Chapter 6 Jagger
CHAPTER SIX
JAGGER
My back stings as I walk, but the pain is nothing compared to knowing that my Wren is feeling the same thing right now.
She should have given the lashes to me. I’m not sure what I can do if Ivan plays the same game with us again tonight.
Watching that was just as horrible as watching my parents being killed in front of me.
I felt like that useless thirteen-year-old boy all over again, too weak to do anything but watch the people I love be hurt.
I need to figure out a way out of here. If I could just get these damn cuffs off, I could fight them. I know where the guards are stationed, and I know what wing Wren’s room is in. If given the chance, we might be able to make it out of here.
We aren’t in America anymore; nobody is coming for us this time. Which means it’s on me to get us out of here.
As I step into the dining room, Wren’s eyes meet mine in relief, then she runs to me.
I lift my hands over her head, making sure not to move them lower than her neck, not wanting to touch her back.
She instantly presses her body against mine and lifts up on her toes, her lips angled toward mine.
I dip my head and press my mouth to hers.
Her tongue begs for entrance, and when I open my lips to hers, I’m startled as she pushes something hard into my mouth, then pulls her tongue back and continues to pepper kisses to my lips. I use my tongue to figure out what she’s given me.
Is it a key?
I tuck it in the side of my mouth, so I don’t accidentally swallow it, then pull back. She looks at me with hope and love, and I nod once at her.
“As lovely as this is, please take a seat,” Ivan says, startling me as I hadn’t even seen him arrive.
I pull my arms over her head, but quickly grab her hands, pressing a dinner roll I saved from last night into her palms. She smiles at me as she discreetly tries to slip it into her pocket, but Roman grabs her wrist, yanking her arm out, making her gasp in surprise.
I growl at him as I lunge forward, but Nikolai holds me back. Roman plucks the dinner roll from her hand and tosses it on the ground, stomping on it as he presses it into the carpet with a grin on his face.
Wren glares at him as she wrenches her arm back and moves to her usual seat. I do the same, resting my bound hands on the table as I look across into her beautiful blue eyes, relieved to see the spark of anger there. Ivan hasn’t broken her, not yet.
That’s my girl.
My eyes catch movement, and I watch as the server enters with just two plates again. My head snaps to Wren, and I quickly sign, “You take it.”
She shakes her head, a frown on her brow, so I try again. “You didn’t eat anything yesterday. I can skip a meal.”
She presses her lips together, clearly wanting to refuse, so I beg, “Please.” I stare her down, trying to tell her how important it is to me that she eats.
“Wren, what have you decided? Who gets to eat this morning?” Ivan asks with a smirk.
She glances at me with a look of defeat as she tells him, “Me.” I nod at her in approval and turn to see Ivan’s amused smile. I’m not sure why he gets off on playing this game. Did he really expect it to break us?
He gestures for the server to give her the plate as he speaks to me. “Isn’t that interesting, son. She chose herself. Maybe not quite the self-sacrificing woman you thought she was, hmm?”
Is he kidding right now? She took five lashes last night so I wouldn’t have to, and he thinks her taking this meal for herself isn’t the exact outcome I wanted? He’s delusional.
I was just pleased he wasn’t making her kneel again.
They eat in silence, and I’m thankful when we’re interrupted by one of his guards.
“The shipment has arrived,” he tells him in Russian.
Ivan immediately stands and gestures for us to be taken to our rooms. I see Wren snatch up a piece of bread, and when we exit, she tries to sneak it into my pocket, but once again, Roman sees and tosses it away.
“Nice try,” he says to her in amusement as I’m led away.
At the top of the stairs, we’re led in opposite directions again, and I keep glancing over my shoulder, relief filling me when I see them stop at a room and open the door.
Doing a quick count of doors, I memorize where she’s being kept before I’m shoved into my own room.
I’m grateful I’m not stuck in the shed anymore, and in the same hallway as Wren. It would make escape much simpler. I wasn’t sure why Ivan had kept me outside for so long, only to bring me in so close to her. But it doesn’t matter, not now.
I move into the bathroom and close myself in the shower, hoping there are no cameras in there, then spit out the object into my hand.
Excitement fills me at the sight of the tiny key, one clearly made for cuffs.
I quickly insert it into my left cuff and turn; the click as it falls open makes my heart beat fast. I do the same with the second cuff and take a second to rub my wrists.
The first step is done; now I need to figure out how to get out of my room and get to Wren. I know there’s a guard stationed outside both our rooms, and as soon as I step out of mine, the guard outside hers would see me and could call for help.
I needed complete darkness to go that way. I shove the key in one of my pants pockets and leave the cuffs in the shower as I head back to my room. Moving to the window, I glance out and consider my options.
I hadn’t tried to escape this way before because we were on the second floor, and I didn’t know where Wren was. Without my hands to help me, I’d probably injure myself jumping, and I didn’t want to leave this house without her.
Now… it is an option. I just need to open the locked window somehow. I study the latch; if I had a small, thin metal object, I could probably push the latch free. I move around the room, looking for something to help me, not for the first time.
I open the closet, hating the fact that Wren is probably having to look at one the whole time she’s in her room. I hope she isn’t having constant panic attacks on top of everything else.
The closet’s empty, save for some metal hangers. I tilt my head as I look at them. That could work. I snatch one up and start bending it to the shape I want as I move back to the window.
I push it between the frames, and it’s a tight fit, but I make it work by pushing up the latch and letting me pull the window open a fraction. Peeking out, I see a guard strolling through the back of the yard.
I close it and watch as he moves out of sight around the right side of the building. I glance around and see another guard moving to the right and out of sight, then I count.
It’s almost a full minute, fifty-three seconds to be exact, before one of them comes into view on the left. The one on the right comes into sight fifteen seconds later.
I keep watching, counting the gaps, and when they both disappear again, I risk sticking my head out to look down. Just as I’d hoped, there is a small ledge that runs along the back of the house, a few feet below my window. It’s only a few inches deep, but it’s enough to stand on.
Pulling my head back, I settle in to start counting. I had already mapped out the time between guards here yesterday, but if we are going to get out of here, we have to be smart about it, and I want to make sure nothing has changed before I risk it.
One thing was certain: I was getting her out of here before Ivan could hurt her again. I wouldn’t allow her another evening in his reach, another moment where he could use her to break me.
She was mine, and I’d already let her suffer more than she ever should have. I’d give everything—what little I had left—to keep her safe now.