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want her to have breathing
problems before the wedding, but unlike everything else in her life, she never
compromised on running. It gave her a sense of freedom that she didn’t have in
the rest of her life. Out in the open morning air, she had control over
everything. Where her feet landed, which path she turned down, how fast she
moved. No one could guide her otherwise. Not even her security detail.
    She had long ago grown accustomed to the men that followed
her all over town. Their surveillance started when she met her father for the
first time and subsequently moved three states away for boarding school. Having
Hugh Langston as a father became a very public matter in those first few years
after her mom’s death, resulting in constant security. As a budding teenager,
she found school difficult with the eyes of her security always on her, but she
soon learned to live with it. She gravitated toward kids who had the same
problem of intrusive bodyguards, if only because they understood her plight.
    After heading off to college, she had learned to ignore the
men who watched her, but it didn’t make it any easier. Whenever she made
friends, her father knew about it and dictated whether she could keep them. If
she tried to date, her father ran a background check and immediately deemed any
potential suitors off-limits, an order her security detail enforced. Boyfriends
ran for the hills and warned all the other men that she was more trouble than
she was worth. Stephen was not only the first man she had ever been with
intimately, but the first man she had ever dated, exactly as her father wanted
it.
    Returning home two years ago, she thought that life would be
easier and give her more freedom, but the opposite was true. Working for her
father made her feel inadequate all the way around, as he always had someone in
the company watching her closely. The discrepancies in the accounts were only
her latest set of problems, but no one dared help her resolve them. By the time
she returned from her honeymoon with Stephen, they would have been swept under
the rug and she would be on her way to a cushy teaching job at West Hills
Academy or even staying at home full-time, another change in her life that her
father, and Stephen, would force upon her.
    Sara turned a corner to head in another direction. Glancing over
her shoulder, she saw two men following at a safe distance. Ordinary jogging
outfits concealed their weapons and their ear pieces allowed them to keep in
touch with their boss. Sara had watched them press the ear pieces into their
ears many times, but had never met the person that spoke to them, at least not
knowingly. She had never managed to engage the men in conversation, even though
the same ones had followed her for the two years since she graduated from
college.
    A large group of firemen on their morning run approached her
on the running path. She had seen the group from time to time, but today the
sight sparked something in her. In all the years of having a security detail,
she had never once tried to ditch them, not even as a precocious teenager. Now
she needed to give them the slip, as if she had to prove something to herself
before marrying the man and living the life her father chose for her.
    Sara picked up her pace. If she timed it right, she would
top the hill just as she passed the firemen. She resisted the urge to peek over
her shoulder again to look at her security guards so she wouldn’t accidentally
alert them to her plan. Her feet hit the smooth concrete faster and faster, and
she focused all her thoughts on her breathing to keep it even and under
control.
    She smiled and waved at the passing firemen just as she
started downhill. Off to her left, thick woods concealed a lesser-known running
path. She had only taken it one time since she started running at the park.
With the firemen covering her movements, she zipped off to the left and raced
as fast as possible around the first several turns.
    After running a