Page 134 of Last Chance

Janie rubbed her shoulder joints to increase the blood flow and ease the ache, then surveyed the room. A door stood ajar to the left. Closet or bathroom?

Gripping the hilt of the knife, she rose and crossed the room to the door. Pushing it open, she peered inside a small bathroom. Janie examined the door. No lock.

She scowled. Of course not. Besides, from the looks of the aged wood, one good kick and the door would fly open.

The room had a window facing the back of the building. If she was lucky, guards assigned to the compound would focus more on the front rather than the back.

Janie wished she had Sawyer’s knowledge of all things security. What if the compound had security cameras stationed around the area? Unless the cameras were blindingly obvious, she wouldn’t notice them. She’d have to be fast and hope the guards were slow.

Next task. Could she escape this building? Her hand tightened around the knife hilt. No other option if she wanted a life with Sawyer.

In case a guard looked up at the bathroom window, Janie stood to the side and eased aside the curtain just enough to see outside.

She studied the options. Few. No convenient tree grew right outside the window. No ladder left against the wall.

Janie crossed to the other side of the window and looked for an escape route.

Nothing.

She could try to jimmy the lock on the door and escape downstairs, but how soon would the Reyes cousins return to the building? They might catch her.

For that matter, she didn’t know if a guard had been left inside the building to make sure she didn’t escape. She had to decide soon or risk having someone discover she’d escaped the zip tie with a knife.

That meant she had two choices. Try to unlock her bedroom door and take her chances of being caught inside the building or escape through a window.

Door first, she decided. If she couldn’t escape that way, she’d have no choice but to go out a window despite her room being on the second floor.

Janie returned to the bedroom and walked to the door. She listened for a moment to be sure no one was standing guard right outside the door. When she heard nothing, she gently twisted the knob. It didn’t give.

Sawyer’s knife had been handy with the zip tie. Wonder if it would work on jimmying a locked door? Only one way to find out.

After another moment of listening for any movement outside the door, Janie slid the blade between the door and the jamb’s striker plate. She drew the knife down until it bottomed out on the door latch. She swept the end of the knife and slowly pushed the latch inward, working until the bolt slid out of the jamb.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Janie pulled open the door and peered into the hallway. Clear.

Hoping she wasn’t making a huge mistake, she pulled the door to her room closed. The latch caught. So, whatever happened, she couldn’t retreat to the room for safety. Hopefully, the locked door would slow down the Reyes men a few more seconds and give her time to find a hiding place.

With quiet steps, Janie made her way downstairs to the first floor. So far, no sounds to indicate she had company in the building. Excellent. If her luck held, she’d escape.

And then what? The question stopped her in her tracks. She couldn’t march into the compound. How would she escape into the countryside?

Not only that, Janie didn’t have a clue where she was. The Reyes cousins had driven her miles off the main road to reach this compound.

One thing at a time. She’d figure it out as she cleared each hurdle. First thing to do was get out of this building before the Reyes cousins found her and locked her up again without Sawyer’s knife.

Janie walked to the back of the building, trying to stay away from windows. She grasped the knob of the back door.

Gunfire erupted in the compound.

She froze.

A second later, Janie heard someone shove a key into the lock at the back door. She scrambled back and raced from the kitchen and collided with Lorenzo Reyes.

He scowled, gripping her arms in a painful hold. “How did you get out of the room?”

Behind her, Matias said, “Later. If you want to keep her, get her out of here.”

Keep her? Panic exploded inside Janie. She had to get away from Reyes. Distraction. That’s what she needed. “What’s going on? Who’s shooting?”