This is it, she thought. But at the same time, Luke threw himself in front of the window, in front of Eliza, like a human shield, and as her father’s bullet hit him, Luke fired back.
In an instant, her father was on the ground, blood spilling out around him.
Eliza only stared, her body shaking. She was alive. What had just happened? Luke grabbed her father’s gun and ran back to the window. His shoulder was bleeding, but Eliza was watching her father, waiting for him to say something. Her father always had the last word. But not this time. The man who had terrorized her and held her captive since she was nine years old didn’t get up.
Didn’t move.
“Come on.” Luke climbed out the window and started to hurry across the grass. As if he wasn’t in pain and he hadn’t just been shot by her father. He looked back at her. “Keep up, Eliza.”
She ran as fast as she could. She had no choice. As they reached the stairs, gunfire came from the side of the house and bullets whizzed near them. She was going to die, they both were. But then different bullets rained down from the helicopter still overhead and someone on the ground cried out. After that the shooting stopped.
“Go, Eliza!” Luke ran behind her as she took the stairs.
She saw the children ahead of her, trying to run in their terrible gowns. Get in the bus, she silently screamed at them. God, get us to the bus. And then finally in a blur they were all on board. Luke took the seat next to the driver and as the vehicle started to move, Eliza stood and counted.
Sixteen girls. They had all made it out alive.
Eliza shook as she sat down. What about Luke? Blood was soaking his dark blue shirt. Was he badly hurt? Eliza couldn’t worry about him. She looked out the window as the white wooden porch of the Palace disappeared from sight.
Her father was dead.
The gunfight had taken only seconds, but now here they were and her father wasn’t going to hurt any girl, ever again. The bus drove onto a skinny road and then onto a grassy cliff, where it parked close to the edge. And suddenly something occurred to Eliza.
Since she was first brought here, this was the only time she’d been off the Palace property without a gun at her back. She stood and motioned to the girls. “Come on.” The young teens hurried from their seats, scrambling down the aisle.
Rosa put her hand on Eliza’s shoulder as she rushed past. “Thank you.”
Eliza nodded. They were the best words she’d heard in eleven years.
Even before she stepped out of the bus, a helicopter was landing, the largest one Eliza had ever seen. Two men in helmets and full military gear jumped out and began lifting the girls inside. Then one of the soldiers saw Luke and he shouted to someone in the aircraft. “Help! He needs a medic!”
A different soldier from inside the helicopter helped Luke up and moved him toward the back. At the same time, Agent Terri and the others on Luke’s team helped the girls into two rows of seats facing each other.
Eliza sat three spots from the rear, where a man was working on Luke’s shoulder. Four of the girls were quietly crying, but most of them just looked shocked. Poor girls, Eliza thought. She’d never seen them cry. Crying wasn’t allowed at the Palace.
The sound of the helicopter filled the air. One door was still open, but the men in uniform sat at the edge, their feet dangling out, guns aimed at the ground. Like they were ready to fight anyone who tried to hurt them.
Eliza closed her eyes. Her head was spinning, trying to get her mind around so many details. Her life at the Palace was over. Her father was dead. And she was overcome by the fear that had been her constant companion since she met Luke.
Heart-stopping, unbridled fear.
In all her years at the Palace, when darkness fell and Eliza was alone, when she knew what was happening to her friends down the hall, Eliza had never felt afraid. Sick and angry, yes. But she knew how to handle that, too. She would simply close her eyes. And in a single moment she would not be alone in her princess bedroom.
She would be in Lower Barton Creek with her mother and brother, Daniel. The sun would be shining through the dense jungle palms and she and Daniel would be playing with the other children. And Mama’s voice would sing across the open fields, the way it had called to her every afternoon when she was little. “Lizzie James, dinner! Bring your brother!”
“Yes, Mama!” And Lizzie would look at her mother standing in the distance, long brown hair blowing over her shoulders, those light blue eyes like Lizzie’s. And she would grab hold of Daniel’s hand. “Let’s go! Chicken pie for dinner. Your favorite.”
Or was it rice pudding?
The memory had faded and changed over time, like someone had taken an eraser to the lines. But when she put herself there, back in one of those beautiful Lower Barton days, Eliza could forget what was happening all around her. What the other girls were going through.
Eliza wasn’t afraid, because if one of the guards killed her, she would go to be with Mama and Daniel. Even now she could hear her mother.
Of all God’s gifts, her mama was saying, you two are my favorites.
But she couldn’t find those memories now. Not with fear grabbing at her throat and making it hard to breathe. What was going to happen to her? Would they put her in jail for her part? Where would she live?
Eliza opened her eyes and looked at Luke. The man in the uniform was still tending to him, working a roll of heavy gauze under his arm and over his
