Page 20 of Hidden Dane
Emily’s blue flats pounded against the train’s floor—the plush carpet was gone now that she’d raced away from the main cabins.
If she stayed in sight, Ted had already proven he’d come after her.
She made a tactical decision in her dash. Luggage was good. Luckily in her flight from the cabin, she’d avoided Ted, and finally she threw open the luggage compartment with rows of stacked suitcases, and closed the door behind her.
Her heart raced, but she needed to not be recognized. Ted knew what she was wearing and to blend into the crowd, later, she’d need new clothes as a disguise. And hopefully a hat. She scanned the stacks and found four bags that looked like ones she’d use and unzipped them.
The first suitcase had no clothes at all but was filled with old photographs of World War II.
Adrenaline rushed in her veins as the thought of being caught buzzed in her mind. She zipped the bag fast and opened another—rewarded with denim and cotton, but before she got too excited, she lifted a pink sweater meant for a child. Closing that suitcase, her heart pounded with the need to hurry. Emily hunkered down behind two larger pieces of luggage--snug but out of sight as she searched the cases.
Hurry, Emily.
Her trembling fingers pulled the clasp on the third bag and her shoulders bowed with relief—a black t-shirt, a pair of shorts that fit her, and a Red Sox baseball cap to hide her blonde hair.
She put her expensive outfit in its place at the bottom as she changed behind stacked luggage, then switched out her jewels—trading the real necklace and earrings for the fakes in her custom-made bra with special pockets.
Men laughed outside the luggage compartment. She held her breath but then the voices went away. Good. No one had come in. She had just put the bags back when her phonebeepedand she read,Emily can you get to the last car of the train?
She smiled, glad her phone was on silent, and glanced around the luggage car.
The room was still quiet as she texted back.Why? Are you here?
The dots on her screen made her feel wanted though that was silly. Dane wasn’t interested in romance and neither was she. They were there because Ted wanted to kill her for jewelry… better not think about that. She held her breath and ignored how she wished Dane might walk into the luggage compartment—as if she needed saving. He finally typed back.Henry and I are at the next station where you’re about to make a sudden stop.
The door to the luggage compartment opened. She ducked underneath some bags and hid out of sight. She didn’t move a muscle and lowered her screen on her phone to a dim setting. Footsteps echoed on the floor in front of her as she quickly typed out,How long do I have?
Sixty seconds.
She clutched her phone and heard the door to the compartment open again.
The last car on the train was too far, but she could get off and blend while she ran.
Michael always said that chaos worked as a distraction so she might need to cause a scene in order to escape, unless Dane had a plan already.
No one had ever rescued her before now, except her brother-in-law.
No footsteps echoed in the luggage compartment as she typed fast,I can’t but I’ll get off. Just wait for me.
You’re why we’re here.She moved the luggage and wiggled out of her cubbyhole.
No one was around. The train crawled to a stop as she typed,Now that reads sweet.
Hurry.
If only their relationship was normal—she remembered when Sophie had tried to tell her to think of Dane like a brother.
That hadn’t worked.
Luckily he’d left their house two months after he’d temporarily moved in, preferring boarding school to her family.
After his assumed father shot his mother and tried to have Dane murder his actual father, Dane had nowhere else to go. So for the summer, he’d moved into their new home where her sister Sophie acted like a second mother to her younger sisters. After he left, he’d only ever come back on holidays when he had no excuse or vacation planned. But in her senior year, she worked up the courage to ask him to take her to prom as she wanted no one else at her side.
The memories of how he’d given her his mother’s necklace, and for that night made her feel like the most wanted woman on the planet, she’d never been happier.
All of that had been a foolish girl’s dream.
Dane was still off limits, even if now he was coming for her. Her sister wouldn’t understand her and Dane. No one ever did, including her—she wasn’t supposed to want him.
