lently as it chewed through th

ng window, drifting in and out of a restle

ed over, but her lower abdom

is armored Maybach, his eyes bloodshot but victorious. He had crushed

Bryant ordered his dri

f the mansion. The head butler and three r

cked his

face pale. "The madam... she kn

orm cloud. He kicked the nearest guard in the

He saw the shattered glass, the blood o

ed it into the full-length mirror, sendin

n, and toll booth in New York!" Bryant

t through the hedges. Her phone pinge

had planned this, that she had outsmarted him,

justing his cuffs with bloody knuckles. "Hire the best privat

ed to a stop in a dying coal town nestled deep

ss Brenda had whispered to her during their last brief, unmonitored encoun

ood up and walked down the cracked sidewalk unt

pen the grea

ping down a beer glass

ce and the dried blood on her sleeve, the glass

losed', locked the door, and pulled Jan

es gave out. She collapsed into Brenda's

thing. The forced marriage, the pregnancy, th

tight. "That monster will never find you here.

lle to her secluded wooden c

g away the blood and the smell of the ci

r a cheap, plast

a said firmly. "From now

Ella' an under-the-table job making organic soaps in a sma

se in New York, Bry

t and vanished from her New York apartment weeks ago, rendering his 'detailed files' ob

ltrasound photo on his desk. Hi

ent vow to the empty room. I will