Chapter 6 - Escape Through the Alley
Adrenaline surged through Lily’s veins. Years of living paycheck to paycheck had taught her how to react in a crisis, but nothing could have prepared her for this.
"Who's out there?" Lily whispered frantically, her eyes darting toward the front door as the metallic scraping grew louder.
"Marcus’s men," Clara breathed, her voice shaking violently. "When I left the estate, I was followed. They must have tracked my car's GPS."
The deadbolt turned with a heavy thud, and the door began to push inward.
"Move!" Lily hissed.
She grabbed Clara by the sleeve, dragging her toward the back of the apartment just as the front door swung open with a crash. Heavy footsteps thudded onto the linoleum floor of the kitchen.
"Clear!" a deep, gruff voice shouted from the living room.
Lily didn't hesitate. She threw open the window of her cramped back bedroom, shoving the painted-shut wooden sash upward with all her might until it jammed open with a loud crack.
"Go! Out the fire escape!" Lily ordered, boosting Clara up onto the sill.
Clara scrambled through the opening, her designer heels slipping on the rusted iron rungs of the exterior ladder before she managed to catch her balance. Lily snatched the wooden box containing her mother’s papers off the nightstand, shoved it into her backpack, zipped it shut, and slung it over her shoulders.
Footsteps rushed down the narrow hallway toward the bedroom.
"Over here! The window’s open!" a voice roared inside the apartment.
Lily vaulted through the sill just as a heavy hand grabbed at the back of her shirt. Fabric ripped loudly, but she twisted violently away, tumbling onto the freezing metal landing of the fire escape.
"Run, Clara, run!" Lily yelled.
The two women scrambled down the steep, zigzagging iron stairs, the rusted metal groaning under their weight. Below them lay a dark, narrow alleyway filled with overflowing dumpsters and puddles of freezing rainwater.
As they hit the bottom of the ladder, a beam of harsh white light cut through the darkness above. A security operative leaned out of Lily’s bedroom window, pointing a heavy flashlight down at them.
"There they are! After them!"
Lily grabbed Clara’s hand, pulling her into a full-out sprint as they plunged deeper into the maze of downtown alleys. The cold night air burned their lungs, but neither of them dared to look back. They rounded a sharp corner, ducking behind a row of commercial brick dumpsters just as heavy boots thudded past the mouth of the alley.
They crouched in the freezing shadows, listening to the hurried shouts fade away down the street.
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Clara was hyperventilating, her hands pressed tightly over her mouth to muffle her gasps. Lily sat beside her, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She unzipped her backpack, her fingers brushing against the silver locket resting against her collarbone.
They had survived round one. But they were running out of time, and Marcus Bellamy was closing in.
