Chapter 139: Pleasure in watching her from the glass

"Impossible," Mia said softly as she slid out of her car, which was still parked at the back of the house, out of sight of the glass wall at the front and sides, where Neil had told her to stay.

She had watched in movies where the actors would start a car without the keys by just joining some wires together, but she hadn’t the slightest idea which of the wires she would pull from beneath and start the car. Now, she’d given up on using the car to escape.

Shivering uncontrollable, she bent down and began to gather up the armload of pine branches she had collected and raced through the wind and snow to the side of the house earlier. For the entire fifteen minutes that she had been outside, Neil had remained at the glass wall, watching her like an expressionless stone statue.

The excuse she’d given him about gathering branches and other things needed for the snowman had enabled her to vanish from his view for a few minutes at a time without rousing his suspicions, exactly as she’d hoped it would, but she was afraid to be gone too long. So far, she had made three short trips of increasing duration, returning each time with pine branches after trying to start the car without keys. She was counting on the hope that he’d soon decide she was actually idiotic enough to spend her time building a snowman in freezing weather, and he’d grow bored with his guard duty.

Raising her arms, Mia pulled the thick winter cap she had taken from the closet down over her frozen ears, then she began to roll the bottom ball of the snowman’s body, while she reviewed her remaining alternatives for escape. To try to escape on foot would be suicidal insanity in this weather, and she knew it.

Even if she didn’t get lost trying to get down the mountain, she’d likely freeze to death long before she reached the main road. If by some chance, she did make it, she’d surely die of exposure before any car came along. On the way here, they hadn’t passed another car for the last two hours. The possibility of finding out where he’d hidden the keys to her car seemed equally remote, and she couldn’t start the car without them.

"There has to be a way to get out of here!" Mia said aloud as she pushed and shoved the ball of snow closer to the pile of pine branches. There was a padlocked garage at the back of the house, which Neil had told her was used for storage and thus couldn’t accommodate her car. Maybe he was lying, he was a liar after all.

One of the keys in her pocket looked like it was meant to fit a padlock, and the only padlock she had seen anywhere was on the side door of that garage. The possibility that he had another car in there did little to elevate her spirits right now. Assuming she could find the car’s keys and get it started, her BMW 7 was blocking the garage door.

That left her with only one likely option: Even without seeing the inside of the garage, she had a hunch what she was going to find inside of it was going to be skis. She had seen ski boots inside the store closet, but no skis in the house, which meant they were probably in the garage.

She had never skied in her life, but she was prepared to try. Besides, it didn’t look very hard whenever she saw people skiing on television and in the movies. How hard could it possibly be?

Children could ski. Surely she could, too.

And so could Neil, she realized with a thrill of raw fear. This was possibly his house, he wouldn’t keep the skiing boards if he didn’t know how to use them.

Grunting as she rolled the heavy snowman ball through the snow, making it fatter and fatter, Mia finally moved it into position ten minutes later, while panting heavily like she’d just moved mountains.

Finished with the first one-third of the snowman, she quickly scattered the pine branches around it in a half circle as if she had some plan in mind, then she stopped and pretended to contemplate her handiwork. From the corner of her eye, she stole a sidelong glance at the glass wall, and saw that he was still there, immobile as a stone guard. It seemed he wouldn’t be getting bored anytime soon.

It was time she looked into that locked garage and see what she would find. She decided as she made her way to the back of the house while making it seem like she was going to search for branches.

But when she arrived there, her gloved hands turned clumsy from suspense and cold. Mia tried unsuccessfully to fit the first key she had found into the bottom of the heavy padlock. Holding her breath, she slid the second key into it, and the lock separated into two parts in her hand.

Glancing over her shoulder at the back door of the house, she made certain he hadn’t suddenly decided to come outdoors, then she stepped into the garage, closing the door behind her.

Inside, it was dark as pitch, but after stumbling over a shovel and bumping into an unknown object with tires, she finally found a light switch on the wall and flipped it on. Immediately illuminated the entire place. Momentarily blinded, Mia blinked and then glanced around the crowded area, her heart beginning to hammer with anticipation and dread. Skis. There were several pairs of ski boards and secured in rack at the wall.

On her left was a brand new black Lamborghini. Mia tried to envision herself sitting inside the Lamborghini, driving her way along the treacherous road that wound down the mountain, then she immediately discarded the possibility. Even if she were reckless enough to try to push her BMW out of the way and drive the Lamborghini down the mountain, the car would make enough noise to alert the man in the house. Moreover, due to the snow ground, it would move so slowly that he’d be able to reach her without breaking into a run.

The other half of the two-car garage was filled with car equipments, snow tires, boxes, and some other equipments that was covered with a large black tarpaulin.

Now she was left with just one option. She was going to have to try to ski her way down the mountain; if she didn’t die of cold, she’d probably die of a broken neck!

Despite her desperation to get away from him, she’d have to wait until tomorrow or the day after to try it, because the wind was picking up outside and the snow was beginning to fall as if it were a real blizzard. More out of curiosity than hope, Mia lifted the corner of the tarpaulin and peered underneath it, then she threw it aside with a cry of joyous disbelief.

Beneath the tarpaulin were two shiny, dark purple electronic snowbikes with helmets perched on the seats! Fingers trembling, she tried the button on the snowbike. It’s light immediately came on. It worked! Joy and anticipation soared through her as she raced out of the garage and carefully closed the side door behind her.

The weather that had seemed so forbidding a few minutes ago didn’t matter to her again. In a half hour or less—as soon as she could change into that snowsuit in her closet and sneak out of the house—she’d be on her way to freedom. She had never used a snowbike before, but there was no doubt in her mind that she could manage somehow, and much better than she could have handled those skis.

Determined on keeping up the act of building a snowman, Mia paused long enough to grab some more pine branches, then she dashed to the site of the snowman and dumped the branches there, as if she had been gathering them all this time. Neil was still standing at the glass wall, watching her, and Mia forced herself to pause and look around her as if searching the yard for more objects to use for her snowman, while she gave a last few seconds’ thought to the details of her forthcoming flee for freedom.

All she truly had to do was change clothes and put on dry gloves and destroy the other start button of the snowbike so he wouldn’t be able to follow her when he realized how she had escaped. She was ready to go. Neither snow nor wind nor an escaped convict with a gun could stop her now!

From within the house, Neil watched Mia clamp her cap down over her ears and trudge off out of sight to look for whatever it was she needed to create whatever unidentifiable thing she was making out there. Was that supposed to be a snowman or some hideous monster? He had been watching from within to see whatever she intended to make, but up till now, it was unidentifiable.

The anger he had felt earlier was gone now, greatly alleviated by the news that Kai’s condition hadn’t worsened and, to a lesser extent, by the unwilling amusement he felt as he watched Mia wrestle with that enormous ball of snow, pushing and shoving at it, even though she could barely bend over in those tight trousers she was wearing.

His lips quirked in a half-smile as he recalled watching her solve the problem with her hideous monster: When the snowball was large enough, she had stopped pushing it with her hands and arms, and instead, she had turned around, braced her back against the snowy stone, and shoved it using her feet and legs.

Neil had been sorely tempted to go outside and help her, an offer that he knew she would angrily reject and would have simultaneously deprived him of the pleasure of watching her from his vantage point. Until that moment, he had never imagined there could be such pleasure in simply watching a woman build a snowman. On the other hand, he had never known a grown woman who would consider doing such an ordinary, innocently wholesome thing as play in the snow. But Mia Harrison was different, she seemed to enjoy it more than anything.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read