Breaking Her Rules(24)

But first, she had to lie down. Nausea swept through her, making her dizzy. After what Iris guessed was half an hour resting on the mattress—though for all she knew hours could have passed—she was feeling much more like herself. If only that bastard hadn’t taken her watch she’d have a better timeframe. As it was, she felt as if she was working blind.

Her reflexes were definitely slower than normal, but not like when she’d woken up in that chair. She’d tried the main door but it was locked. She hadn’t heard anything from outside though, even when she knocked. Which made her wonder if anyone was even out there.

Not that she was going to attempt to escape that way. That would be too obvious.

Instead, she hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. With trembling hands she hoisted herself up onto the ceramic sink. It was cold against her feet and luckily held under her weight. Slowly, she stretched up, waiting for Thorton to burst in at any moment because he had a hidden camera she hadn’t found.

When nothing happened she slid one of the cheap ceiling tiles to the side. They were yellowed with age and the one she touched crumbled around the edges. Ignoring the dust that scattered over her face and clothes, she reached up and clutched onto one of the support beams. She held her breath as she tested its strength. Letting her body go lax, she became a deadweight and dangled from the beam.

Adrenaline and the need to survive raged through her as it held.

Using the wall as leverage, she pulled herself through and into a sub ceiling. The staleness of what was likely decades of cobwebs and dust immediately assailed her. As she started to crawl across the sub ceiling, she forced herself to ignore the creepy crawlies she saw scuttling about. Not much bothered her, but spiders…a shudder snaked through her as she swiped another cobweb out of the way. Oh yeah, she was getting the hell out of here.

She continued crawling until the ceiling space grew too small for her to go any further. Her heart pounded wildly against her ribcage as she made her next move. For all she knew, she’d be dropping right into Thorton’s path.

Now or never. Reaching down from the sub ceiling, she shoved another dusty ceiling tile away. Beneath her she could see carpet and an industrial sized metal desk. The room was dark, but it had to have some source of light—maybe through an open window.

Holding onto the support beam, she lowered herself into the room. It was empty except for the desk she’d seen from above. Letting herself drop onto it, she inwardly cursed as dust scattered all around her from above.

Fighting a cough, she hurried to the window opening and looked outside. There was a string of what looked like abandoned buildings across the street. Maybe they’d been apartment buildings at one point but now they were spray painted with graffiti and the windows were either boarded up or missing. Considering the space she was peering out of had only shards of glass along the side edges of the panes, she guessed the entire neighborhood looked like this. It was eerily silent.

Where the hell were they? Had he taken her out of Miami?

At this point it didn’t matter. She had to escape and find a way to contact Wyatt. She’d figure everything else out later.

From what she could tell, she was up only one story. Not great but also not too bad. After another inspection of the single pane window, she realized she wouldn’t have to push any shards out of the way to climb through. She had enough room. Iris threw a leg over and propelled herself over the side. She held onto the edge, preparing herself for the fall. It was too dark to see everything below her clearly but she could make out a sidewalk. Letting go, she dropped toward the cement below. Something sharp pierced one of her feet when she hit the ground but she bit back a cry. As she rolled onto the ground, another pain shot through her ankle, but she forced herself to ignore it.

Using a Dumpster as cover, she crouched behind it and took in her surroundings. The row of buildings down the quiet street had definitely been apartments at one time. Now they were clearly abandoned and while there wasn’t much light from the direct area, she could see street lights a block down.

Wincing, she pulled a small screw from the bottom of her bare foot. It hadn’t punctured very deep, but it still hurt like hell. Pushing up, she sprinted along the sidewalk past a row of buildings. Each time her foot hit the pavement, slivers of pain shot up her leg, but she bit back against the insistent throbbing. She was leaving a bloody trail behind her but there was nothing to do about that until she’d put more distance between herself and her captor.

Thorton might know she was missing by now so no matter how much she hurt, she had no choice but to run. Each time her feet hit the pavement, pain ripped through her sole and ankle.

“Hey! Stop!” A male voice sounded behind her, but she didn’t listen. Didn’t dare slow down or even look back. Every second counted.

Her legs and lungs burned as she sprinted toward another street and with every strike of her right foot on the pavement it felt like she was stomping on glass. A few homeless people loitered by a rusty shopping cart but when they saw her, they looked the other way.

Nice.

When she reached the new street, it was empty in both directions. Taking a gamble, she headed south, then took the first left she came to. Risking a glance behind her, she felt a short burst of relief that no one was behind her. But that didn’t mean Thorton wasn’t lurking in the shadows nearby. Breathing was difficult, but adrenaline had taken over.

She’d have maybe thirty seconds to find a place to hide. Or more likely fifteen. In light of the abandoned buildings and empty parking lots full of trash surrounding her, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to hide in any of the dark entrances she spotted. There were probably worse monsters inside some of them. And she was leaving a trail of blood for her pursuer to follow.

When she rounded another corner, Iris stopped dead in her tracks. Barely ten feet in front of her two males who couldn’t be more than nineteen lounged against a bright gold convertible with expensive looking rims. They stopped talking and stared at her.

As her gaze fell lower she realized they both had guns tucked into the front of their jeans. And neither of them looked happy to see her.

If she got close enough she could disarm one of them, but she wasn’t sure she could disarm two. Not when she wasn’t at her complete best.

Had she just escaped one monster only to be faced with another nightmare?





Chapter 15



Zac Thorton hurried to the edge of the last abandoned building on the street. He peered around the corner, but Iris was gone. The woman had moved fast too. He still couldn’t believe she’d escaped. He’d checked on her a few times and she’d been passed out on the mattress. She should still be asleep. He hadn’t wanted to dose her too heavy and risk killing her before he got his money, but he should have. Hell, he should have just left her tied up in the chair, but had wanted to show her a little kindness before she died.

Glancing at his watch, his heart rate tripled. Wyatt would be here in less than ten minutes and he had no hostage. Ideas ran through his head as he tried to get a handle on the situation. He hated being out of control.

He could leave and pretend he’d never been involved in any of this. There was no way Iris had recognized him. He’d been careful of that. And he’d made sure Mark Keibler took the fall for hiring Sato. Killing his partner had been a difficult choice, but a publicly unknown branch of Thorton Enterprises had just developed new technology; a type of small, untraceable explosive. It had worked well, too. He’d put the chip right into Keibler’s cell phone. So even if Keibler was dead, he now had data on the extent of damage one chip could do.

When Zac had taken over the company from his deceased father, he’d learned all about his father’s less-than-reputable dealings. And he’d also taken over his f*cking father’s debt. He should have just let the company crumble, but he’d needed to prove to himself and the world that he could turn Thorton Enterprises around even when his father hadn’t been able to. Unfortunately Wyatt Christiansen had kept stealing deals from him. Buying and breaking apart companies he should have gotten. Zac wasn’t sure how he did it, time after time; maybe the man was paying people off, but no one was that lucky.

With Christiansen and Keibler’s history, pinning everything on Keibler had been easy enough. Hell, he’d even managed to set up a blind date between Keibler and Sato without personally becoming involved. If only Christiansen’s wife hadn’t f*cked things up.

What the hell was he going to do now?

He turned at a creaking sound behind him. A homeless man pushing a shopping cart was muttering to himself as he strolled down the cracked sidewalk.

They were in one of the worst areas of town, something that would work to his advantage. He doubted Iris would be able to find anyone to help her. It wasn’t like she had a cell phone. And forget about payphones. There weren’t any working ones in the vicinity. He knew because he owned ten square blocks in this abandoned shithole. Well, he’d inherited it. He just hadn’t gotten around to selling the properties. Not in this buyer’s market.