Chapter 1

Rori:

Run. It's all I know.

"Come back here, you bitch!" The guards yelled.

"Language!" I called back, sprinting down the passage.

I reached the end and looked around me quickly. Left or right. Left! I turned left and ran into a group of guards. They advanced on me. I backed towards the window.

I held up my hands, feeling the ruby in my bag.

"Fellas, fellas... surely we can work something out?" I said imploringly.

They growled menacingly, advancing still further.

"No? All right then." I grabbed onto the windowsill and swung myself up so I was crouching on it. "Guess I'll be going then. It's been lovely, staying with you, it really has."

I jumped before they could grab me and fell down onto the roof of another building.

A voice sounded in my earpiece, Chandler. "Lioness, come in!"

"I have it, mate." I said, running along the roof and jumping onto the wall. I jumped down and slid down the hill, narrowly avoiding crashing into into a tree.
"Good, come here and give it to us then." Chandler said.

"Don't think I'll be able to do that." I said, running through the trees.

"What? Why not?!" Chandler demanded.

"I'm a bit busy. But I'll see you around, wave to you from my new Porsche, that sort of thing."

"You better come and give it to us here, or else!" Chandler was getting angry.

Did I care? Of course not.
"Or else what? You'll set your men on me? Because that was so effective the last time."
The last time ended with three men unconscious at my feet and another run off crying for his mother.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you, you little whore!" Chandler yelled.

"Now that's one thing you got right." I said and laughed, taking out my earpiece and throwing it on the ground, stepping on it as I ran. A crash sounded somewhere behind me and I heard sirens and police shouting through megaphones.
"Oh, here we go." I muttered. "The doughnut brigade have caught on at last." I heard policemen running behind me, sounding worryingly close.
I stopped running and hid behind a clump of trees. Three policemen stopped also, looking around.

"Come out, we know you're here."

I appeared, legs first from behind the trees.
The policemen went red simultaneously and started to stammer. I adjusted the strap of my vest top so it was lower and surveyed them with my best innocent look.
"Were you looking for me, officers?" I said, lowering my head demurely.

They stammered even more, all adjusting their collars and trying to show off. I took a few steps closer to them.
"I've always said that there's something about policemen... they're so handsome." I said softly, slowly circling the three men. They all looked incredibly nervous.

"But not the brightest." I finished, grabbing a gun from one man and running as fast as I could, almost flying through the trees.

I out-ran the police and guards pretty easily and hid up a tree until everything had calmed down a little. I was jolted awake by a sudden gust of wind. I sat up and fell. I clung to the branch by my hands. I need to find somewhere a little more stable to hide out for a while, I thought, letting go of the branch and dropping to the ground, taking my bag with me.

"Now this looks like the place." I thought to myself, looking up at the huge old house I'd stumbled upon at the edge of the forest. "Not exactly well cared for," I noticed a couple of broken windows and some tiles missing. "But it'll do. It's big so should have some silver or something worth taking to sell in the next town."

I climbed the wall, my bag hanging off one shoulder.

I swung myself onto a windowsill and into the room. The house was silent, no one seemed to be around. It looked abandoned from the outside but it was reasonably well furnished inside, if very untidy. I walked across and pushed open a large wooden double door. I threw my bag down onto a bed and sighed contentedly. I could live with this for a day or two. At least until things blow over.
Suddenly I heard a scurrying noise. I looked around, poised to attack. I took a step forward and a circle of rope tightened around my ankle.
"What the?" I was thrown upwards until I was suspended from the ceiling by a rope hanging over a beam. I reached up and untied myself, swinging up onto the next beam.
"Hah!" I said, unsure what I was speaking to. "Didn't think you could catch me that easy, did ya?"
Silence.
I lowered myself until I was hanging from a beam, preparing to jump down to the ground but a swinging box of books was heading straight for me. I gasped and let go, falling just in time to avoid being crushed by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I ran a hand through my hair, confused.
"What is this, Home Alone or something?" I called.
A blow to the head by a laptop answered me.

I woke up, bound to a chair. It took me a second to gather my bearings but then I remembered exactly what had happened and why my head was so sore. I had no idea laptops could be so painful.
"Would you believe me if I told you that this isn't the first time I've woken up tied to a chair?" I called, grinning, trying to make conversation with whatever had tied me there. "My name's Rori. What's yours?"

"Rayn. Jack Rayn." A voice said.

Ah, a guy. This should be easy.

"That's a nice name." I said, trying to be kind. "Why did you tie me up, Jack?"

"Because... because I didn't want you to steal my stuff."

"I wasn't going to steal your stuff." Not 100% true. "At least not all of it." I added a little quieter.

Jack didn't reply.

"Could you untie me please?" I asked, sounding pathetic, hopefully.

A pause.

"Okay."

"Thank you." I smiled.

"Don't run off." Jack warned.

"I won't." I lied.

I heard him click his fingers and a bird flew over to me. It flew in front of me, looking at me suspiciously. I recoiled. I've never been too fond of birds.
"Lying! Squawk! Lying!" The bird said loudly.

It flew away. A hooded figure appeared about a minute later. I cursed the bird in my head.

I looked up as it drew nearer. The morning sun poured in through a window and I saw the figure more clearly as it stepped into the light. Tall, quite slim but not lanky or weedy looking. About 20 something judging by his stature wearing jeans and a dark blue hoodie; I couldn't see his face.

"Jack?" I said curiously.