Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Raymond passed Sylvie over to a guard, who deposited her in a bedroom upstairs in the mansion. She banged on the door for a while, until the guard outside yelled at her to shut up or he’d come in there.
She backed away, scanning the room for anything that might help her.
A weapon, a phone they might’ve overlooked.
Of course, there was nothing because the Syndicate wasn’t that stupid.
Unlike her. She’d been such an idiot, thinking she was several steps ahead of them, when they’d been playing her and Dominic the whole time.
Charles had made no secret of the fact that the Russians were going to murder Dominic.
Her heart wouldn’t accept it. She wanted to scream and kick at the walls, as if that could somehow save him.
But she was helpless. Dominic was going to die, and there was nothing she could do.
She dug her fingers into her hair, pulling at the strands.
They’d told Raymond their entire plan. The kid was a good actor, she gave him that. It seemed like Raymond and Dominic had that in common. Dominic had changed his personality depending on what other people expected, and Raymond had learned to do the same.
What did he plan to do with her, exactly? Dominic clearly thought she was better off in Raymond’s hands than with the Syndicate’s Russian mobster friends. She was inclined to agree. But that was a small consolation when she was trapped in this room with no way out and nothing to defend herself.
The furniture was screwed into the walls, and the light fixtures were all mounted into the drywall. Not even a lamp she could bring down on Raymond’s head if he got too close.
There was a bathroom, but it held little except a spare toothbrush.
She found a duffel bag in the otherwise empty closet. The bag had men’s clothing inside, which she guessed belonged to Dominic’s brother. There was a pair of running shoes, but they didn’t have much weight to them.
Finally, after what felt like ages, exhaustion started to overcome her. There was no window, but it had to be past sunrise by now. She sat in a corner of the walk-in closet and let her head fall against the wall.
She woke with a gasp when the door to the bedroom opened. She peered out of the closet.
Raymond had just stepped inside.
“Were you sleeping in there on the floor? Don’t you think you’d be more comfortable in the bed?”
It didn’t sound like he was making any sick innuendos, but she couldn’t be sure. Raymond was hard to read.
“I’m guessing you weren’t sleeping,” she said. “It’s no wonder, since you’re giving up your brother to be tortured and murdered. You should feel some kind of shame after the sacrifices he’s made for you. He loves you.”
“And I loved him. That’s why I took responsibility for your welfare.”
“Well, don’t expect me to thank you.”
He shrugged. “Get yourself cleaned up. You smell.”
“Fuck you. I’m not taking off my clothes.”
“I wasn’t asking. I was telling.” He marched into the closet, grabbed her by the arm, and hauled her up. He was thinner than Dominic, a decade younger, but he was strong. He shoved her into the bathroom. “The sooner you learn to take orders, the easier this will be.”
She braced herself against the wall across from the toilet. “Try to come near me, and I’ll kick your balls so hard you’ll be spitting them out.”
Raymond stood in the doorway to the bathroom. He reached into his pocket. She sucked in a breath, thinking he would produce a gun.
But instead, he held a stack of note paper.
The first one said, I’m not going to hurt you. But they’re listening.
He raised a finger to his lips. All she could do was stare. As she watched, he put the piece of paper into his mouth and chewed.
The next note said, Scream.
Raymond nodded at the paper, raising his eyebrows. She opened her mouth and yelled. He banged his fist into the wall, and she yelped in surprise.
He poured a glass of water and drank to wash down the paper, grimacing. It looked awful.
The next note said, Do everything I say if you want to get out of here.
What about Dominic? she mouthed silently.
Raymond nodded. She took that to mean Dominic would get out, too. But she didn’t understand what was going on. She held out her hands and shook her head, trying to convey her confusion.
Her eyes widened at the words on the next piece of paper.
I’m working with the FBI.
That note he ripped into small pieces before shoving it into his mouth, chasing it with another swig of tap water.
She had a million questions, but she couldn’t ask them. Then she had an idea. She switched on the water in the shower, then beckoned Raymond closer. He shut the door to the bathroom.
“Can we talk now?” she whispered into his ear.
He hesitated. “We have to be careful. There’s a bug in the light over the bed, and it picks up a lot. It might help if you scream every once in a while.”
She cringed. She tried not to think of how close she’d come to ending up in the hands of the real Syndicate members.
Raymond told her a brief outline of what happened. After Dominic’s arrest, Uncle Charles had approached him, asking him to join forces to unite the Syndicate.
“All my life, I’ve seen what this business has done to our family.
To my brothers. Nic saved me by keeping me out of it, so I had to do something to return the favor.
I went to the FBI. Offered to infiltrate the Syndicate in exchange for my brother’s safety and immunity.
But they expected me to deliver the Syndicate before they lifted a finger to help Dominic. ”
“But they wanted him to testify. Why did they need your testimony, too?”
“Because they’re greedy? Dominic’s testimony could get them what they needed in case I failed. Which I still might. The two of you being here has fucked all my plans.”
With each new bit of information Raymond gave her, she only had more questions. But this wasn’t the time. “What are we going to do?”
“Can you fire a gun?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll get you a weapon as soon as I’m able. I can tell you mean a lot to my brother, so I’ll do my best not to let anything happen to you. But if we’re going to pull this off, I need your help.“
“What about the Russians who’re coming to get Dominic? We can’t let them take him.”
“I thought Dominic would be at the safe house right now, but then he went and tried to trade himself for me. I guess I should’ve known he would do something stupid like that. I just figured… I didn’t think he’d be willing to go that far.”
She hadn’t either. Maybe Dominic himself hadn’t known until he did it. But doing something courageous often seemed impossible until the moment that you stepped up.
Raymond had done it, though. He’d been working undercover for months now.
She couldn’t believe the guy was only around twenty years old.
But Raymond had the kind of backbone that might have made him an effective leader of the Syndicate.
Thank goodness Dominic had saved him from going down that path.
It had given Raymond the chance to see another way and take it.
“I’m improvising at this point,” Raymond whispered. “The FBI can kiss my ass if they don’t like it. It’s going to be messy. But with some luck, we have a decent chance of making it out of here alive.”
Some chance was better than none. “Tell me what to do.”