The Escape

Chapter 2

JACE

It was 4:15 AM, and I had just left the office after much paperwork. Usually, my secretary took care of it all, but she quit and moved to Europe to travel with her idiotic fiancé, who was cheating on her.
How did I know that? I background check all my employees at Dawson Enterprises, including their significant others. Plus, she blabbed about him constantly, which was evident because he was never around. Since my secretary left, work has been hell.

The street called Riverbed was dimly lit as I sped down it. I saw a dark figure move across the street and slammed on my brakes to find a woman in the street.

I stepped out of the car and yelled. "Damn, woman, watch out!"

The woman, undoubtedly underweight and small, seemed startled by my voice and maybe even my appearance. She was holding a child that was clinging to her for dear life. The young woman's eye was swollen and bruised. Seeing that made my blood boil.

"Get in," I said.

"W-What?" She stuttered, clearly alarmed by me. Maybe she thought I would harm her. Her trembling hands thought I would. I shouldn't have yelled, but I didn't know a young woman with a child would be crossing the street at four in the morning.

"I said get in." I climbed in my black Lamborghini and shut my door, then I opened the passenger and waited for the woman to get inside. Seeing as I was a stranger, I could tell she was skeptical, but she got in. It was forty degrees outside, and I knew she was cold. I could see her shivering. She had no coat, but the child did. I turned on the heated seat and the vents.

"I'm sorry if I scared you. That was not my intention."

Silence. "Are you warm enough?" I asked. Silence again. "I'm not going to harm you or her. I promise you. I'm not like that."

The woman moved and rubbed the child's back as she shifted her to her other shoulder. "T-Thank you."

"I'm Jace, by the way. You don't have to tell me who you are if you don't want to. I'm taking you to my penthouse in Miami." I glanced over to the woman and saw her eyes widen. "I come up here to Fort Lauderdale for work."

"I-I can't leave here. I-I have work in less than three hours," she said, her voice as soft as a whisper.

"May I ask where you planned to go at this time of night? And might I add, with a child in this cool weather?" I didn't receive an answer. The woman was silent again. "Look, I meant what I said. I'm not going to harm you. I'm only trying to help you. If I knew what was going on, it would help, but I don't."

More silence. "I only want safety for you and the girl."

"Y-You don't even know me," she stuttered.

"You're right. I don't, yet you're the one who got in my car, and you don't know me."

"You told me to get in the car, so I did," she said.

"I didn't force you. I said to get in the car twice. It's cold out, and there is no reason for a woman your size with hardly any warm clothes on and a child clinging to her to be out in this weather."

"I-" the woman cried and sobbed back to the penthouse. I didn't say anything until she was ready to talk to me.

Once at the penthouse, I opened the door for the woman and child. She followed me into the house, and I led her to the first bedroom on the right of the hallway.

"This is my guest room. Fresh sheets are already on the bed, and towels are in the connected bathroom. I'm in the bedroom straight down the hall if you need me. Goodnight."