“We’ll be back.” He tilted his head to Tony, and the man escorted her into the SUV, where they waited in tense silence. The other guards, who were like silent wraiths, watched over her from outside the vehicle.
The minutes passed slowly. She wrung her hands and prayed that Darren was nowhere in the vicinity.
Chase came back after about fifteen minutes. He shook his head at Tony’s questioning glance. He didn’t say much to her.
They picked up Thai food and went back to the hotel, eating in their room after it was secured. Chase spent most of the time on the phone with his friend Rock and the security expert Aiden Porter. He was trying to get updates on Worthen and sifting through any information they had about Darren Falmouth. Darren was reportedly in Lawrence, Kansas, and looked ‘lily white’ according to Aiden. Lizzy shuddered again and couldn’t even enjoy the fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce or her Thai chicken basil loaded with a variety of delicious vegetables that had been lacking in the local Austrian food.
Before she knew it, they were both lying in bed—her in the bedroom, him in the main area on the foldout bed. The silence between them was as thick as it had ever been. Even though he was in the other room, she’d kept the door ajar and could hear him, sense him.
What would happen tomorrow? They’d both fly home. She’d never see Chase again.
Maybe Grady Worthen would find her and kill her this time without Chase around to protect her.
Her mind spun with all the awful possibilities. Chase’s breathing went slow and even. She tried to match her breathing to it and calm down, but she couldn’t. The anxiety that Darrenand then Grady’s attacks had created hadn’t manifested these past two weeks with Chase close, but it was hitting right now.
She slipped out of bed, slid into flip-flops, and walked quietly past him. When she reached the door, she grabbed the key off the side table and slid it into her pocket. Pressing the alarm to turn it off, she swung the door open, slipped outside, and shut it silently behind her.
There was a guard in the hall, one of the newer ones who hadn’t shared their names with her. Conrad? Was that what Chase had called him? He tilted his chin up to her.
“I just needed some air,” she said, then guessed, “Conrad?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He gestured. “I’ll follow you.”
“Thank you.”
Now that the men weren’t monitoring an entire house, they only had the one guard waiting in the hall outside the room.
Lizzy wasn’t even sure where she was going, but moving felt freeing and helped calm her. The hallway was quiet and dimly lit. The palace was so beautiful. She walked down a floor and then down the grand staircase. Gorgeous.
She should’ve turned around and gone back to bed, but all she would do tomorrow was sit on a plane and sleep. She nodded to the worker at the front desk and then headed for the rear of the building.
Finally getting outside and onto the grounds was even more freeing.
Lizzy breathed in the night air. The temperature was perfect. She walked through the manicured gardens and to the edge of the glassy lake, a half-moon and the lights of buildings across the lake reflected in the surface.
A rowboat was semi-hidden in the trees by the water. It made her smile, thinking of Maria tipping the rowboat over in the movie.
It was time to say goodbye to Austria and this dream trip. Soon it would all feel like a mystical illusion.
Was she saying goodbye to Chase as well?
“‘When the dog bites, when the bee stings’,” she sang softly to herself. “‘When Chase doesn’t love me … any longer … I can’t think of my favorite things’.”
She broke off, morose. Chase had to protect her—she understood that—but he’d never explained or talked to her about it. Couldn’t he reassure her that he liked her and wanted to be with her?
Touching her lips, she remembered their intense kissing session last night. That had been reassuring. Until he broke away and fled to the bathroom.
Did they have any kind of future together?
Movement came from the side. Lizzy blinked in surprise as a man prowled out of the trees and stalked toward her with a huge grin on his face.
“You’re gonna make this easy on me,” Grady Worthen growled. “Where’s the boyfriend? He’s the one I have to kill first. Then I’ll take care of you.”
Lizzy backed up, horror rushing through her. She spun and ran, her legs weak, her knees failing her. She tripped on a root and went down hard, letting out a scream. She prayed someone would hear her.
Her guard. Where was her guard? She hadn’t thought much about it, but she hadn’t noticed him since she’d entered the garden.
Grady pounced on her, his huge weight pressing her into the damp ground. “I’m not supposed to kill you.” His hot breath seared her neck. “But I’m going to have fun with you before I get permission to slit your throat. After I kill your boy toy.”
