Free Perspective (An Exposure Series Novella): Exposure Series Book Four by Annie Jocoby Page A

“Asher, what happened?” I felt silly trying to talk to him, because he had a gag on, but I took off the gag. “What happened?”
    “CJ, thank god,” he said. “Listen, you have to get me out of here as soon as you can. And then we need to get the hell out of here. Now.”
    I nodded my head, but I had no idea how to get him out of those handcuffs. “How, how, how…” My first thought was to call the police to get him out of there, so I got my cell phone out.
    “Don’t do it,” he said. “I know that you want to call the police, but there’s no time, and it will just cause more problems.”
    “I don’t understand,” I said, but I knew that this was probably by design.
    “Viktor Kazakov did this,” he said. “And he’ll be back within the hour. He was called away to attend to an emergency situation here in town, which is the only reason why he’s not here right now. So, you have to get me out of here as soon as possible.”
    “Okay, but how can I do this?”
    “A bobby pin,” he said. “Or a paper clip.”
    “A paper clip,” I said. “I’ll go down to the front desk and get one.”
    “Hurry.”
    At that, I ran down the stairs, not even waiting for the elevator. I found Ellen again. “Hello,” I said. “And thank you again for letting me into that room. I need a paper clip.”
    She handed me a paper clip and gave me a look. “How are…. things?”
    “Don’t ask,” I said, shaking my head. “It was horrible.”
    She nodded her head. “I know. I’ve been there, believe me.”
    “Thanks,” I said, and then dashed over the elevator. “Hurry up,” I said, not wanting to run up the 10 flights of stairs to his room. “Hurry.” I pushed the button, again and again, as if that would have actually helped the elevator actually get there faster. “Hurry.”
    The elevator finally got on, and I got on there with a woman and her child. The child proceeded to push every single button, and the mother scolded him. “Henry, what did I say to you about that?” she asked. “I’m so sorry. He always does this.”
    I nodded. I knew that I had to get up there soon, and I definitely didn’t have time for the elevator to stop on every single floor. So, I got off on the second floor and cursed the little brat under my breath.
    The elevator arrived again, this time with nobody on it. I prayed that nobody would get on.
    My prayers were answered, and I got off on Asher’s floor and ran down to his room and opened the door. “Okay, I have a paper clip. Now, what do I do?”
    “You fashion this into a key,” he said. “And please hurry.”
    “How do I fashion it into a key?”
    “I can tell you, or you can look it up on your phone,” he said. “You better look it up on your phone so that you can see the pictures.”
    I nervously got my phone out and looked it up. I felt slightly confused looking at the WikiHow page, and my hands were shaking. I tried to shake the cobwebs out of my brain, but it was very difficult to do so. I had a difficult time following instructions in the best of times, and it was almost impossible right at that moment to try to follow these directions. But, somehow, I did.
    After what seemed like forever, I finally was able to fashion a key out of the paper clip, and, to my surprise, the WikiPage actually did help me get the handcuff open. It popped open, and I almost jumped for joy.
    “Great,” he said. “Now the other wrist.”
    I worked the other cuff the same way, and that cuff popped open as well.
    “Okay,” he said. “Now let’s get out of here now.”
    At that, the two of us ran for the stairs and zoomed down them in record time. When we got down the lobby, however, Asher held me back. “I need to peek out this door to make sure that Viktor is not around.”
    He opened the door, and peeked his head out. He turned to me. “Okay, let’s move,” he said, and the two of us walked rapidly through the lobby. Asher was already on his phone, calling his limousine.