Winter Break by Kayla Perrin

Author:Kayla Perrin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Chapter

Twenty

AS QUIETLY AS I COULD, I stepped onto the toilet seat. Terrified, I knew I couldn’t afford to make a sound. Drawing in a deep breath, I held it.

A stall door opened next to me. Greg?

My lungs began to burn, but I didn’t dare breathe.

There was some shuffling, then a moment of silence. And then the sound of someone urinating.

Another woman. It had to be.

But I had to be sure. Silently getting off of the toilet seat, I peered beneath the metal wall. The feet I saw were decidedly female—in low-heeled sandals with bright red toenails.

Only once the woman in the stall flushed her toilet did I do the same. She exited her stall, then I exited mine. If Greg was following me, my only chance to escape him was to have someone around as a witness. He wouldn’t dare harass me—or worse—in the presence of someone else.

The woman, probably in her late thirties, smiled at me as we both approached the sinks. She was wearing a strapless black evening dress that stopped just above her knees. I returned her smile, hoping that I looked cordial, and not utterly terrified.

And once we were both done washing and drying our hands, I followed her out of the bathroom.

Terror gripped me as I did, the fear that I would run into Greg more intense than anything I’d ever experienced. But, thank God, the hallway was empty.

The woman went to her right, heading upstairs. I followed her, not daring to go anywhere else.

When the woman reached the top of the stairs, she went into the main dining hall. After a quick glance around to make sure Greg wasn’t in the vicinity, I went to the next stairwell that led up. At least there were people around on these decks, unlike at the library.

My heart was still beating a mile a minute when I sat on a lounge chair near the pool, where I’d promised to meet Jolene. Still no sign of Greg. A number of people were milling about, both in the pool and out, so I felt safe.

For the moment.

* * *

I was never more relieved than when I saw Jolene appear on the pool deck. But my relief was short-lived when she shook her head as she approached me, silently letting me know that she hadn’t seen Drake.

Jolene sat on the lounge chair beside mine. “Short of searching all the individual rooms, I looked everywhere, and I didn’t see him at all.”

“Me neither.” I worried my bottom lip. “What should I do?”

“If you’re really concerned, then you have to report him missing. But if you think he’s maybe passed out in someone’s room, well, you could wait a while.”

I didn’t speak. I wasn’t sure what the best course of action was.

“What does your heart say?” Jolene asked me.

“That something’s wrong.”

She gave me an odd look, and then she said, “You’re scared. Did something happen?”

I groaned, dragged a hand over my face, and then told her about Greg.

“Are you sure he was following you?”

I thought of how I hadn’t seen him in the hallway when I was running to escape.

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