Page 166 of Serving the Mogul

I had to get out of here. The look in her eyes freaked me the hell out. Cecil might not be ready to kill for money or whatever was driving him.

Simone was.

* * *

The air in the small,closed-up room was suffocating. Sweat drenched me, and not just from the heat.

Cecil and Simone had remained in the other room talking. When the heat got worse, they moved outside.

The door was propped open. I could hear the occasional car in the distance but doubted screaming would help.

A weak breeze circulated through the adjoining rooms but did little to cool me down.

I could hear them talking, the low hum of their voices coming from just beyond the door.

I felt drained. I blamed the heat and dehydration.

Cecil had looked in on me once more, ignoring Simone as he gave me another drink of water from the half-empty bottle.

Wiggling and straining, I managed to get my bound hands down, then worked my legs until I had the zip tie in front of me. Time to see if those YouTube videos actually worked.

I almost whooped with victory when I freed myself. My wrists were raw from being scraped by the plastic, a minor price if it meant getting the hell away from here.

I tossed the ties into a corner where they wouldn’t be seen, then waited and listened.

Cecil and Simone were still outside. Okay. Easing to my hands and knees, I stood slowly, a dull headache at the base of my skull. Another sign of dehydration.

Spying the water in the bottle, I started for it, moving slowly at first, then rushing once they showed no signs of hearing me.

I downed the rest of the water, then looked around.

I needed a weapon.

My right foot bumped something, and I looked down.

That would be perfect. I grabbed it, still holding the empty water bottle. Just inside the door, I held a leg from the broken chair and listened as their voices grew louder.

I froze, not even wanting to breathe.

“Why are you being such a whinybitch?”

Simone’s voice had a tendency to rise in pitch when she was annoyed, so if anybody sounded like a whiny bitch, it was her.

“Simone, if you don’t stopyourwhining…” Cecil let the rest of the threat drop off.

My pulse leaped at the nearness of his voice and I glanced at the floor, searching for his shadow as an indicator of his position.

“I can’twaitfor this to be over with,” Simone said in a huff. “I had to be crazy thinking you’d be a good partner on this.”

“Crazy sounds about right,” he muttered.

The front edge of his shoe came into view. I tossed the water bottle to the opposite side of the room, hoping he’d move farther in to investigate the sound.

He did, his head turning toward the far wall instead of where I stood.

That brief delay gave me a chance to wind up and slam the wooden chair leg into his face. It shattered. So did his nose. He swayed, then went to his knees, crashing hard.

I doubled my fists and swung at his head.

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