Read Chasing Chelsea for Free Online Page B

want to have a word with you.”
    Oh crapcrap crap !
    Her heart in her throat, Chelsea bolted. She would have ducked outside, except two more security men were jogging up the courtyard stairs, coming straight toward her.
    “Wait…” The big man tried to stop her, but she quickly veered left. A pair of huge wooden doors blocked off the end of the hall, but they weren’t locked. When she threw herself against them, they opened easily and Chelsea spilled into yet another corridor, this one full of people in all sorts of costumes. Maids and butlers mingled with nobles and peasants, governesses and school “children." A sultan walked right past her with his entire harem of veiled women of all ages, sizes and body types.
    What the hell kind of place was this?
    “Come on, baby girl,” the muscular security guard called cajolingly after her. “Don’t make me have to chase you.”
    Chelsea broke into another run, faster this time, though she knew she had nowhere to go. She could run right smack into room R221, but what good would that do?  She didn't have the key to get in.  She was caught. They already knew she didn’t belong here. What was she going to do? Would they send her to jail for this?
    Ducking elbows and dodging wide costume skirts, Chelsea darted around the next corner, praying she’d find the main staircase and grand entrance hall but instead, she ran nearly head-on into three more security guards. One was on his cellphone. When he saw her, they all turned around and looked. When he put his cellphone away, like a single wall of black t-shirts and stark white letters, they started toward her.
    She skidded, nearly falling on her butt in her haste to turn around and dropping all the contents of her bag right there, across the hallway floor. They were all she’d brought, but she had to abandon them, and still there was no going back the way she’d come. The big man was jogging up behind her and the other guests had begun to take notice of the situation. Some were getting out of the way while others were squaring off around her, caging her in to help make it easier for the guards to catch her.
    She was so going to jail.
    Chelsea looked everywhere, frantic for any avenue of escape. With three guards like a wall just ten feet behind her and the big man blocking the way up ahead, there was just no place for her to go.
    “It’s okay.” The big man held up his hands, slowing from a jog to a walk. He didn’t look angry with her. Rather, he seemed very calm, perhaps even a bit perplexed. “Calm down, sweetheart. I just want to talk.”
    Her heart raced. She could feel it pounding bruises against the inside of her ribs, but there was no place else for her to run. She was caught, surrounded by a cage of people who stood whispering amongst themselves, watching, some as if in a state of high expectation, while others tried to sneak quietly past the blockade so they could continue on their merry way.
    “Hey.”
    On the verge of tears, Chelsea looked to the big man. The guards behind her had slowed, but they were still closing the distance. Any minute now, they were going to grab her. And then they were going to take her to jail. She just knew it.
    “My name is Jackson,” the big man said. “Don’t be afraid, baby girl. I’m not going to hurt you.”
    Jackson? Sara’s Jackson? The woman with the pregnancy tests lined up along the sink in that medical room? For some reason, knowing that he was connected to the only few people in the resort that Chelsea knew, made her feel better…right up until a door down the hallway opened and in walked the two men from the playground. The young man in short pants was holding his disciplinarian’s hand. He was smiling, skipping almost, but all Chelsea could think about when she saw him was the sound that belt had made each time it had come whipping down. She backed away, from Jackson now as much as from those two men, and she pointed at them. “D-don’t you t-touch me! Any of