Page 64 of Take My Crown

“He what?”

“He knows how important you are to me. Whatever happens, he’ll take care of you.”

“Okay.” I bite my lip as I consider everything he says. “If I can’t free you, I’ll go to your father for reinforcements. One way or another, I’m going to get you out of here.”

I quickly peck him on the lips one last time and leave. Five rooms later, I find Declan and Romy in a room and I nearly sag with relief.

I rap on the window.

“Hey guys!”

They both rush over and open the window.

“Ivy! Thank God you’re okay,” Romy whispers. “We heard your dad’s creepy aide talking outside our room about how she enjoyed pushing you around. We were so worried.”

“She’s all talk,” I say. “For all her threats, I don’t think she would risk damaging me in case my father thought she had gone too far.”

“I mean this in the nicest possible way, but your father’s a complete psycho,” Declan deadpans.

“That’s what I told him,” I grimly reply. “He’s got some crazy scheme to take over the town and pinning the blame on someone else. I don’t know what he’s got planned for the three of you, but whatever it is, it won’t be good.”

“So Archer’s still alive?” Romy asks.

“For now,” I say. “And I’m assuming that my father has a reason to keep him alive a while longer, otherwise he would have just let him die and not had the doctor remove the bullet. Whatever that reason is, it won’t be good though.”

“I hear that,” Declan nods. “Can you get us out of here?”

“I don’t know where you are in the house. My father never let me leave my room apart from when we threw that party. I can’t find my way around without getting lost and with all the guards he’s got stationed everywhere, they can find me at any time.”

“What about if you are able to get the bars off the window?” Romy suggests. “We can just climb out.”

“No chance. They’re not going anywhere.” I tugged on the bars, but I am surprised to see brick dust floating down. “Hang on a minute. They’re not as solid as I thought. Maybe if you push from that side and I pull from here we can get them out together.”

Romy and Declan start banging on the bars while I tug at them, bracing myself against the wall to get more leverage.

“We’d better stop,” Declan holds his hand up. “We’re getting a bit too noisy.”

I look around for something I can use as a lever and spot a metal pole lying on the ground not too far away.

“Hold on a sec.” I get the pole. Placing it near the base of the loose bar, I braced myself against the wall again, pulling with all my might.

“Cough,” I say to Declan. He coughs to cover the noise I was making as I yank on the pole and suddenly the bottom of the bar broke free.

“Can you squeeze out if I push the bar to one side?” I ask. “I don’t think we can risk pulling any of the other bars out. It’s too noisy.”

“I can try.” Declan climbs up onto the windowsill. It takes a little bit of wriggling around, but he finally gets his head and shoulders through. I help pull him out, as Romy pushes him from the other side until he is finally free. Then it is Romy’s turn. Slightly smaller than Declan, it is a little easier for him to escape.

“Archer’s just over here,” I tell them, picking up the pole to use it to free my other boyfriend.

Other boyfriend?As we race to get Archer, I realise that I have strong feelings about all three of the boys and if I read them right; they felt the same way about me. Maybe we weren’t dating exactly, but there is definitely something here we are going to have to work out when all this is over.

With Romy and Declan’s help, we are able to get the bars loose pretty quickly. We have to be extra careful because of Archer’s injuries, but it isn’t long before the four of us are standing outside.

“Okay, guys. You all need to get back to your families and tell them what really happened,” I say. “My dad’s already spreading lies about what’s going on, so if he finds out you’ve escaped, he’ll be coming after you all guns blazing.”

“The garage is over there,” Archer points. “I know where the keys are kept. We can all go together–safety in numbers.”

“Good call,” Romy agrees. The four of us run to the garage, well Archer more like fast walks. I half expect someone to sound the alarm at any moment, but luck is still on our side and nobody seems to notice we are gone. I guess the security guards are having too much fun with their card game.

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