Page 118 of Sinful Palace

22

Willow

“Areyou sure this is going to work?”

I stared at Jamie’s reflection in the bathroom mirror, pulse racing. He was standing behind me with a small pair of pliers, eyes narrowed with concentration as he worked at the supposedly-unbreakable clasp on my necklace.

He looked up when I spoke. “Try to stay calm. Everything will be fine.”

“You’ve only had a few hours to plan this,” I said, anxiously picking at a split end.

“I know, but trust me, getting you out of here tonight is the easy part. Keeping you safe and hidden from everyone afterwards… that’s the hard part. It’ll take a while to figure it out.”

“So you haven’t planned it all?” I asked, brows puckering.

Jamie held up a palm in a placating gesture. “I’ve done what I can so far, and I have some people working on a temporary safe house for you and your brother. It should be ready by the time we’re out of the city, and that’ll buy us some time to finish planning everything. When we’re done with that, we’ll head to the real safe house.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I’m just scared.”

“I know.” Jamie patted my back. “Take a deep breath and try your best to stop worrying. We’ll be fine. You bought some time with Logan, right?”

I held up my phone. “Yes. I texted him to say I ran into a friend of mine, and I told him we’re going to be gossiping in the bathroom for ages.”

“Good.”

“I said I’d watch the fireworks with him later, but that’s not for…” I paused and glanced at the phone to check the time. “Half an hour or so.”

“That’s plenty of time.”

“I hope so,” I murmured, looking down at the marble counter. I felt bad for lying to Logan, especially after everything he’d done for me lately, but I couldn’t face being a captive forever. I deserved better than that.

The clasp on my necklace finally gave way, and Jamie drew his hand back. “There you go.”

I took off the necklace and tentatively held it up, admiring the blue pendant and dazzling diamonds as they glimmered under the light. “It’s almost a shame to leave this behind,” I said. “It’s so beautiful.”

Jamie frowned. “You can’t think about it like that. It’s a symbol of captivity.”

I let out a heavy sigh and dropped the necklace on the counter. “I know. I just got so used to wearing it. I feel naked without it.”

“I understand, but you have to let it go.” Jamie raised a brow and held out a hand. “Phone, please.”

I handed it to him, and he ditched it in one of the toilets. “Okay, that’s done,” he said, returning to my side. “Now, let’s go through the plan.”

“Okay.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek as he pulled out several pieces of paper from his jacket pocket.

“I drew these little maps for you,” he said, handing one of the pieces to me. “Sorry about the terrible handwriting. You can still read it, right?”

I pored over the makeshift map. “Uh-huh.”

“All right. Here’s the plan. When we leave the bathroom, we’re going to head down to the lower basement level. We’ll walk fast, but not too fast, in case we run into anyone on the way. We need to look as normal as possible, so we don’t arouse any suspicions,” he said. “By the way, don’t worry about being followed by the Secret Service agents. I’ve sorted things out with them, and they won’t be bothering us for the rest of the night.”

I nodded. “That’s good.”

“There’s a storage cupboard in the lower basement level with a secret doorway behind it. It leads into the government tunnels.” He cocked his head to one side. “You’re aware of those, right?”

“Yes. The Order uses them all the time.”

“Right. Well, you’re going to head into the tunnels via that entrance, and then you’re going to follow the directions on this map,” he said, gesturing to the paper in my hands. “After you—”

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