Chapter 74

#Chapter 74 – Secret Hideaway As I regain my feet, Victor grasps my hand and pulls me to my bedroom door. The alarm is blaring –

I’m struggling to think beyond it. He cracks the door open, peeking outside, and slams it shut. “s**t,” he says.

“What?”

“Your fathers Betas, coming down the hall. Quick, Evelyn, is there another way out of this room?” He twists the lock on the door, but I know that won’t hold them long. I’m the obvious flight risk in this house – if there’s an alarm going off, everyone knows it’s for me.

“Um…” my eyes scan my childhood bedroom, which still has its pink four-post bed, complete with gauzy white canopy, and pink flowered wallpaper on every wall. “No,” I breathe, “there’s no other way out. When I look towards my closet, though, I’m struck with an idea. “But we can hide.”

I pull Victor towards and into my tiny child’s closet, which still holds important outfits from my years living in this house. I push past my graduation gown, my first work uniforms – god, my wedding dress –

and yes, there, at the back, is the little catch panel that I found as a child and never told anyone about.

It was my secret hiding place, for myself as well as for contraband.

I slip my fingers behind it, my body remembering how, and pull the wood forward. “There,” I say, swinging the panel out to reveal a tiny, bare space behind. It was probably meant, at one point, for electric panels or plumbing, but it was never used. “It will be tight, but we’ll fit.”

Victor nods and ducks into the compartment. He does his best to make his large Alpha frame as small as possible, but I grimace to see that he fills up three quarters of it. But suddenly the Betas are at my door – pounding – working their way in – so I squeeze myself in as well, pulling the panel after me until it fits back in place.

It’s pitch black in the little space and I find myself curled up against Victor, sitting between his legs, panting with anxiety. He wraps his arms around me, finding no other place to put them.

The two of us sit there, silent, trying to slow our breathing, listening to my father’s Betas search my room. I can imagine their movements from the sounds they make. Pounding feet cross the room –

they’re looking out the window.

“The window is open, Sir! And there’s a rope here!”

“How could she have defied me.” I go rigid, recognizing my father’s growl. Victor tightens his arms around me, supporting me, encouraging me to stay the course. “I expressly ordered her not to escape,”

he snarls.

“Sir, your words will stop her from leaving your grounds, but it won’t stop her from being kidnapped from them.”

My father laughs lowly. “We’ll see about that.”

My breath comes faster. What does he mean by that?

“Calm down,” Victor whispers in my ear, his words almost silent. “They’ll hear you. Close your eyes, Evie, this is a good spot – they won’t find us here.”

I try to believe him, but I hear the Betas stomping around the room, looking for more evidence. God, if they find us here – they’ll punish me, but what they’ll do to Victor –

I imagine him, suddenly, beaten bloody by my father – a gun to his head –

A whimper escapes my lips.

Slowly, softly, Victor moves his hand from its place on my elbow and slides it up my arm, across my collar bone, and slowly up my neck. He stops when he is cradling my face in his hand, his thumb resting on my lips – begging me, achingly, to be silent. I lean my head back on his chest, tucking it beneath his chin, and close my eyes.

Pressed up against Victor, I try to ignore everything – the panic in my body, the sounds in my room –

the noise of a Beta approaching, now only two feet from us – then, inches– poking through my closet to make sure we’re not here.

Sweat rolls down my temple, and I work so, so hard to just trust Victor in this moment. Trust him to take care of me, to take charge of the situation.

I lose track of time, concentrating only on my breathing, on the feeling of Victor’s strength supporting me.

Time passes, and then Victor and I are alone. The alarm turns off in the house. We can still hear sounds – I think they’re coming from outside the house now – but my room itself is silent.

“Okay,” Victor says into my ear. “It’s time to move, Evelyn. Can you get us out of here?”

“Yes,” I say, but for some reason, I can’t will myself to get up. It’s safe in here, in our little hiding spot, and a big part of me wants to relish this calm before whatever is coming next.

Victor pauses. “Are you okay? Is everything all right?”

I laugh because, obviously, nothing is all right. But I know what he means. “Just…give me a moment, Victor. Are the boys okay?”

“Yes, they’re fine, they’re home having pizza with Edgar.” I sense a little bitterness in his voice.

“Lucky kids,” I murmur. “What happens next?” As I ask, I shift my weight forward and move to open the door.

“Next,” Victor says, “I kidnap you.”

I can’t help myself as I laugh a little at the absurdity of this. I shake my head, looking back at him –

Alpha Victor Kensington, crouching in the tiny hiding spot where I used to come as a teenager to read books that my father forbid me to read, where I wrote love letters to my first secret boyfriend.

As I crack the panel open, a little light hits his beautiful, earnest face, and I smile at him. “Thank you for coming back for me,” I whisper.

He nods, returning my smile, and we stare at each other for a minute. “Come on,” he says, nodding forward. “Time to get on with the kidnapping. We have to get back to the car before your father finds it in the woods.”

“Is it a kidnapping,” I say, truly wondering as I crawl out of our hiding spot, “if I consent to it?”

Victor shrugs, straightening up in my closet and peeking out the door. “I guess we’re going to find out.”

There’s no one in my room. Victor quickly moves to the window, looking out and noting that the majority of my father’s guards are huddled by the back door.

“Your dad really needs to work on his force, Evelyn,” Victor murmurs, unraveling a rope from its place on his belt. “He doesn’t even have anyone stationed under this window, which is…just really dumb.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, sure, Victor, I’ll give him your notes asap.”

He ignores me and shakes his head, marveling at my father’s poor organization as he ties some sort of climbing apparatus to the post of my heavy bed and then moving back towards the window. “Climb on my back, Evelyn,” he says, looking out the window again for any obstacles.

“What?” I say, suddenly horrified.

Victor blinks at me. “What…is unclear about this?”

“You’re going to carry me out the window on your back?” I squeak, scared witless by the idea.

“What, do you want me to do, tie you up and lower you down? Yes, Evelyn!” He takes a step forward and grabs my hand, kneeling down so that I can climb onto his back. “Just put your arms around my neck and close your eyes. Try not to choke me.”

I take a deep breath and do what he says. When he stands up, I wrapping my legs around his waist from behind and hooking my feet together in the front to hang on to him. I feel like a little monkey but have no time to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. I press my eyes closed and feel him move towards the window.

“If you drop me,” I murmur threateningly. “I’ll kill you.”

“If I drop you, you’ll be dead.” He responds, a little humor in his voice.

I squeak, feeling him move swiftly out the window, clinging to him as we swiftly move downwards.

Faster than I thought was possible, I feel his feet hit the ground. “Let go, Evelyn,” he whispers. “You’re safe.”

I unwrap myself, feeling my bare feet touch the freezing flagstones of my father’s terrace. Victor pulls me into the shadows behind a shrub for a moment, surveying the lawn. Then he pulls his phone out of his pocket and sends a quick text.

“Just a moment,” he says. “we prepared for this. In just a second, all of your father’s Betas will go left, and we’ll go right.”

“Huh?” I’m about to ask more questions when I’m suddenly distracted – there’s a bright flash to my left as a red flare rises above the trees. There are shouts and Victor’s prediction comes true – my father’s Betas dash off across the lawn in that direction.

Victor waits just a moment, crouched, clutching my hand in his. Then, when things grow noticeably silent, he says “Now!” and we sprint forward, away from our spot in the brush.