Claire’s mind grasped at Eugenia’s words. They were going to move her. And once they left the house, Xander wouldn’t have any idea where to start looking for her.
“Where are we going?” Claire asked, instinctively tugging on the ropes that bound her wrists. “Where are you taking me?”
“Quiet,” Eugenia snapped. She turned to Jean-Philip. “Do it.”
She left the room without a backward glance.
Claire turned her eyes on Jean-Philip as he moved across the room, lifting something from the top of the bureau.
“You don’t have to do this. Please don’t do this,” she begged.
He came toward her, his hands cupped around something Claire couldn’t see.
“Yes, I do,” he said.
Then he opened his palm and blew, the gray powder dusting her face like snow.
She tried not to breathe it in, but it was a futile struggle. A second later she inhaled deeply, and the powder’s fine particles made their way into her body.
She welcomed the darkness again.
TWENTY-NINE
Claire woke up as they were dragging her through the courtyard.
Jean-Philip had ahold of one of her arms. The other one was held too tightly by a smaller man with an iron grip.
She guessed this was Herve.
Claire’s hands were tied behind her back, wrenching her shoulders into an awkward position that threw her off balance and made it hard to walk, even with the men on either side of her.
They hurried her toward the black Range Rover parked at the curb, both of them looking around as they left the courtyard to make sure they weren’t seen.
She wondered how long it had been since she’d been standing in front of Sasha’s with her bike. The sky was a deep blue, dark but illuminated by light in the distance. The temperature was no help. It was as hot and humid as it had been when she’d ridden her bike to Sasha’s, the darkness offering no relief from the punishing heat.
She could hear the hum of the car’s engine as they approached the Range Rover. Herve opened the back door, shoving her inside while Jean-Philip got in front.
Eugenia looked back at them from the driver’s seat before she turned around, putting the car into gear and easing out into the street. The locks engaged on the doors with an ominous thunk.
Claire tried to pay attention to where they were going, but after a while she realized that it probably didn’t matter. Wherever they were taking her, they didn’t seem concerned that she could see the route, which meant they probably weren’t expecting her to be around to tell anyone when all was said and done.
Eugenia didn’t speak as she turned onto the highway, and Claire watched in silence as they headed out of town, north on Interstate 10. At first, she tried to keep her mind busy by analyzing possible escape routes, but it didn’t take long to realize that her options were limited.
Unless they stopped the car en route to their destination, her only choice would be to make a break for the door on the off chance that she could unlock it and jump free while they sped through the darkness at seventy-five miles an hour.
Not exactly appealing.
She tried to calm herself by turning her head to the window, watching the broken-down houses and grim strip malls as they made their way farther out of town.
They passed a sign for Head of Island. Claire had a flash of Xander, sitting next to her in the Mercedes after they’d broken into the house on Dauphine, telling her he’d seen a map on the kitchen table. Now it all made sense.
Claire felt as far away from home as she’d ever been, even though they were probably only sixty miles or so outside of the city where she’d lived her whole life.
They drove without seeing another car in either direction, long stretches of forest broken only by an occasional trailer house or swampy lake.
After a few more miles, Eugenia pulled over to the side of the road. Claire sat up straighter, looking around and wondering if this was their intended destination. If it was, there wasn’t much in the way of landmarks. Just miles of trees on either side of the road and a small house up ahead that looked so run-down Claire wondered if it was even habitable.
She got her answer when Eugenia turned to Jean-Philip, next to her in the front seat.
“I’m going to call Max. Let him know we’re close.”
She got out and stepped around the car to the shoulder of the road. Pulling a cell phone from the pocket of her tailored jacket, she turned away from them as she put the phone to her ear. A minute later, she walked over to the car and tapped on the window near Claire.
Herve leaned over, looking at Eugenia through the glass. She gestured for him to come, and he got out of the car, joining her by the side of the road as she talked on the phone.
Claire looked around. This was her chance. Possibly the one and only chance she would have to escape.
Herve was gone, his mouth moving as he said something to Eugenia, still on the phone. Claire hadn’t heard the locks re-engage since he left, which meant the door was probably still unlocked. Jean-Philip was in the front seat, gazing out at Eugenia and Herve like that would help him hear what was being said between them and whoever was on the other end of Eugenia’s phone.
Claire didn’t know where she’d go once she was free. From the looks of things, she didn’t have a lot of options. But she could make a run for it, maybe hide in the woods until they gave up on her.
Moving around without being obvious was hard to do, especially with her hands tied behind her back. In such close quarters, every sound she made seemed magnified—her bare legs sticking to the leather seats as she tried to move, the faint squeak of springs hidden in the seat of the car, the rustle of her hair against her shoulders. It all seemed so obviously loud that she was half surprised to find Jean-Philip still facing forward when she finally had her hands lined up with the door handle.
She took one last look at Eugenia, still standing at the side of the road with her phone to her ear. She gestured with one hand, her dress billowing against her legs in the summer breeze. Herve studied her with concentration, trying to follow the conversation while only hearing one side of it.
It was now or never.
Claire moved as close to the door as she could, feeling around for the handle. Her fingers brushed against hard plastic, then cool leather, and finally, smooth chrome.
She pulled, almost falling to the ground as the door opened behind her.
Everything happened all at once. The brief stumble as Claire tried to right herself, already moving around the back of the car to the road. The look of shock on Eugenia’s face when she turned toward the noise and saw Claire moving away from them.
Then Claire didn’t have time to continue looking. She ran as fast as she could, her restrained hands making it difficult to stay upright as she moved toward the street.
She heard Eugenia’s voice behind her, barking, then yelling. But she didn’t have time to decipher the words.
She looked right and left as she crossed the street, hoping to see someone—anyone—coming from either direction.
There was no one, and she was forced to continue across the pavement, throwing herself into the forest on the opposite side of the street. She half slid down the muddy embankment, trying to keep her balance as vines and branches tore at her bare legs. There was a fleeting thought of snakes. Of alligators and spiders and other things that could be lurking in the wild ferns and shrubs growing low to the ground.
But it didn’t matter. She was more afraid of Eugenia—of Maximilian and what they planned to do to her—than she was of any creature in the swampland. She kept going, throwing herself into the forested gloom.