Delinquent by Emma L. Adams

Author:Emma L. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

I thought it was a trick at first.

In the space of an hour, everyone in the house had vanished. I’d stayed in my room, waiting for the sound of the front door closing. Waited another half-hour, just to be sure. It was quiet, and the house felt empty, which made no sense when there were never any more than five people here at a time. The empty rooms were background noise. This time, though, a smothering stillness lay over everything that wasn’t normally present.

I didn’t trust it. Not one bit.

I walked every inch of the endless corridors. Looked in every room. Though the house was quiet, the creeping sense of someone watching was as prevalent as ever. Someone always watched.

Not this time.

It was too dark, too hard to breathe. My reflection in the hall mirrors looked half-crazed, especially with the new bruises on my face and neck and the shadows under my eyes. My breath came out too fast, like something was draining the oxygen from the air. Breathe, Kay.

My heartbeat was the only sound in the deafening silence.

I checked the phones, just in case. They were all disconnected. A chill raced down my back. Even the staff had disappeared. Our house was miles out in the middle of nowhere. My house? No. Even though he was on another planet, he still owned the place.

And there was absolutely no way in hell I was staying here.

Think. I had to make a plan. I’d never really believed it would happen. Never believed the universe would let me walk away free. But if it was true…

Survival instinct won out. Leave while you can. If the universe throws you a lifeline, fucking take it.

I dug out an old hiking rucksack and began feverishly packing. It didn’t take long. I could have taken anything from the house, but the only luxury I cared about was the one I’d never had before: choice.

And then I was faced with a hell of a dilemma. I didn’t have a mobile phone. Or any change for a bus or taxi. He’d cut off my allowance months ago after the last time I’d tried to run away. Even if he’d gone forever–and I couldn’t count on that–I wasn’t allowed access to the Walker accounts before I turned twenty-one. If I had been, I’d have cleared out of here long before. His fortune was on another universe. I was stranded and penniless in a house worth as much as a small country, and there wasn’t much to do but laugh at the irony.

Think, Kay.

Sixteen was too young to join the Alliance. I could get a regular job, if I was lucky, but the few entry-level positions I’d actually qualify for wouldn’t be enough to pay rent, especially near London. And that was if I figured out how to get away from here without hiking six miles through fields in the middle of the night when the security was down. For all I knew, his so-called enemies were swarming outside the gates, waiting to get in.

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