelings she had for Jonathan. It was better for her to leave and start her
life over. No more rounds, no more jobs, no more guilt.

No more pain.

At the bottom of the stairs, she
stopped to consider which exit to use: the front door, the back door, or a side
window. She decided on a side window, knowing there would be security near the
back entrance of the house, and the front lights were much too bright.

Without thinking, she entered
the waiting room. As she moved toward the nearest window, she forced herself to
not look at the cases on the wall. One of them contained the whip that marred
her back. She pushed the curtain aside and unlocked the window. She threw her
bag outside and followed it, closing the window behind her.

Rachel crept toward the back of
the house. A security guard stood in front of her and another paced fifty feet
to her left, ignoring the normal patrol patterns. Their incompetence outraged
her because it impeded her plan. There was nothing she could do but wait for
one of them to move.

The guard in front of her
surprised her by walking over to the other security guard and starting a
conversation. She ducked behind a tree next to where he had been standing. A
branch broke beneath her feet. She held still, ready to fight anyone who came
near her tree. After an agonizing moment, she peeked around the tree, but the
two men had not budged.

Rachel used the shadows and
darkness to transport her to the back of the property. When she reached the
fence, she dug the wire cutters out of her bag and went to work, cutting
several slits large enough for her to fit through.

She put the cutters back in her
bag and climbed through the fence. Already exhausted, her muscles ached with
tension. She glanced back at the estate through the fence, and battled the
strong impulse to turn around and go back to the world she knew. She could
still change her mind, no matter what consequences she would face when Donovan
returned. No punishment could be worse than what he had already inflicted on
her.

But she couldn’t go back.
Despite her fatigue, exhilaration flowed through her veins. She was free.

She pulled the compass and
penlight out of her pocket and turned east. She looked ahead at the woods in
front of her. The sound of Jonathan’s piano played in her head.

She ran.