Page 68 of Assassin's Mark
Chapter Thirty-Two
The pizza guy freaked when I jumped into his car, but the fifty dollars I handed him trumped company policy and got me closer into town. I used the rest of the money Remi had given me to catch a cab.
I hadn’t lied to Remi about Derrick being gone. Thursday was also an early night for staff. I had established that habit a long time ago, making that my one night alone—nostaff to commiserate with me, no parties to tax my nerves, just me and comfort food and a long soak in a hot tub. I made sure my light was off and the door closed before Derrick came home. A night of peace in a lifetime of demands.
Tonight I’d buy a lifetime of peace with one demand.
The one obstacle I wasn’t sure I could overcome was the security system. Derrick might’ve changed the codes,which meant he would get an alert if I entered the old one. But it was the only choice I had. I chose the back gate, with plenty of trees and bushes to hide me from prying eyes, though not from the security cameras. Derrick would know I betrayed him when he reviewed the tapes. By then I hoped to be long gone.
I entered the six-digit code on the keypad. When a green light flashed and the lockclicked open, I nearly sagged with relief. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the gate just wide enough to slip through, then closed it behind me. Thanks God we never had guards outside, or guard dogs. I’d known it was coming if Derrick won the governor’s race, but that would be at the governor’s mansion, not here. Here, Derrick preferred as much privacy as possible, so all the security was electronic.
Jogging through the garden felt…odd. I knew the place like the back of my hand—every flower bed, every hedge, every tree—but now it was the shadows that seemed unfamiliar. Sinister. Hiding Lord knew what. But they hid me too, so I stuck to them until they fell away at the back lawn. Knowing I couldn’t avoid the cameras, I walked then, trying to slow my breathing and appear casual for anyone monitoringthe security remotely. There was every chance they would contact Derrick at the club. But that still gave me a good half hour to find what I was looking for and get out.
The halls were darkened, as usual. The 5000-square-foot house was far too big for two people, and at night only the occupied rooms were lit. I navigated through the downstairs with the help of the tiny night-lights plugged inevery few feet. Each squeak of my shoes and creak of the floor made my nerves jump, but I did my best to ignore them as I rushed through the house. The entry to the basement was through the kitchen—the regular basement, not the wine cellar. One was acceptable for staff use, and one for a man like Derrick, which was why his coming in and out of the staff area when they weren’t around had caught myeye.
I had one stop to make first: Derrick’s office.
I hated this room. Every reprimand, every punishment, every sigh of disappointment saturated the walls, turning my stomach before I even managed to open the door. I walked to the middle of the room and stood there, in front of myfather’sdesk, the same spot I’d stood while he informed me that I’d be marrying Kyle Pellen. “Finally, all theeffort I put into you will become useful,” he’d said. Useful. I’d known he didn’t love me, that I was nothing more than a tool to further his social standing, but to marry me off to one of his staff like I had no right to an opinion on the man I’d spend my life with? Even now that betrayal gutted me.
It had also made me determined to escape. Which I’d done. Not the way I’d expected to, maybe,but…
The key to the safe was on Derrick’s ring, alongside the keys to the gates and garages and attic. I’d seen him carrying it each time he’d snuck in or out of the basement. The only problem? I’d never been allowed into Derrick’s office without him present, so I had no idea where he kept it. Each second that I searched ticked away to the drumbeat of my racing heart as I scrambled through papersand supplies and files. Finally, in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, my fingers closed around them. I heaved a sigh of relief as I hurried out, trying hard not to trip over my own feet in the process.
The kitchen was dark, a single light above the stove lighting my way to the basement. I grasped the doorknob in a sweaty hand, turned, and pulled.
A pitch-black staircase waited for meto descend.
I gripped the rail hard as I felt for each step. “Careful, Abby, careful.” The last thing I needed was a sprained or broken ankle keeping me from getting back to Levi. I hadn’t realized I was at the bottom until I reached out a toe and hit concrete instead of another step. The shock sent a sickening jolt through me that I breathed away as I stood, trying to orient myself, trying toremember where the light switch was. With the upstairs door closed, a glow from down here would hopefully be faint through the crack underneath. Hopefully.
I felt along the wall, found the switch. Flicked it up.
“Looking for something?”
My heart kicked so hard I nearly fainted.
“Well?” Across the room, Derrick stood from a chair positioned in front of the wall I knew held the safe. “Answerme, Abigail. What were you looking for?”
“I-I—”
“Don’t. Stutter!”
The shout shook me. The look in Derrick’s eyes, at once full of rage and then, like a flipped coin, cool and emotionless again.
“I didn’t spend thousands on making you the perfect hostess for you to stutter.”
No, even when faced with his rage, with a gun in his hand, I’d be expected to act with perfect poise. The perfect societyhostess. The perfect daughter.
To a killer.
“Fuck you, Dad.”
I saw him coming, barreling across the room, rage blazing in his eyes, but I couldn’t move. That same old fear, the same instinct that had always kept me statue still as a child, gripped me now, turning me to stone, keeping my hands at my side instead of coming up to protect my face as his fist blasted toward me.
The pain detonatedthrough my cheek like I’d been hit by a truck, not a man. Derrick waited till I hit the ground to kick me in the ribs.
And walked away. As if I was more bother than I was worth.
A trickle of blood hit the corner of my mouth—I reached to wipe it away. The cut on my cheek where the heavy gold fraternity ring he wore had broken the skin was the least of my worries. “Fuck you,” I said again.
