The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(53)

After getting in the tub, I shut the door and quickly removed the towel and put the knife underneath the water, on the floor of the tub. I hung the towel over the top of the door. Finally, I could strip off my bra and panties. I opened the door a crack and let them fall to the floor.

Whew. The hardest part was over. Only then did I realize my heart was beating wildly in my chest. I released a huge amount of air I’d been unintentionally holding inside and exhaled while I sank into the near-scalding water. The bubbles rose and surrounded me like I was sitting on a cloud. As hot as the water was, it felt amazing on my aching muscles, and I let my eyes closed for just a moment.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to savor it. It was time to get to work.

I felt around on the bottom of the tub until my fingers closed around the knife. I scooted as close as I could to the wall above the faucet. The tiles were about three and a half, maybe four inch, squares.

Grasping the knife in my hand, I raised it up and scraped at the grout separating each square. I scraped and dug until finally I was able to pry one square off the wall. Chunks of grout and dust particles drifted down, settling on top of the bubbles. It was messy, but it was done. Relieved and tired from the stress, I laid back and opened the door a crack to look at the clock. It had been twenty-five minutes.

Man, I really, really wanted to get more done than that. But, I knew if I was in the bathtub too long that Trevor would start to get suspicious. So, reluctantly, I flipped the plug and let the water drain. I set the knife and the tile on the side of the tub underneath the faucet, then stood and wrapped myself in the towel again.



It took two weeks before I was able to take enough tiles off the wall that a hole big enough for me to fit through appeared. After the tiles were off, there was a huge pile of them sitting in the tub.

I was actually surprised Trevor hadn’t sent anyone in to clean the bathtub yet. Normally Alice did it once a week, but now I hadn’t seen her at all. I think Trevor was afraid I was going to kill her. Part of me wanted to, that was for sure.

Maybe he figured since I was in here with nothing else to do, I could clean my own bathroom. I probably should pretty soon, just so the cameras could see that it was being cleaned and no one needed to come in and do it.

As a matter of fact, I hadn’t seen Trevor either. The only one I saw was that tall vamp who had come the first morning I’d been locked up. He collected the cart, the dishes and my dirty laundry. He also brought me anything I requested or that was sent up to me. I didn’t really care. I didn’t want to see any of them anyway.

Except Oscar. He had promised he would help me get out. What a liar. I shouldn’t have expected anything from him, really. He was just another of Trevor’s goons now, as far as I was concerned.

After I got all the tiles off, I dug at the wall underneath. It was actually harder than doing the tiles and that took another two weeks. I left the thinnest part of the outer wall where the plastic siding covered it. I was going to have to push the pieces of siding out so I could slip underneath them. That would come when it was time. There was one last thing I needed to do before I could escape… I needed to make a rope.

For three days more I plotted when I would make my escape and managed to tie several of my garments from the closet together, forming a crude, makeshift rope. Hopefully it would hold until I was safely on the ground.

When the day of my escape attempt arrived, I woke, just like every day, to the smell of breakfast. I wandered out to the table and found biscuits and gravy waiting for me. How strange. Biscuits and gravy was my favorite breakfast meal of all time, and I just found it a little ironic it was being served on the day I was trying to escape.

I ate it like I was never going to eat again.

After I had practically licked my plate clean, I set my fork down then picked up my coffee and took a big swig. Hoping it looked like an accident, I spilled a whole bunch on the front of my shirt. “Ugh! Man… just figures.”

I really, really hoped I sounded annoyed enough that my shirt was stained, because I wasn’t annoyed at all. I wasn’t even scared; I was excited.

Taking my shirt off on the way, I went to the closet and threw the dirty one in the hamper that I’d stuffed the clothes rope into. I grabbed another shirt off a hanger and put it on.

Phase one... accomplished.

I lay down on the couch with a book and tried to concentrate on reading until Mr. No Name Vamp came to get the cart. He never spoke unless I spoke directly to him, and he had to answer me. I let him come and go in silence; I preferred that anyway. He probably did too, all things considered.

Once he was gone, I went back to my book for a while. After a while, I stood and stretched. I then changed my clothes, making sure to put on my running shoes. After that, I looked around as if I were considering what to do next. Pretending the decision was made randomly, I went to the closet, retrieved my laundry basket and hauled the whole thing into the bathroom. I set it next to the tub and slid the door open. I stood in front of the opening to the shower door and snatched my shirt of the top of the basket and examined the coffee stain for a minute, showing the cameras what I planned to do.

It was time to just go for it. I dumped the entire basket into the tub and hoped whoever was watching—if they were watching—wouldn’t question why I just threw a bunch of dirty laundry in the bathtub. One thing I was positive of was that they would never guess there was a Chloe-sized hole in the wall and I was about to slide through it and hang from a homemade clothes rope from the second story of the house.