Chapter 3 - The Broken FortressEvery security camera on the Lawson estate was state-of-the-art, but Sophie had spent six months cleaning the security booth. She knew the blind spots—the places where the thick rhododendron bushes blocked the lenses near the eastern perimeter wall.
Huddling Leo close to her chest, she slipped through the gap in the iron fence where the concrete had crumbled.
Her rusted Honda Civic sat parked under a flickering streetlamp a quarter-mile down the road. It looked like a piece of junk compared to the armored SUVs that usually lined the Lawson driveway, but tonight, it was a sanctuary.
She unlocked the door with trembling hands, placed Leo on the passenger seat, and cranked the heater to high. The engine roared to life with a pathetic sputter, but it held.
“Leo, look at me,” Sophie said, her voice shaking as she took his face in her bleeding hands.
The boy was staring blankly at the dashboard, his chest rising and falling in shallow, rapid breaths.
“We have to play a game,” Sophie whispered, trying to force a smile through her panic. “A very quiet game. No one can know we’re in this car. Can you do that for me?”
Leo slowly turned his head. He looked at her ruined, bloody hands. Then, very slowly, he reached out and touched a cut on her palm.
“Vivienne,” he whispered. His voice was a thread of glass. “Vivienne gave me the juice. Then the box.”
A cold fury settled deep in Sophie’s bones, replacing her fear. "I know, baby. But Vivienne can’t touch you now. I promise."
Before she could put the car in drive, the headlights of a massive black SUV swept across her rearview mirror. It was exiting the main gates of the estate, moving slowly, searching the dark road.
Vivienne’s personal security.
They had realized the boy was gone. Or worse, Vivienne had gone back to check her work.
Sophie killed her headlights. She kept her foot on the brake, holding her breath as the heavy SUV crawled past the entrance of the dirt turnout where she was parked. For three agonizing seconds, the world was nothing but the sound of the rain on her metal roof and the thrum of a diesel engine outside.
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The SUV kept moving, turning left toward the highway.
Sophie waited until its taillights disappeared around the bend. Then, she shifted into drive, pulled onto the road without lights, and drove in the opposite direction, leaving Newport behind.
