Page 111 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“Yes.” At least, I hoped so. He was living in my house. That had to count for something, right? “Why does that matter?”

“Because Reed would date crazy, but he wouldn’t date stupid.” She dropped her hairbrush and hurried across the room. “Okay, let’s do this.”

“We need to unscrew the nozzle thing.” It was tight, but panic strengthened my grip and I managed to twist the canister free of the rubber pipe.

“You really think this’ll work?”

“I hope so. What’s the worst that can happen?” She glanced across at the hairbrush, and I realised I’d said something really, really stupid. “I’m so sorry. If you want to—”

She grabbed one side of the canister. “Just get it over with, okay?”

Three…

Two…

One…

Shit, the crash was louder than I anticipated. But a dusty hole opened up, just wide enough for a person to crawl through.

“Get in there!” Emma gave me a shove.

Don’t think about the spiders, Kim. Or the rats. Or the beetles.Freaking heck, I hated spiders.

I scrambled inside on my hands and knees, and several decades’ worth of detritus tore at my skin.

“Hurry up!” I yelled at Emma.

But footsteps came running, and all I got in reply was a scream. A hand grasped at my ankle, but my skin was still slippery from the shower, so Peter couldn’t get a grip.

“Go!” Emma yelled. “I’ll hold him off.”

I almost turned back when she screamed again, but my head fought to overrule my heart and won. What if we never got another chance at escape? A hiss followed by a decidedly male shriek made up my mind. Did Emma just attack Peter with a can of hairspray?

Another shout came. “Don’t stop!”

Into the darkness I went, desperately trying to ignore the cobwebs and whatever just skittered over my leg as my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. A sudden panic gripped me—Josie said these passages were well built, but what if the roof had fallen in? When was Prohibition? The 1920s?

Then I rounded a corner, and when a faint glimmer of light showed, I almost cried with relief. Daylight. For the first time in a week, I saw daylight.

I fought my way through a prickly bush and found myself in a wooded area, surrounded by twiggy undergrowth. Too late, I saw a stray, dead leaf clinging to a twig and realised where I’d ended up. Right in the middle of a patch of poison freaking oak. Even in winter, the stuff could be vicious since the oil was in the stems too—I’d found that out as a child when a walk in the woods with my mom went very, very wrong.

To paraphrase Reed—oh, fuck.

I leapt to safety as quickly as I could, but the itching started almost immediately. Where was I? I looked around, but all I could see was trees, trees, and more trees. Was there a road nearby? If Peter had brought Annie and me here in a car, there had to be. How many motorists would stop for a wild naked woman with wet hair and blistered legs?

Only one way to find out.

I stopped to listen for a second, but I couldn’t hear any traffic, only the wind as it blew through the bare branches above. Which way should I go? I didn’t even have a coin to flip.

A deer ran past, and I followed. What was it I’d heard on the Discovery Channel? If there’s a fire, always follow the animals. Well, there may not have been any flames, but there was certainly danger.

“Hey, Bambi. Wait for me.”

I stumbled forward, the chill air nipping at my exposed skin. I’d have given my Hermès Birkin bag for a blanket right now. Or a pair of tennis shoes. The ground was littered with twigs, and most of them seemed to be covered in thorns.

Bambi disappeared, but I kept going. How long did it take for hypothermia to set in? I couldn’t have been out for longer than ten minutes, but the shivers had started already. This was a nightmare, pure and simple. I was naked with a deranged diplomat chasing me, and all I knew for certain was that I was in Virginia.

Then I heard it.

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