Page 80 of Broken Discipline

“We won’t be leaving until we get some answers, Mrs. Carter,” Upchurch said, his hand finding the gun in his holster.

I slammed the door in their faces, then ran to the kids’ bedroom. I smacked the door open and the nanny jolted. Tablets rested in the twins’ laps. They looked up.

“Mama?” Larkin asked.

“We need to leave,” I said. I nodded to the nanny. “All of us.”

“What’s going on?” Leon asked.

I put a finger to my lips, and the nanny quickly picked up Larkin.

“We’re going out the back door,” I said. “And we’re going to race to one of Daddy’s cars. Mrs. Becca will strap you in as soon as she can, okay?”

They both bowed their heads, falling into an unusual silence. I pulled Leon into my arms. We crept through the house silently, ducking underneath the windows. I had no idea if they had guns or other weapons, or if they were still on the property. I peeked around the back door. A guard laid face down in the dirt, a feathered poison dart in his neck. Had they killed all the guards?

A black SUV was parked right across the driveway, within sprinting distance.

“On the count of three,” I said. The nanny nodded back at me, her lips pressed together. “One, two, three!”

We scurried across, our footsteps trampling against the gravel.

“She’s getting away!” one of the board members shouted.

As soon as our car door shut, I put the car in reverse, zooming out of the driveway. I pressed the pedal all the way down. The car roared forward, and the nanny quickly buckled the kids in.

“Race faster, Mama!” Larkin cried.

“Larkin!” Leon shouted. “Not now! Stop yelling!”

A town car tailed us. A white-haired man sat in the front passenger seat.

Upchurch.

I called Finn on speakerphone and the ringing echoed through the car, then went to voicemail.

“Shit!” I yelled, slapping my palm on the steering wheel.

“That’s a bad word, Mama,” Leon said.

The twins kept chatting, and the nanny shushed them as best as she could, and I tried to think.

“Carter Care Facility?” the nanny asked, interrupting my thoughts.

We can take care of it from there,Finn had said.

But his guards back at the Carter Compound were unconscious or dead, and Finn wasn’t answering his phone. It didn’t seem like a good sign, and besides, it would be the first place the Marked Blooms Syndicate would check.

Oakmont.

I changed lanes. Oakmont was safe. Bunny wasn’t a security team, but she would never hesitate to shoot a man to defend someone she loved. I gunned the gas, but the town car rammed into my rear bumper and the whole SUV jerked forward.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Leon cried.

“Yeehaw!” Larkin shouted.

I sped up again, trying to get away from the town car, but no matter how far up the speedometer went, the town car matched our pace. I quickly glanced in the rearview mirror; the twins were silent.

“You all right?” I asked.