Page 56 of Secret Revenge

Jonathan stared at me, calculating. I wasn’t making a very good argument, and I knew it; even if Travis died, Jonathan still knew how to find my mother and stepdad. But all I needed was for him to believe I was seriously thinking about his insane proposal.

I breathed slowly, and gave him a blank stare. Everything now depended on him believing me. If he decided I might go to the police, there was nothing to stop him from emptying his clip inside me.

“I did seduce him the first time, you know.” I squirmed seductively. “To get his fingerprints.”

“And then you fell in love?” Jonathan asked with mock tenderness, leaning across the table toward me.

“It took longer than that. I fell in love because he’sactuallya good man. You’ll see when you open those files. The other billionaires, though−if they’re not, I’ll have no problem doing the same kind of job on them.”

Jonathan looked thoughtful. Perfect. My heart was still pounding a mile a minute, but this was progress.

“Listen—” Jonathan continued, but was interrupted when his phone rang. He frowned at me and pulled the phone out of his pocket. He scratched his head with the barrel of the gun and let out a deep sigh, and then got up slowly.

He tucked his gun into his belt and picked the phone. “Don’t move,” he mouthed silently, covering the receiver with his phone. “Hello?”

Jonathan turned his back to me and faced the guardhouse door with a hand on his hip. “Maybe, maybe. The boss will want to talk to her himself, though. The stakes are too high. He’ll want to see her…”

This was my chance.

My hands were still unbound, and I considered making a lunge for his gun. But that would mean certain death if I couldn’t get the gun away from him before he fired it.

And then it struck me. It seemed so obvious from the first instant that it made me feel foolish. I swallowed the urge to laugh at myself for not realizing it sooner.

I tensed, my eyes locked on Jonathan, waiting for the slightest opportunity.. I timed his movement as he paced before me, his back to me. My heart raced in my chest, but if I was to have a chance of knocking him out, I had to move quickly.

“Sure thing. She’ll be here when he’s ready for her.” Jonathan said as he turned around. Seizing the moment, I slid the chair out from under me, ducked low, and swung upward with all my might, targeting his head.

His eyes widened in shock and he lifted his arms toward his head. This reflex meant hewasn’tfiring his gun at me, instead flailing to protect his face. The chair smashed against the side of his head, splintering with a loudcrunchas it made contact.

My arms trembled, reverberating from the impact, adrenaline coursing through my veins.I dropped the splintered remains of the chair. A sound like rushing wind screamed in my ears as Jonathan sank slowly to the floor, his eyes unfocused. His phone dropped from his hand and he collapsed in a heap beside it, as a thin pool of blood began forming around his head.

I stared at his prone body, shocked and afraid.

“Hey Jonathan?” A man’s voice crackled out of the phone in the silence. “What was that? Hey, are you there?”

Shit.

I grabbed the gun from his belt and tucked it safely in mine, and then took his knife as well. I searched his pockets for his car keys, before finding both the keys and the precious flash drive inside his jacket.

Hah!

Slunk out of the back door of the guard house and hid behind the small building, using it to shield me from the view of the larger warehouse.

The warehouse. Travis was in the warehouse.

Cursing, I slunk around the guardhouse until I was facing the dreaded warehouse. The place where Travis, and at least two of Jonathan’s guards, were waiting for me.

Go for help, Emily!My better judgment screamed at me.

I can’t. He might get killed trying to rescue me. That’s just the kind of thing he’d do, instead of trying to act for his own self-preservation.

The realization hit me hard, and I was running.

I ducked low, running for the cover of the warehouse a few yards away. I had no idea what the security was like, but I was certain that there would be at least two men with guards watching Travis.

I got to the warehouse wall without incident, and then started a slow circuit of the building. I looked for any traces of light, listened for any traces of voices. I peeped into windows as I moved in the darkness, but most of the rooms were dark and empty.

As I approached the far end of the western wall, I saw light spilling out of a window. I leaned closer to the wall and crouched lower as I neared the light.