Rabbit Hole (Romantic-Suspense)

Chapter 43: Escape

Chapter 43: Escape

3rd person’s POV

Alice stood still on her feet as Lennox walks away from the screen. Sighing disappointedly, he scratches his head and heads back to his suite.

“Argh, I shouldn’t have been too honest with her in that, I got too excited.” He said, groaning in regret.

Yet, as he walks calmly away from her door, Alice perceived it as her cue to start getting ready as fast as she can.

That despite how her body remembers Lennox’s touch from last night, knowing how she also took pleasure in it and know how at the same time her mind doesn’t like Lennox as a whole as he only rings the death bell to her. Alice tried hard to not waste any more time on pondering about how her body and mind reacts differently to it and instead, Alice decided to use that energy on preparing for her escape.

After changing on her clothes, put on hats and mask. She immediately grabs her other phone and leaves the one that Lennox’s hacked and used to traced her when she went to her aunt’s house. Assuming Lennox would do the same again, Alice thinks it’s best for her to leave that phone behind in her room. And so, before going out of her door, Alice checked on the time on her phone.

Seeing that it has not been ten minutes after Lennox left her, Alice understood that Lennox is still in his suite. Opening the door slightly enough to peek half of her body out, she glances back and forth from the elevator lobby to the fire exit’s door at the end of the hall.

Heart pounding, she thought.

This is really happening.

“Good, no Lennox around,” Alice mumbled. With no plan to spill the message from Mae’s clue, Alice is now resorting to the best and the safest route to get out of the building, from Lennox’s watchful eyes.

Then, glancing back on the elevator’s arrow—the moment she saw it going down anytime soon, she was torn half a second on hesitating to run. But thinking if she would have wait for it until it passed by, there’s a possibility that Lennox’s in it and hold her in her unit if he chooses to stand guard again just like a while ago—waiting for her chance to go out and search for Mae.

Decided, Alice sprints from her door to the fire exit’s door as fast as she can, she successfully gets out of the hall before the elevator door dings open. Revealing Lennox, who just blankly stares at her door that’s visible from where he is.

Running down the stairs with Mae in mind, Alice prays that what she thought about her clue is right.

“Please, please be there,” Alice uttered, running down in circles.

Landing down the basement parking, she couldn’t be more thankful for Lennox’s choice of a parking spot for choosing the open parking area just in front of the condominium towers’ porch.

Opening the door to sneak a peek around the parking area, Alice roams her sight around the cars parked and empty slots in it. Stepping out of the fire exit, seeing no one of the people who comes out of the elevator is Lennox to get their cars, she naturally walks out fast of the through them to the car’s exit gate into the parking.

Making it out, she then unhesitantly waves her arms out in the air to call one of the taxis that’s on their way along the road. Managing to call one’s attention, she hops into it and glances back several times around to secure her perimeter.

No Lennox around, good. She thought, glancing next to Lennox’s usual parking spot from her view inside the taxi. Still seeing Lennox’s bugatti’s parked there, she sighs in relief.

Good, now I have to maximize my time. Get a grip, Alice. You only have until lunch to be safe. To avoid Lennox’s suspicion, Alice decided to get back before he asked or visits her in her unit during lunch.

Knowing how Lennox tends to keep her on her watch, she knows, either is possible. And thanks to the last impression she gave off—

He’ll at least let me off the hook and not bother me until lunchtime. Alice thought inwardly and gave the driver an address she wishes to go to.

“Moscow bar, please.” She said, then, the driver started turning his wheels to the road leading going to her destination.

But just when they are about to take the last four turns, an accident happened making it harder to pass through the heavy traffic. And so, before getting stuck in it, Alice advised the driver to just take the long road. It doesn’t matter if it’s longer than where they are, what’s important to her now is to not get stuck in the traffic which she won’t be sure about until when they’re going to get to her destination.

Then, turning back again, passing by the roads they took a while ago and passing by her condominium’s tower. Alice checks out the window if Lennox’s car is still there as she checks the time on her phone.

As expected, his car isn’t there anymore.

“Tsk,” she hissed, feeling like she lost time she could have used in meeting Mae longer. However, knowing she could not turn back time anymore she sighs and sits still.

--because if I can turn back time, I’ve traveled back several years to avoid ever meeting that psycho’s gaze before ending up in this sticky and tanged situation. Alice thought, thinking she’s stuck in the spider web now.

Dang it, just how did his obsession start?! How in those four years?

…wait, tsk damn it. Those four years aren’t even accurate. She thought thinking she only assumed those years because of Dove’s letter.

If Dove wrote those letters four years ago…then he knew Lennox, but how? Who is he to Lennox? Damn. I need that another jerk to solve this puzzle. Alice thought, putting Dove on her priority list in mind after Mae.

Checking on her gallery’s phone, where she manages to transfer all the necessary details from her other phone which she left in her condo, she came across the picture she thought a creepy stranger would send to allow her to discover what Mae was doing.

But, fortunately, the time Alice thought she was wasting in brooding on all the unanswered questions in her mind came answered in time as her gut feeling developed from scratch since it has been hard to suspect Lennox at first.

He manipulated everything—making me feel all trapped and helpless without him from the illusion of an unknown person. Right then, she remembers how Lennox acted unaware of who sent her the pictures.

"The most important thing is none other than the anonymous person who sent the pictures to you. If you ask me that person shouldn't be overlooked. Who and why did that person do that? Is that person helping? Hmm, I don't think so. Because if that person is helping, shouldn't he told you this issue much earlier?"

“Asshole,” Alice uttered, swiping on every picture Lennox had sent her that night. Realizing the pictures had been sent to her right after he left her in her unit that night, frustrates her most.

“Why didn’t I—ugh,” Swiping on irritably until her eyes caught another series of pictures, she paused and froze.

“Damn,” She uttered as she thought she won’t be surprised anymore but after seeing the pictures caught from her previous apartment by a stalker who died in the prison.

She trembles and gasped.

I thought seeing another of his doing in the past won’t get me anymore—but it’s truly different on seeing how things are done, especially it has already happened behind my back.

Alice thought, thinking of how the stalker which Clyde assumingly hired to stalk her. While being sure that it was Clyde who hired that man, the person behind that stalker’s death not wavers her suspicion towards Clyde.

[Just now, my secretary has sent me a text saying the stalker has been killed inside the prison—the police suspected that he had been killed in sleep.] Recalling how her father reads the message he received from his secretary to announced the stalker’s death inside its prison cell, fear started crawling up, as Lennox’s inviting voice echoes in her.

No, chill, Alice. He won’t just kill you, you still have her in your arms—then the realization that she still has not any single clue on what Lennox liked about her in the first place struck down her confidence.

Aside from knowing he liked lavender so much; Alice has not yet figured the whole content and extent of his obsession. Then, suddenly, what Lennox said just this morning, flashes through her ears.

“You don’t need to worry about them.” Picturing how Lennox dropped those words with a slight smirk on his face, sends a chill on her.

Dang, how could I not think about them now?!

What happened to those girls he slept with before?

Where are those girls now?

What’s with lavender that got turned him on so much?

Were those girls and I share the same smell—then, remembering how Lennox sniffed from her nape when they first met in the elevator brings back the familiar feeling from her nape.

Brushing her nape with her hands to shrugged the feeling off, she shut her off for a moment and breathe in and out a heavy sigh.

Chill, Alice. You have made it this far.

If she killed those girls when he finally got bored of them, then be different. Don’t make him bored of you.

And when her taxi’s going to pass by along the road in front of Lennox’s firm building, she glared up through her window to Lennox’s panoramic window of his office right at the top of the building.

Sharpening her eyes, she gathered her courage and thought—I will never make you had enough of me until I get on top of everything, Lennox.

I’ll bet anything just to get even with you.

I swear, I’ll gain more than enough in living in with you.

She thought, determined to dig deeper, not contented with the Lennox’s obsession with lavender. As she thinks of the way to pull its roots out of the ground until all his secrets are exposed.

I’ll make you realize, I’ll stand out from the girls you invited to your room. So different that it’d make you regret inviting in a curious cat in your den.

Eyeing upon Lennox’s office until the building’s not anymore visible, as the taxi she’s riding continued driving, flowing in the fast traffic, she pressed her lips tights and get back from praying Mae and her aunt is safe.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Lennox who was at his office looking at below the road through his window caught a glimpse of Alice inside the cab looking fiercely at him.

“Sorry, what did you just said?” Lennox asked George who was at that time reporting what he had just found intriguing about Mae and her mother’s case paused.

“Sir?” George asked. Then, Lennox blinked and massages his eyes.

I must have been missing her so much to a point I can see her anywhere. He thought, still on cloud nine, from what happened to them last night.

“Sorry, I got distracted. What were you saying again?” He said, turning from the window and looked at the pictures presented on the table, which George brings in with him from his tasks.

“Mae Libu, along with her mother, Mary Libu, was seen last two weeks ago in front of this church. But since then, it has been hard tracing them. And upon investigation, one of the shop owners near that church said that they saw two of them with a man but when asked what were that ladies names, the shop owner gave different ones.” George said as Lennox examined the pictures with of them with a man caught through CCTV footages.

And even though the man kept his back facing the camera and blind spots, Lennox instantly recognized his cousin, who he has been searching every nook and cranny. Exhilarated, he smiles wider which was far from the smile he was just making just a minute ago when he was thinking of Alice—but now, with his smile across his face, hangs a different reason.

Thrill and blood lust, oozes from his sinister smile, that even George feels suffocated in an unimaginable pressure. Cold in his feet, he stood still and remain composed, but his pounding heart and sweats from his temples say otherwise as it contradicts his calm composure.

“Hmm, doesn’t this look and smell familiar to you,” Lennox said, grinning devilishly looking at the scattered pictures of the man on his table with thrilled wide-open eyes that made George gulped.

That even if he’s not Lennox target, all his senses are telling him that Lennox isn’t someone to bump your fist into, seeing him in this state many times in years—he still couldn’t get used to this, as if every time he does this, George always feels on the shard end edge of the cliff.

Nonetheless, he knows that even if Lennox is a psychopath, he’s still someone worthy of loyalty.

“Alright, things are getting more exciting now that’s the rabbit is joining the hunt,” Lennox added, feeling thrilled to finally catch the rabbit that has been hiding in the maze from him.

Clenching his hand in a fist, he crumpled the pictures. “So, what were the names they are using now?” Lennox asked, pertaining to Mae and her mother.

“Her mother changed her name into Adele and Mae into Lavender…” George stated, as according to all the people who saw and had a little chat with the ladies, these were the names they used to introduce themselves.

Yet, the grin the flashes on Lennox’s face fell on his cold face. Thinking it is his cousin, Dave Astor’s way of provocations and declaration he’s alive and back.

“Ah…so now, that sly rabbit’s telling me to catch them, huh?” He uttered, staring blankly at the pictures showing the three of them eating in a restaurant.

“Make sure Alice won’t find out about this.” He added instructing George to hide every detail he got and nodded.