Page 5 of Survive the Night
Someone knocked.
Dropping her hand from the handle, Alice backed away, staring at the door in horror. Who was it—friend or foe or, even worse, family? The knock came again, a sharp tap-tap-tap, and she realized with a jolt of surprise that it wasn’t coming from the door.
Whirling around, she stumbled back a step, swallowing a scream. A dark silhouette filled the window. Someone was outside, their dark-clad form just a few shades blacker than the night sky.
The lurker leaned closer, the dim light from the room illuminating his harsh features, and Alice recognized him. Shock gave way to disappointment mingled with fear. It was Mateo Espina, one of her brother’s colleagues, a man who was as firmly entrenched as Aaron in their criminal empire. Alice berated herself for building so much hope on the shaky foundation of an anonymous note. Of course there was no one willing to help her, not in her tiny world of liars and thieves and abusive assholes.
Mr. Espina tapped again. Outside her room, the alarms still shrieked, and the shouts were getting closer and louder. The man outside the window watched her, still and serious, and Alice tried to figure out what was happening. Why was he outside? If he was on her brother’s side, why sneak into her bedroom? She wondered if there was a chance, even a slight one, that Mr. Espina could be there to help her. Although she quickly shut down that thought, she moved toward the window. Dressed all in black, Mr. Espina stood on the ledge outside her window, over thirty feet from the ground.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Didn’t you get my note?”
With the window closed and the alarms blaring, she could barely hear him, but that didn’t stop her heart from taking off at a gallop. She’d thought she’d beaten down all hope, but there it was again, trying to break through her doubt. With enormous effort, she kept her expression blank. “What note?”
“Do you want to get out of here?”
Yes! her brain screamed, and she took an automatic step closer to the window, to the freedom Mr. Espina was offering. She pulled herself up sharply. Knowing her brother, it could be an elaborate trick, a test of her loyalty and obedience.
“I’ll get you out of here,” Mr. Espina said.
“Why?” The word burst out of her, revealing too much, but Alice needed to know. “Why would you help me?”
He pressed a small, creased photo to the glass. In the low light, it was hard to make out many details, but Alice could see that it was a picture of a dark-haired, smiling girl. “The Jovanovics killed my sister.”
Alice studied him, looking for any twitch, any tell that meant he was lying to her. There was nothing. He returned her gaze steadily, the picture still flattened against the window. In that moment, she made her decision. Maybe it was a trick, a cruel set-up engineered by Aaron. If it was, she’d take the punishment. It wasn’t worth turning down this opportunity, this possibility of escape.
Alice fumbled to unlock the window but then paused. Opening it would cause an alarm to go off. Mr. Espina made a hurry-up gesture, and she shook herself. With all the alarms blaring, no one would notice another one…she hoped. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she jerked open the window.
There was a quiet, repetitive beep. Alice knew she had four minutes. After that, if the correct code wasn’t entered into the keypad in Aaron’s office, the alarm would start shrieking. It might be ignored, since all the other alarms were also going off. It might not. It could bring Jeb or Aaron tearing into her room, catching her and Mr. Espina in the middle of their escape.
“Let’s go,” Mr. Espina said, pulling her out of her frozen fear.
With jangling nerves that worsened with each shrill beep of warning, Alice swung a leg over the sill. She glanced down at the narrow ledge and immediately jerked her gaze back up to Mr. Espina’s. The decorative molding protruded a mere six inches, not nearly wide enough for comfort.
“Hurry. We don’t have much time.”
Choking back her terror, she fumbled around with her foot until she had it planted as securely as possible on the too-small ledge. Inhaling a deep breath, she let it out in a rush as she swung her other leg over the sill. With both feet on the ledge, she felt a wave of dizziness rush over her, and she clung desperately to the edge of the window.
“Let’s move.” Mr. Espina covered her hands with his, detaching her desperate grip with ease. He shifted her hands over next to the window, where the stucco facade offered very little grip. Alice bit down on her tongue, holding back a sound of protest as she clutched at the too-smooth stone. Releasing Alice, Mr. Espina slid the window closed.
The dark made it harder for Alice to keep her balance. Flattening herself against the wall, she closed her eyes and prayed.
“Let’s go.”
She looked at him, confused. There was nowhere to go. Instead of answering her unspoken question, Mr. Espina wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her up.
She stiffened as the ledge disappeared from under her feet and the rain gutter appeared right in front of her. Automatically, she grabbed it, needing to hold on to something to anchor herself.
“Up,” he grunted, and she boosted herself onto the roof. A push from underneath sent her even higher, and she managed to get a knee onto the red clay tiles. Scrambling, she hauled her other knee onto the roof and crawled toward the peak. There was barely any sound over her shoulder, just the softest brush of fabric on tile, the quietest exhale. When she looked behind her, Mr. Espina was there, gesturing her forward.
The clay tiles were painfully hard under her knees, but she didn’t try to stand. The roof was steep and slick, and crawling was hard enough. Thunder rumbled as she made her slow way toward the first peak, and she glanced at the dark sky. If it rained, this would all get that much harder.
A tile cracked under her knee. She jumped at the sound and started to slide. Grabbing for a handhold, she caught a metal exhaust flue, bringing her body to a jerky halt. Alice paused, trying to catch her breath, looking ahead at the mountain she still had to climb. The thought that she’d have to make up those painful feet she’d lost in her slip made her want to cry, but she’d learned long ago that tears didn’t solve anything.
Clenching her teeth, she started to crawl again. Finally, she reached the peak. She hurried to throw a leg over before she started slipping backward again. Mr. Espina moved up beside her, turning so he was sitting with his feet out in front of him. Without hesitating, he pushed off and slid down the roof like it was a playground slide. As soon as he reached the valley between the peaks, he started climbing the next slope.
Breathing too fast, Alice forced herself to follow his lead. She turned so her feet were forward and slid down the slope. The tiles were painfully bumpy under her, especially as she started moving faster. By the time she reached the base of the next rise, Mr. Espina was nowhere to be seen. Fear built in her chest as she peered through the darkness, trying to spot his dark figure.
