Chapter Thirty-One #2
bruises I didn’t see before—but he’s alive. He’s breathing. His eyes find mine through the camera, and I let every bit of
fear I’ve been holding back flood my face. Let Marlena see a woman at the end of her rope.
It’s not hard. The fear is real. I’m just choosing when to show it.
“Midnight approaches.” Marlena checks her watch. “What’s it going to be?”
Knox’s grip on my hand tightens.
I look at the clock on the wall. 11:45. Fifteen minutes.
“I’ll tell you where it is.”
“Hailey—” Knox starts. And God bless him, the shock on his face looks genuine. We didn’t rehearse that part.
“But you let them both go.” I stare directly into the camera, at Marlena’s perfectly composed face. “That’s the deal. I give
you the location, you release both of them. Unharmed.”
Marlena considers. Her head tilts, bird-like.
“Acceptable. Tell me.”
I take a breath.
“Northwest Territories. About two hundred kilometers northeast of Yellowknife. There’s an abandoned tungsten mine—they shut
it down in the eighties. The main shaft is collapsed, but there’s a secondary access point on the eastern face of the mountain.
You’ll need climbing gear to reach it. Inside, about forty meters down, there’s a natural cavern. The safe is hidden behind
a false wall near the back. You’re looking for a granite formation that looks like a fist.”
Marlena is writing. I can hear her pen scratching.
“Thorough.” She looks up. “I’ll have my people verify. If you’re lying, you die. If you’re telling the truth . . .”
She pauses.
“We’ll negotiate further terms.”
The screen goes dark.
Knox stares at me. “Hailey—”
“I’m not watching her kill either of you.”
Before he can respond, the door unlocks. Guards shove Liam inside, cutting his bonds before retreating. The lock clicks back
into place.
He stumbles forward, catches himself on the back of a chair. His eyes are wrong somehow. Dull. Distant. He won’t look at either
of us.
“Liam?” I move toward him. “What did she do?”
“Nothing.” His voice is flat. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re—”
“I said I’m fine.” He looks at me, and there’s something broken there. “I just should have never put you two in this position.”
Knox reaches for him, but Liam flinches away.
We spend the next few hours trying to get him to talk. Asking questions he won’t answer. Offering comfort he won’t accept.
He sits in the corner by the tree, knees drawn up, staring at the ornaments like they hold the secrets of the universe.
Whatever happened while Marlena had him, he’s not ready to share it.
Eventually, exhaustion wins.
We don’t make it to the bed. We just collapse together on the floor in front of the cold hearth, Knox close, and Liam still
keeping his distance. It feels like the last breath before drowning.
I fall asleep listening to their heartbeats.
I dream of diamonds and snow and a woman’s laughter echoing through a mine shaft.
The screen wakes us.
Morning light streams through the windows. Christmas Day. I’d almost forgotten.
Marlena looks pleased with herself. Triumphant, even.
“Merry Christmas.” She pauses for effect. “My team has verified the location. Well done, Ms. Parker. Your directions were
remarkably precise.”
Something cold settles in my stomach. Because I know that tone. I know what comes after it.
“However.” Her smile turns vicious. “My people found the safe. And discovered you failed to mention one crucial detail.”
I keep my face blank. Scared. Caught. Inside, my blood is singing.
“There’s a code. A six-digit code to open it.”
Knox’s hand finds mine. He squeezes once. I squeeze back.
“So here’s what’s going to happen.” Marlena leans forward, her face filling the screen. “You’re coming with me to retrieve it. And I’m bringing your boyfriends along. If you want to continue withholding information . . .”
She lets the threat hang.
“Well. Let’s just say fingers are easier to remove than you’d think. We’ll start with theirs and work our way to yours. How
does that sound?”
My throat closes. The threat is real even if the game is rigged.
“Consider it a family outing.” She straightens, smoothing her collar. “Get ready. We leave in an hour.”
The screen goes dark.
For a long moment, none of us move.
Then Knox turns to me, and I see the same thing on his face that I’m feeling in my chest. This is it. The plan we built in
whispers with our backs to the cameras. The opening we banked everything on.
“One hour,” he says.
“One hour.” I’m already running through the checklist. Knives. The ammonia rig Knox built inside the coat lining. Positioning.
Signals. “We need to get everything in place before they come through that door.”
Liam is watching us. He looks like hell, bruised and hollow, but his eyes are tracking the conversation. Reading the room
the way he always could.
“You planned for this,” he says.
“We planned for this,” Knox says. And there’s weight in the we that has nothing to do with tactics.
Liam nods once, slow. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
I look at him. The man who sold us out. The man who got beaten for it. The man I’m still furious with and still in love with
and still need if we’re going to walk out of this alive.
“Can you still fight?”
“Try and stop me.”
“Then here’s what’s going to happen.” I pull them both close, foreheads nearly touching, voices low.
The cameras can see us but they can’t hear us, and Marlena’s too busy gloating to care what three beaten captives are whispering about.
“When we get to the mine, I open the safe. That’s when she stops watching us and starts watching the diamond.
Knox, that’s your window. Liam, you’re on the guards closest to the exit. I’ll handle Marlena.”
Knox raises an eyebrow. “You’ll handle Marlena.”
“I’ve been handling women like Marlena since I was nineteen. She thinks she’s smarter than me. That’s the biggest advantage
I’ve got. One hour,” I say again. “Let’s get ready. Whatever happens next, we face it together.”
Liam looks at me. Then at Knox. Forgiveness, not yet, but something close. An understanding.
“Together,” Liam echoes.
Knox nods once.
The clock on the wall ticks toward something new.