Zara waited until the hall went quiet, then knelt at the door with a steel pin pulled from her jacket hem.
The first tumbler gave. Then the second. Seven minutes was the whole escape.
The hall was empty. Below her a guard's chair scraped, and a television mumbled over it.
She carried her boots so her heels would make no sound on the wood.
The service door had a keypad. She popped the cover and crossed two wires, and the bolt buzzed open.
Rain hit her face. It felt like a hand pulling her out of the house.
The garden was all water and black leaves. The side gate sat in the wall like a mouth.
Ten steps. Eight.
Saverin: Going somewhere, Zara?
He stood at the gate like he had been waiting all night, rain running off his shoulders.
Saverin: Seven minutes on a Bellandi lock. Fastest anyone's ever cracked one in this house.
She bolted. He caught her wrist and pulled, and her shoulder hit the gate post hard.
His fingers closed on her upper arm until the muscle burned.
Saverin: That was the last time you run from me.
Boots slapped the wet gravel. Ennio came through the hedges with his gloves already on.
Ennio: Boss. Look at that. Little cunt was halfway out the gate.
Ennio: Should've had her on her knees in that room. A cock in her mouth and she'd have sang.
Tullio laughed like it was the best joke he had heard all year.
Saverin let go of her arm and turned around slowly.
Saverin: Ennio. Come here.
Saverin: Say that again where I can hear it, and I'll break your jaw and leave you in this rain.
Ennio's mouth shut. Tullio found the wall very interesting.
Saverin: You think this gate is a door out. It is not.
Saverin: The city will eat you alive, Zara. You want to hear what is waiting out there?
Saverin: My uncle has men asking at the port about a woman in a locksmith's jacket.
Saverin: They would take you to a basement and pass you around until you told them where the money went.
His voice was quiet and flat. She believed him.
She had seen what men like that left of people who owed them.
Zara: So I should stand in your pretty cage and say thank you.
Saverin: You should stay alive. Everything else is a fucking luxury.
She caught his wet collar and dragged him down.
Zara: Shut up for one second.
She kissed him hard, teeth first. He made a rough sound and kissed her back.
His palm slid under the hem of her dress, flat on her bare thigh.
He pushed higher, and her pussy went slick and stupid, as if it had never heard a word he said.
Saverin: You kiss me when you are running. What the fuck is that, Zara?
She had no answer that would keep her dignity.
She broke away with her hand flat on his chest and her breath coming in pieces.
Zara: That is me deciding something. Not you.
His hand came out from under her dress slowly.
Saverin stood in the rain and watched her walk back to the house with her chin up.
His hand still smelled like her. He closed it into a fist until the knuckles ached.
Saverin: Ennio. Speak to her again and I'll cut your tongue out tonight.
She climbed the service stairs with blood drying on her lip.
The door of her room stood open. No lock clicked behind her this time.
She would have given anything for the sound of a key.