Page 2 of Heart of a Villain
“I don’t need anything,” he said, stroking her palm with his thumb. “I just wanted to touch what I own.”
Only the heavens knew how much she wanted to jam a knife through this man’s eye socket.
Slipping out of his grasp, she hightailed it to her living quarters, double-checked that she had all her fake travel documents in her go-bag, and waited an hour. Then, after confirming that the hallway was empty, she sprinted back down to the first floor where, in the rear of the kitchen, she met Alessandra standing in front of the oversized trash bin the servants pushed out each night.
Alessandra opened her arms. “Give me a hug before you go since you won’t be able to tell me when you’ve made it.”
After a quick but meaningful embrace, Alessandra helped her climb into the bin. Less than ten minutes later, she overhead Alessandra telling one of the staff to be careful because the bin was “heavy” due to the “extra food” from her dinner with the suitors.
A door opened and slammed shut.
The ground switched from smooth to textured.
Then, the bin stopped.
Sayeda peeked out from under the cover as the housekeeper returned to the mansion, where Alessandra stood waving a hand. The minute the shadows swallowed the uniformed woman, she climbed out and ran across the yard, avoiding lights and guard positions she’d studied for weeks.
At an unmanned section of the gate that wrapped around the estate, she tossed the bag over, scaled a nearby tree, and used a slim branch to lower onto the other side.
At the bottom, the branch broke.
But she wouldn’t need it again.
She snatched the bag up off the ground and didn’t stop running until she stood at the side of a long stretch of private road. A streetlight flickered, creating a glowing yellow circle around her overpriced sneakers.
The main reason she’d survived being on the run for so long was due to help from a man named Julien Hunter, who also went by the code name Atlas. She’d met him in person only once, but they’d chatted regularly over the years using encrypted text-based programs. But not even someone as skilled as Julien had been able to help her escape without the extra boost from Alessandra.
Cipher
Made it to road.
Atlas
Ride ETA 3 mins.
Home soon.
Julien and his brothers—so far, she’d met Lattimore, Pozza, and Nik—had saved her life twice, coming up now on three times. While she and Julien didn’t share many personal details on account of their succinct communication software, she knew he had a wife and two children. If Lattimore, Nik, or Pozza were available, maybe Sweden could be home with one of them.
Based on everything they’d done so far, it was a reasonably safe bet that they wouldn’t treat her like a thing or a possession—that they would do whatever was necessary to keep her safe. Plus, her first love had shown her that she could do well as a dangerous man’s girlfriend as long as that danger was never turned toward her.
Once in Sweden, she would also ask Julien about the woman he and his brothers kept saying she reminded them of.
A woman they called Eesh.
If she and Eesh resembled each other closely enough, and Eesh was interested, she wouldn’t mind being a “sister.” Older or younger didn’t matter, though she had a soft spot for the big sister role.
For much of her childhood, her cousin, Hannah, had cared for her like a younger sibling.
But Hannah was gone.
Two of the most important people in her life left her at the same time, Hannah killed by a bullet her very own mother, Hannah’s aunt, had authorized. The other, she hoped, was traveling the world, doing good and making a difference.
An unmarked sedan rounded the corner. She tightened her grip on the bag, her stomach in her throat, and headed toward it.
Suddenly, the driver slumped in his seat. Dark fluid splattered against the windshield. The hot nozzle of a pistol seared her forearm, and she clenched her jaw to suppress a scream.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”