Don't Fall in Love in Witness Protection

Chapter 26: The Rescue Mission

C H A P T E R  ( 2 6 )

Charlotte had never felt anything like the burn in her legs and chest as she pushed herself. Her heart was beating so erratically she wished momentarily she'd taken a few cardio classes at the gym instead of yoga.

Max and Eli didn't seem to having a problem at all, in fact they were taking turns dropping back to run with Charlotte, pulling her hand along behind them. Both boys knew the maze pretty well, even in the faint light from above, barely lighting the pathways ahead of them, they turned each corner with ease and purpose.

They slowed down towards the middle of the maze, the three friends with their backs to the hedge breathing heavily, their eyes darting around alert.

'We can stop for a minute, here we can see both directions for at least thirty meters,' Max heaved spluttering the words as quietly as he could.

Charlotte sank to her knees in pure fatigue, 'I can't believe I dragged you both into my mess, I'm so, so sorry.'

'This isn't the place Charlotte,' Eli shook his head at her. 'We need to stay strong, alert and once we're safely away from this freak you can make it up to me.'

She frowned up at him, this was not the time for suggestive comments!

Eli grinned down at her as Max chuckled, but they both sounded more than a little weary.

'So how can we be sure he's followed us into the maze and isn't waiting for us to come out?' Charlotte whispered to the boys from her spot on the ground.

'We can't be sure,' Max replied taking his phone out of his pocket. 'We'll have to plan for both scenarios.' He took his phone out of his pocket again swearing softly, 'I'll never get service in here!'

'It's done specifically to stop people cheating in the maze,' Eli shook his head. 'I'm so regretting that idea now,' he groaned closing his eyes for a second in frustration.

'Don't feel bad about it,' Charlotte rolled her eyes. 'You hardly designed the maze.'

'Well actually...'

Charlotte raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

'Eli's family pretty much donated Winchester Heights, including the maze. They developed a crap piece of land that no one used and made it a community area,' Max explained.

'I designed the maze with my father, it's why I'm not always so keen to go through it.' He paused sheepishly no doubt remembering the first time Charlotte wanted to do it and he completely shut her down in front of everyone. 'It bores me.'

Charlotte's mouth was wide open, 'Well fuck.'

Max chuckled, 'It's so much dirtier when you swear Charlotte.'

She blushed glad for the dim light, 'I just...there's so much I don't know about you Eli, you constantly surprise me.'

'Well maybe you should stop making snap judgements on people,' he teased.

'You can have your lovers tiff when we're safely out of here,' Max scolded them lightly.

The plan was simple.

Charlotte wasn't sure if it would actually work but it was the only shot they had. They huddled in a grove of the maze right near the entrance, Eli and Max's arms each held a large rock they'd collected along the way. The plan was for them to throw the rocks as far as possible in the opposite direction, into the maze to make it sound like they were in there. Hopefully it would lure Gold to the sound and they could make their escape out the front, up the stairs and out the cars path of Winchester Heights. They didn't have a car so it would be a bit of a run, but the adrenalin pumping through all their veins was making it a lot easier.