Free Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) by Rebecca Pond, Rebecca Lorino Page B

ahead with her plan.
    After he left again, Emma went to get dressed in some of the clothes that he had brought to her. Digging through the bag, she pulled out a pair of black yoga pants, a pink t-shirt, socks, bra, and underwear. She wanted to be comfortable while crawling through the vents. A little further digging revealed her tennis shoes in the bottom of the bag. After dressing quickly and putting her hair in a braided ponytail, she went into the kitchen to find some sort of tool that she might be able to use to pry the vent covering loose. She found a large knife and a mallet that could be of use when she wedged the knife under the vent.
    Back in the bathroom, she climbed up on top of the vanity with her tools and went to work. Surprisingly enough, the cover came off with very little resistance and a slight pop. “Yes,” she said out loud. She put her tools of escape out of the way on the counter then carefully tried to pull herself up into the vent. Unfortunately, she was a bit too short to get a good enough grip on the slick metal walls inside the vent to fully pull herself up. She was breaking a sweat now with the effort of trying to get up and was looking around the bathroom for something that she could stand on to boost her up. The evidence of the vent cover being off was obviously going to give away her whereabouts, but she could only hope that it would be hours before Brylon decided to come back for the night. She jumped down off the vanity and went into the bedroom to look for anything she could use to stand on. She couldn’t find anything there so she went into the living room and looked around.
    “Aww, come on, there has got to be something around here that I can use,” she spoke out loud as she made her way around the room. Turning around in a circle again for another look, she was almost at her wits end. Everything in the living room was too big to put on top of the vanity. With her hands on her hips, she went to lean against the wall that she thought was behind her, but was surprised to find that the wall had swung open causing her to stumble backwards.
    “You have got to be kidding me, Emma. Why the hell didn’t you think about his office before now?” She went into Brylon’s office and the lights automatically switched on. She laughed out loud when she saw the bookcases filled with books, books that she could use to stand on. She rushed over to the nearest shelf and pulled off as many of the books as she could carry and headed back to the bathroom.
    She carefully stacked the books, one on top of the other, and then climbed back up on top to reach her escape route. She stepped carefully on to the top of the stack while holding on to the sides of the vent hole. The books wobbled a bit as they shifted under her feet, but managed to stay stacked. She was more than waist high now with the help of her makeshift step ladder so pulling herself up the rest of the way was going to be a breeze.
    She leaned forward and braced her hands on either side of the walls in the vent then jumped. The books that were under her feet slid out from underneath her and crashed to the floor. She was kicking out her legs to help her get the top portion of her body to slide further into to the vent while walking her hands along the walls. Finally, after one last kick, her body was all the way in the air duct.
    She rolled over onto her back to catch her breath and rest for a moment. She stared up at the silvery steel ceiling that reflected her image back to her. She laughed at the image she saw staring down at her, “I am so crazy to be doing this. Shit, I didn’t think about bringing a light.” She bit her bottom lip as she thought about leaving the vent and returning to Brylon’s rooms in search of a light to bring with her. “Too late now,” she rolled onto her hands and knees then proceeded to crawl further into the ductwork. It wasn’t as small as she had thought it would be on the inside, she actually had room to