Page 28 of Saved By the Rogue

Jaxon threw himself out of the window behind me, and I pointed toward the large garage that sat near the gate of the property.

"There, we can grab a car," I told him, and he nodded, taking off towards the building. I glanced around – I could see a couple of guards over by the door, but neither of them seemed to be coming after us. Why? Were they just letting us go? Didn’t want to wind up on the other end of his gun, didn’t think it was worth it? Maybe the men my father had hired weren’t as loyal as he thought...

No time to linger on that now. I shot out towards the garage and keyed in the code for the back door, my mother’s birthday. It swung open, revealing a fleet of sleek cars waiting on the other side.

Jaxon whistled through his teeth.

"Damn, this is some collection," he muttered.

"Which one’s the fastest?" I asked him. I had no idea how any of this worked, really, I just knew we needed to put as much distance between ourselves and this place as we could.

"That one," he replied, pointing to a silver sports car sitting at the far side of the garage. "Where does he keep the keys?"

"Here, I think," I muttered, pulling open a small cabinet beside me – sure enough, a collection of keys for all of the cars were dangling there, ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

"Which one?" I asked him. He nodded to a key with a silver charm on it that matched the one on the front of the car.

"That one," he replied. "Toss it here..."

I threw them to him and he rushed over to the car and started it up, pulling me inside. He drove forward a few inches, and it triggered the censor at the edge of the garage, the door reeling open slowly.

"Come on, come on," he muttered. I gripped his hand tight. I needed us to get out of here. I couldn’t let my father win, I just couldn’t. I had come so far; I had broken out of the grip he’d had me in over the course of my whole life – and I knew there wasn’t a hope in hell I could go back to it. He’d given me the chance, and I knew I wasn’t going to turn around and let him fit me back into the mold he’d forced me into all those years.

My breath was shallow as I waited for the door to unfold, but, finally, it did, easing back enough for him to slam his foot down and drive us out – but, blocking our way before we would make it back to the road was the heavy iron gate that cut the family mansion off from the rest of the world.

"Do you know how to open that thing?" he asked. I gritted my teeth.

"I think so," I replied, nodding to a large keypad beside it. "Usually one of the guards opens it, but I think I know the code..."

"Tell me, I’ll put it in..."

"I can be quicker about it," I replied, shaking my head and pushing open the door. "I’ll be back as soon as I can."

I sprinted to the keypad, hands shaking – and then, I heard voices calling my name. I turned to see a handful of guards rushing towards me, and my stomach dropped. I needed to move, and fast – one wrong move, and they would have me on lock. I wouldn’t be able to get out of here. I knew I couldn’t fail now; I couldn’t let this slip through my fingers.

I reached the keypad, but my hand was shaking so much I keyed in the code, my mother’s birthday, wrong – I cursed to myself, and the keypad beeped loudly. Shooting another look around, I could see they were getting closer and closer. One of them lifted a gun, and I ducked just in time to dodge the bullet he sent my way, letting it clang loudly off the metal fence behind me. They were trying to kill me now? My father must have given the order, not willing to risk letting me get away and spread the truth about him.

I forced myself to take a breath and tried the code again. This time, the keypad beeped happily at me, and the light switched to green.

"Get back to the car!” Jaxon yelled at me, and I rushed back towards him, keeping my head down, and practically launching myself through the open door and into the seat beside him. He slammed his foot down and sped out of the gate, leaving the guards firing in our wake. One of the bullets smashed into the back windshield, and it shattered across the back seat – but a moment later, we were gone.

Jaxon let out a whoop, as he looked in the rearview mirror and watched the place that I had once called my home vanish into the distance. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t fucking believe it. We had done it – we were out.

"Oh my God," I gasped, and a bubble of elation rose up inside of me. I couldn’t stop myself laughing. We had done it, we had really done it.

"We’re out, Star," he murmured to me, grabbing my hand and planting a kiss against my palm. His touch felt electric, with all the adrenaline pulsing through my body – I could hardly control myself, my whole system burning with excitement and relief. All of it already felt surreal to me, from letting the shot off against my father’s foot to smashing the window of the living room to get out of there. I had left that place in tatters, and I knew it would never be the same again.

And I knew that I would never be the same again, either. I rolled down the window, tipping my head back and letting the cool air rush over my face, letting it wash away the terror in my body. I had been faced with a choice, when he had told me to kill Jaxon, and I hadn’t let him force me into doing something I didn’t want to do. I hadn’t let him use me as he had used me my whole life. I had stood up to him, and I had proved to myself, once and for all, that I wasn’t the girl my father had raised me to be. I was more than that. A million times more than that.

And nothing he could do would ever take that away from me.

"We need to get out of the city and dump this car," Jaxon told me, as we drove. "Can’t let them catch up to us in this."

"He’s going to be pissed that you wrecked it," I laughed, but I truly didn’t care. I knew my father was going to have a whole lot of PR to do after what had happened – especially explaining why he was carrying a bullet wound in his foot. No way could he hide that since he was meant to be out on the campaign trail again. Everyone would see it. His reputation would be in tatters. Everyone would see him for the person he was, and I could hardly wait to see it all fall apart for him.

"I don’t give a fuck," he replied, grinning over at me. "I can’t believe you did that back there, Star. You’re such a badass."

"Badass," I murmured, testing the word out on my tongue. "You know, I think I like that."

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