I laugh a little. “Now I know you never had her because if you had, you’d know it was worth every second. I can still taste her.” My words finally get the reaction I want as he lunges at me.
Releasing my hands from behind my back, I grab him by the throat, turning into him, and bringing him down so I land on top of him. With one hard jerk I slam his head against the unforgiving floor, the crunch of bone sounding in the room, blood spilling onto the floor, making a dark red puddle.
“God damn. That was my kill,” Hudson says, still jerking at his cuffs as they finally clatter to the floor.
“What did you expect ? I saw you over there fucking with your cuffs. What took you so long to get them undone? Losing your touch?” I tease.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the five blows I took baiting him before you even opened your fucking mouth.”
I feel a smirk play across my lips. Yeah, I might have done that on purpose. Knowing Hudson, I knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from running his mouth, and I knew I could steal the kill from him.
Grabbing the warden’s arm, I check the time on his watch. “We’ve got to move. We gotta get out of this place, and still have a two mile run to our ride,” I say, grabbing the warden’s baton and handing it to Ridge. “We go dark in ten.”
Using the warden’s keys, I pop the lock to the room, but only pull the door open a crack. And just like we planned, everything goes black.
Freedom.
CHAPTER SIX
CHARLOTTE
I feel like my toes are falling asleep because I’ve been sitting here so long. As I wiggle my toes to try to wake them, the doctor finally enters the room.
“Can I leave now?” I ask before he has a chance to say anything. I just need to get out of here. Like, now. I try not to fidget nervously, but I’m anxious to leave, and I can barely help myself. I need to move and I feel like the longer I sit here, the more danger I’m in.
“Everything on the rape kit came back negative for STDs but, being a physician, you know we can’t tell about the possibility of a pregnancy for a few weeks,” he says, ignoring my question.
I nod my head and look out the window, wondering how much longer I have to be here.
“You’re clear to go now. Do you have someone coming to pick you up? Maybe there’s someone we can call?”
“No,” I say quietly, and the doctor looks at me sympathetically. As he opens his mouth to speak again, there’s a light knock on the door and two guards enter. I recognize one as the guard who carried me out to the ambulance but I don’t recognize the other.
I start to shake, wondering what’s happening. They must see the look of terror on my face, because they don’t approach me. They just stand near the door, looking at me like I’m a deer they are trying not to spook.
“Dr. Fisher, we need to speak with you for a few moments if you’re up to it,” the stocky guard I don’t recognize says.
“Sure, but I’m really ready to get out of here, and I’m sure you can understand my need for privacy right now.” I don’t want to answer any of their questions. I just want distance from all of this.
“We do. We’ve already got your report of the incident, and we...” he pauses before saying what I know what’s coming, “...have video to corroborate your story.”
I feel an angry rage come over me as I think about someone watching the tapes, seeing me like that, but I clench my jaw, not letting it show. They’ve already seen too much.
After a moment of silence he continues. “We wanted to make sure you had a safe place to stay for a while.”
“My family has some land upstate and I’m going to go there for a while. I don’t know why I thought I could work in a prison, it was a mistake. Under the circumstances, you can take this as my notice I won’t be returning.”
“We completely understand.” He looks to the other guard and takes a deep breath. “Ma’am, we don’t want to upset you, but we thought you should know that the prisoners murdered the warden. And they have escaped.”
I feel my heart beating out of my chest at his words, and I try and get my breathing under control. “Oh God,” I whisper.
“We don’t have any reason to believe they’re after you. You were just a tragic casualty in their escape plan.”
I nod my head and put my face in my hands.
“We’ve gotten several reports they’re headed deep into hiding somewhere in Mexico. We just wanted you to be aware of the situation before you saw it on the news. We also wanted to offer our condolences on the warden’s passing. We know how much you meant to each other.”