Page 42 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 3

A Whirlwind of Color - Chapter 16

Friday

“There are a ton of cameras in this apartment,” I said as I stared at one of the two that were mounted in the kitchen. I had walked around searching for them, despite Melissa trying to distract me. “How many do you think there are total?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa said. “I don’t live here.”

“But if you could guess. How many do you think are in each room?”

“At least one.” She shrugged. “Maybe two or three depending on how big the room is and if there are any weird angles I guess.”

“Are there more than just two in here?”

“Penny, I really have no idea. I only see two.”

She was being very unhelpful. I wasn’t trying to hang out with her right now. This was no time for a girls’ night. I was in a life or death situation. Couldn’t she see that? I was busy planning an escape, which now seemed impossible thanks to all these stupid cameras. “Do you think James watches me all the time? Like when he’s at work and stuff?”

“No. I told you, they’re for security reasons. I doubt he ever watches you. At least not without your permission.” She winked at me.

Gross.“He just has other people look at me?” I lowered my voice. “There’s a camera in my freaking bathroom. You can get arrested for shit like that.”

“That’s only if you put a camera in a public bathroom…”

“That’s beside the point.”

Melissa sighed. “If you tripped and fell in the bathroom, you’d be happy there were cameras so you wouldn’t bleed out. Bathrooms can be very dangerous places. Just think of everything that could go wrong. Razor accidents, drowning, accidental choking by toothbrush.” She laughed, but I was no longer paying attention to her.

I bit the inside of my lip. She was right. Bathrooms could be dangerous. And she had just given me a brilliant idea. Or an awful one. Really it was just brilliantly awful. An accident would definitely draw the two security guards away from the front door and give me time to escape. Their sole purpose was apparently to protect me. It was devious and perfect and…impossible. But now that the thought was in my head, it wouldn’t go away.

I looked back up at the camera. I wasn’t even really upset about the cameras monitoring me at all times. It wasn’t like anyone was going to be watching me for much longer. I was upset because the cameras were an issue for my escape. The security guards were most likely watching me right now. I looked away from the camera.

My plan was already running wild in my mind. When I was little, I played an epic April Fool’s Day prank on my dad. The toilet in the downstairs bathroom had an issue with overflowing. SoI poured a cup of water on the floor outside of the bathroom and then locked myself inside. I screamed about the toilet overflowing and pretended to panic instead of letting my dad come in and fix it. He almost broke the door down. Needless to say, I never played a prank ever again because of how upset he got.

Melissa’s idea about bleeding out in the bathroom had given me a similar idea. I could pretend to lock myself in the bathroom and cause some kind of distraction that would draw the security guards away from the front door. If I hid downstairs, maybe it would give me enough time to slip out undetected. There was just one issue. The stupid bathroom camera. And all the other cameras. They’d see me walking around prepping everything and they’d also know for a fact that I wasn’t in the bathroom.Unless…

“I need to pee,” I said.

“Um. Okay.” Melissa gave me a weird look.

“I’ll be right back!” My voice came out weird and high-pitched.Stop it.I practically ran out of the kitchen to avoid her scrutiny.

I glanced around the bathroom. It definitely seemed like there was only one camera.This could work.All I needed was to move the camera. And get some kind of disguise.First things first.I began humming and started to pull down my pants like I was about to use the toilet, but then paused and stared at the camera. I shook my head like I was truly disgusted that there were people watching my every move. Which was easy to do, because I didn’t even have to pretend. I even gave the camera the middle finger for good measure.Please believe I’m just pissed aboutyou watching me.I climbed on top of the sink and pushed the camera toward the wall so that it was no longer monitoring the bathroom.

I walked over to the tub. I didn’t want to cause anyone distress, but I couldn’t think of a better option. It wasn’t like James would just let me walk away. There was an air of desperation around him. I felt bad for thinking it. I felt worse when I turned the faucet on in the bathtub and plugged the drain.

It probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only one I could think of. I had been in here long enough. They’d be suspicious that I had irritable bowel syndrome if I took much longer. I slipped out of the bathroom and glanced around the master bedroom one last time. There were definitely no cameras pointed at the bathroom door. I locked the door from the inside, and closed it as quietly as I could.

I didn’t know how much time I had, but it probably wasn’t much. The tub would overflow soon. And I needed to hide. I walked as quickly as I could out of the room and down the stairs.

“Penny?” Melissa said from the kitchen. “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”

“Sure. You pick one. I’m going to ask Josh if he wants to watch too.”Smooth.I ran to the guest room, knocked on the door, and opened it before he had time to answer.

“Um…hey, Penny,” Josh said as he looked up from his laptop. He was sitting on the bed working. “I heard Melissa ask about watching a movie. I’ll be out in a few minutes. Just gotta send one last email.”

“It’s freezing in here,” I said.

He looked back up from his screen. “Yeah? It feels fine to me.”