“Carry on… and I’ll make up… some kill jokes.”
“Well, that’s no fun. It doesn’t have the same capacity for comedy as Paige does… although, it iskillingme to keep my hands off you nowadays.” He smirked at his witty comment, but I just groaned.
“What?” He was just about to make another cringeworthy comment, when we heard what sounded like glass smashing downstairs.
“Shit, did you hear that?” I glanced behind me, to where Cill lay, and his face turned deathly pale.
“Did you turn the alarm back on after you took Xena out?” I asked, feeling his whole body tense up next to me.
“I thought I did. I’m not sure. Shit, give me a second and I’ll check it out.”
Before I could pull him back and tell him to call the police, he was up and out of the bed, dragging his grey joggers back on and shoving the white T-shirt over his head as he creaked open the bedroom door.
“Be careful,” I whispered as he disappeared down the corridor and left me alone under the covers.
Ten seconds later, he was back in the room, holding his finger over his lips but showing me he was shit scared with his wide, crazed eyes. He closed the door shut so it wouldn’t make a sound, then he sprinted across the room and yanked the bedside drawer open.
“Put something on. We need to get out of here, now,” he whispered, picking up my dress from the chair and handing it to me. Then he took a phone out of the bedside drawers and started to type in a number.
“It’s me,” he said in hushed tones down the phone. “They’ve found us. We’re getting out of here.” I felt my whole body go onto high alert, and my stomach instantly twisted into unforgiving knots.
They were here.
They’d found me.
He walked to the balcony door to open it and glanced over the ledge to the garden below. I didn’t stop to think about the consequences, I knew we had to run. I jumped out of the bed and put the dress on.
“I don’t care what you do, but I’m getting her out of here. They’re not getting their hands on her again.” He marched back into the bedroom and cut the call. Then he threw the phone onto the bed and grabbed my arm.
“We need to go out this way.” He nodded to the balcony. “There’s a pipe we can shimmy down. I’ll be right behind you, sweetheart. I won’t let you fall. When we get to the bottom, we run, do you hear me? We run and we don’t stop until we get to the boat. No matter what you hear, don’t look back, just run. The boat’s our best chance of escape.”
I nodded, my brain trying to take it all in, but not really able to comprehend anything other than the fact that they were here.
It was all over.
They’d found me.
“Come on,” he said, beckoning me to follow him onto the balcony.
“What about Xena?” I asked as I rushed to join him and let him pull me over the balcony wall.
“There’s no time. I’ll come back for her, I promise. But not now. There’s just no time. Please, Paige.”
He secured himself on the pipe and pulled me to him so I was above him. If I were to lose my grip or slip, he’d catch me right away.
I heard a crashing sound coming from the house, and it spurred us on to shimmy down that drainpipe like our lives depended on it. When we eventually hit the ground, he whisper-shouted for me to run, so I did.
I didn’t do everything I was told though, and when I looked back at the house, I saw numerous flashlights dancing around in the living room, and then one appeared at the bedroom window.
“Faster, Paige,” Cill shouted, as we surged through the backyard and onto the beach that lay beyond it. The yacht was bobbing around on the sea, our saviour ready to whisk us away.
Cill grabbed my hand and we ran together. I stumbled over the sand dunes, but his strong arms kept me upright. When we reached the jetty, we didn’t even feel the wood underneath our feet. I could’ve run across hot coals and not felt a thing in that moment. All that mattered was us getting to safety.
Bang.
A gunshot rang out over the night air, a gunshot that came from the house, and I turned towards it and cried out. “Xena.”
But Cill yanked me back around to face him. “She’s fine. It’ll be a warning shot. They’re trying to scare us.”
