Page 23 of Nave (Henchmen MC: Next Generation #14)

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Lolly

It started with the doorknob.

Which is not the most exciting escape story, but nothing else that followed could have happened if I hadn’t been doing my daily cleaning chores that involved cleaning the doorknobs.

Per Ben’s usual devil-may-care attitude about disposable items, I had to use disposable bleach wipes to clean everything. In fact, I had to use a different wipe per surface. I went through one of those large bleach wipe tubs every day. And, yes, I had to clean every day.

It was no wonder Ben spent so many hours a day holed up in his office working. His disposable item habit had to get expensive.

Anyway, I was cleaning. And the schedule was, of course, from the top down. I used a wet mop (disposable, of course) to clean the ceilings, then did the windows, then it was cabinets, countertops, handles, and doorknobs.

It was a day just like any other.

Except the cleaning wipe got snagged underneath the door handle to the exterior door.

I knew not to react, not to get down on my knees and see what was there. The cameras were always watching, always analyzing my actions. Especially when it had to do with the only exit.

So I pretended to keep scrubbing while using my pinkie finger to explore the spot where the snag happened.

Sure enough, there was a hole. A little round hole.

At first, I figured it was where the screw was located. But the hole was completely empty.

Could it be… a keyhole?

Was there a key somewhere?

Could I actually escape?

Unfortunately, the hope died there.

For about six months.

Until, one day, Ben invited me to start cleaning his office.

It was a task that he had been in charge of since we’d moved to the glass house. But I guess he was tired of it. Or was too busy. He’d been spending more and more time out of the house, working some job that was making him more anxious and forgetful than usual.

Maybe it was being overwhelmed that had him inviting me to do even more chores. Or maybe he was learning to trust me because I had been taking Edith for long walks for months and I always came back.

Granted, it wasn’t like I had a choice.

He put something on my ankle akin to an ankle monitor. Only it was combined with a dog shock collar. So if I went beyond his border, the inner trigger would give me a warning buzz. If I didn’t immediately move backward, I got a shock. If I kept trying to go, I got harder and more constant shocks.

I’d tested them once, kept trying to go until the pain brought me to my knees, my whole body drenched in sweat from the pain.

The tracker was only put on me for the walks, but it absolutely worked as the deterrent he thought it would be.

Whatever the reason, I was granted access to a room I’d previously been forbidden to visit. I had strict instructions not to lift any of the covers that he had on top of his keyboards, but could clean all surfaces.

So I got to work, humming to myself as I cleaned.

It was in his top drawer that I found it. Nestled in a drawer organizer with all the various other items. If I hadn’t already discovered the hole in the doorknob, I never would have thought twice about it.

But it was the perfect size and shape.

What else could it be for?

I didn’t touch it that day. Or the next. Or the next.

I waited two whole weeks before I palmed it, making sure I left cleaning supplies in Ben’s office so I had an excuse to go back in and stick the key back before Ben could realize it was gone.

My heart had been in my throat, sure Ben was going to catch me on the cameras, was going to come home to, I don’t know, take Edith from me.

I’d rather die.

But I forced myself to go through my usual top-to-bottom routine. Until I got to the doorknob. Then I pushed the key in.

There was a click.

And the red light turned green.

It was a key.

I had a way to escape.

But I took the key back out, slipping it in my pocket until I made a show of looking for my lost cleaning supplies and rushed back to the office.

I wanted to leave more than anything.

But I wasn’t stupid.

I wouldn’t get very far without some money, without a plan.

So as much as some part of me was screaming to grab Edith and make a run for it, I stayed. I kept enduring. But my mind was never far from freedom.

It was the skipped period that had a sense of urgency overtaking me.

There was a clock ticking.

I couldn’t let Ben find out I was pregnant.

I couldn’t subject a baby to life with him.

So I got smart.

Ben always had large amounts of cash from jobs that he—literally—made me wash. It was a long, painstaking process because the linen paper was delicate. I shuddered to think how much cash we’d ruined in the process of trying to find a way to clean it so Ben felt comfortable touching it to use.

Which was how I knew that he would never notice some bills going missing.

So for about two months, I would wash, take, and hide money.

On top of that, I started very carefully stashing a few items of clothing for myself in the bathroom, where Ben wouldn’t see them. As well as some palmed handfuls of Edith’s food.

I hadn’t been ready to go the day I ended up leaving. I wanted to take at least two or three more weeks to stash away cash.

But fate had other plans.

“Make sure she does her business,” Ben warned as he opened the door for me.

“Why?” I asked, confused. She never went in the house.

“Because this is the last time she will get to go for the next twelve hours.”

“ Twelve ? She can’t hold it that long.”

“She will have to. Pick up her water and don’t feed her.”

That was just cruel.

But I knew better than to argue.

So I took Edith out, letting her take her sweet time, wiping her feet, then offered my leg to Ben to remove my tracker before watching Ben gather his things to leave.

When I heard the car start up, I moved toward the window, watching him drive away until he disappeared.

Ten hours.

He would be gone for ten hours.

I glanced at Edith, trying to silently tell her this was it, that today was the day.

I was a little jealous of her obliviousness as my own anxiety ratcheted up. But I forced myself to be calm, to look like I was just going about my day. In case Ben was watching as he left.

I gathered all my clothes and a blanket I was taking with me, sticking it all in the washing machine with my money, where I shoved everything inside pillowcases for easy carrying.

Then I gathered cleaning supplies and went into Ben’s office.

Where I hit the jackpot.

A stash of the cash I’d washed that he hadn’t used yet.

I glanced at the clock.

He’d been gone an hour and a half.

Hopefully, he was far enough away that he had no time to turn back and get me, even if he did notice immediately that I was gone.

I sucked in a deep breath, grabbed the cash and the key, then walked out of the office. Still pacing myself, still putting on a show for the cameras in case he missed the theft.

I went to the washing machine, sticking the cash in, then grabbing my pillowcases, picking up Edith, and making my way to the door.

I half-expected an alarm to ring when I stuck the key in, as I heard the click, as I watched the light go green.

But there was nothing.

Just a door that slid open.

Just a breath of fresh air.

I forced myself to walk carefully down the steps, not wanting to fall and crack my head open so close to freedom.

But as soon as I hit the ground, I ran.

Edith grumbled at first, but eventually just resigned herself to the discomfort as I forced my legs and lungs to deal with the pain as I tore down the woods just in from the road.

It felt like forever. It was probably almost two hours. But I finally made it to the main road.

Where I lucked into a kind stranger who was happy to drive me into the nearest town.

I bought a bag to keep Edith in and a bottle of water for us to share, then hopped on a bus.

I watched anxiously out the window, sure a car was going to speed up on us, that Ben was going to force the bus to stop, come on, grab me, and drag me back to hell. Where I would never get a chance to escape again.

But there was nothing so dramatic.

Just a long, bumpy bus ride into a much shadier town.

It was the perfect place to find myself a cheap car, though. And the guy who I bought it from was happy not to do any official paperwork in exchange for a hundred bucks over his asking price.

The car wasn’t worth it.

My freedom was.

So I paid it.

Then I used some more of my money to get food for Edith, to grab a hat and sunglasses for me. And maps. So many maps.

The rest, I tried to save for fuel and food. Though I ate almost nothing, too sick to my stomach at the idea of Ben finding me that I didn’t dare eat more than a few bites when I was feeling positively lightheaded.

The rest, well, it was history, wasn’t it?

I didn’t genuinely even process the concept of freedom until I found my way to Navesink Bank. I was too busy catastrophizing every possible scenario where Ben might find me.

Looking at a traffic camera.

On a security camera at a gas station.

Tracking me down to figure out exactly what maps I bought, where I was heading.

I didn’t have any reason to assume Ben would guess where I was going, that he would know about the promise made years before.

Even with the cameras all around, there was no way he’d heard Nave in his whispered promise to help me if I ever needed it.

It was that first night, sitting on top of Nave’s bed in the clubhouse, when it really sank in.

I did it.

I got out.

I was free.

And I was never, ever going back.

He’d have to kill me first.