"Damn it! The wall's too high. If I jump, I'll break something for sure!" Elizabeth threw open her bedroom window and peered down at the hard ground far below. How did it get this high?
"Your future husband is on his way. You should get ready, Miss Elizabeth." The guard's voice was flat, emotionless, like he'd said the same line a hundred times before.
She spun around so fast she nearly lost her balance. "I won't marry him! Stop treating me like a business deal!" Her voice was sharp, but her hands were already shaking so hard she could barely keep them still.
"Miss Elizabeth, open this door! If you don't, we're coming in by force!"
Crash! A blow slammed into the wood, making the entire frame rattle. Then another and another.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she scanned the room for an escape. Anything was better than being handed over to Angelo. The mafia boss her father had sold her to. She'd rather die than be his property.
Then her eyes locked on the bed and the desk beside it. A plan sparked to life in her head.
"Fine. If you want me so bad, come and get me."
She ripped open the wardrobe and grabbed a silk scarf. The one her mother had given her before she died. She tied one end tight around the doorknob. The other to the wardrobe's heavy door. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would buy her seconds. Seconds she desperately needed.
Next, she grabbed the crystal glass from her nightstand, a gift from Angelo himself and hurled it at the door. It shattered into a thousand glittering shards across the floor.
"Miss! What are you doing? The master will have our heads if you're hurt!"
She ignored them, snatching a utility knife from her desk drawer. With quick, sharp cuts. She sliced through, her bedsheet until it tore apart in her hands.
"Please work, come on." She tied the strips together, pulling each knot as tight as she could until she had a rope long enough to reach the ground.
From the other side of the door. The pounding grew louder. Thud!
She watched in terror as the lock plate started to pull away from the wood. Any second now.
"Hurry up!" She whispered to herself, tying one end of the makeshift rope around the bed's iron leg.
She tossed the other end out the window, watching it unfurl down the side of the house.
She slipped the knife into her pocket and gripped the sheet. Starting to lower herself down. The fabric was thin, but it held her weight, for now.
"Miss! Aarrghh!" The door burst open with a deafening crash. A burly guard stumbled through and screamed as his foot came down hard on the broken glass.
Halfway to the ground, she looked up to see three more guards flooding into her room.
"Where'd she go? Check the bathroom!"
"Empty!"
Their eyes swept the room, then froze on the window.
"Oh, my God! She's out there!" One of them lunged forward and grabbed the sheet, yanking it upward so hard she felt herself flying back toward the house.
"They're going to catch me!" Panic took over. She let go.
She hit the ground with a sickening thud. Pain shot through her knees and palms as she scraped against the gravel, but she didn't stop.
She pushed herself up and ran. Her leg already throbbing where she'd landed wrong.
"The master'll skin us alive if she gets away!" The guards shouted from above. Their footsteps thundered down the stairs behind her.
She ran as fast as she could, but her leg dragged heavily, making her limp badly. The grounds were huge, and she was running blind.
Until she saw it, a sleek red motorcycle parked near the front gate. Her only chance.
She reached the gate and fumbled with the latch. Locked. Of course it was locked.
"Shit!" She spun around, searching for a way out, and her eyes landed on a bulldog tied to a post.
A massive, snarling bulldog with a key hanging around its neck like a cheap necklace.
"No way. There's no way."
She took a slow step forward. "Come on. Good boy. Just let me get the key, okay?"
She grabbed a thick stick from the ground and tried to hook it around the key, but the dog bared its teeth.
Growling so low it rumbled in her chest. It pulled harder against its chain. It's eyes fixed on her like she was its next meal.
Just as the stick touched the metal key, Snap! The chain broke clean in two. The dog charged.
"Oh, my God! Help me! Get it away!" She screamed, scrambling backward as it lunged for her leg.
She had no choice. She dove for the gate, trying to climb over it in one desperate leap. As she hauled herself up, a jagged metal edge sliced across her arm.
Hot blood poured down her skin, but she squeezed through the gap anyway.
The dog latched onto her skirt, tearing a strip clean off as she pulled free and kept running.
"Elizabeth! Come back here! You can't run forever!" The guards were right behind her now, their voices so loud her ears rang. "Don't run! The master will be worse if you're caught like this!"
She glanced back to see them wrestle the dog under control, yanking her torn skirt from its jaws.
"She got away! After her, she can't be far!"
She burst through the gate and ran straight for the motorcycle. The rider was just twisting open a bottle of water. His helmet in one hand, visor flipped up.
Her throat was so dry it felt like it was on fire. Without thinking or asking, she grabbed the bottle and drank deep.
Draining half of it before she even realized what she was doing.
"Hey, Miss! What do you think you're doing?!" The rider spun around.
His face flushed with anger, but the second his eyes landed on her. He froze.
That's when she saw it, a tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve.
A gold rose with a dragon wrapped around its stem. The same symbol Angelo's men wore.
"Oh no. I just run straight into the enemy."