Chapter 12
Twelve
They came in the night.
Sofie half woke to the faint beep of her alarm system being disabled, but after her sleepless night the evening before and her difficulty falling asleep tonight, she merely rolled over in bed, pulling her pillow over her head.
She didn’t realize the danger until the covers were ripped from her body and she was dragged from the bed by one ankle.
She screamed, but it was a high thin sound that cut off when she hit the floor with a thud.
Adrenaline flooded her system as she stared up at three entirely black figures—black clothes, black hood, black full-face masks without eyeholes. One still held her ankle, his fingers tight and hard.
She opened her mouth to scream again, but another of them leaned down and slapped her. It wasn’t the first time she’d been slapped, but every time, she was surprised by how much it hurt. Her cheek stung, her neck twinged from being jerked, and her ear was ringing.
“You want to come out and play?” One of them snarled in Dutch.
Sofie shook her head, hair whipping around her face. She hated that she was flat on her back with them above her. She braced herself on her elbows, only for the man holding her ankle to yank, forcing her to fall flat again.
The man who’d slapped her put a booted foot on her stomach, holding her down.
“Our boss wants you. If you’d stayed at the museum even an hour longer, we’d have taken you.”
“Is that why you’re here? To kidnap me?” She was proud of herself for speaking, but the words trembled.
Two laughed at her fear, while the third merely stared at her, the featureless mask terrifying.
“I want to.” He leaned into the foot on her stomach, until it was hard to breathe. “Our boss is pissed at us for not taking you when we had the chance.”
Sofie knew she shouldn’t have gone with Colette. She knew the rules. The danger.
“But we can’t take you if you’re here.”
He removed his boot and leaned down, hauling her up. At the same time, the man holding her ankle let go, and her heel cracked against the floor. She yelped in pain, but the man now holding her by the upper arm slapped his gloved hand over her mouth.
He leaned in, and her eyes had adjusted enough to see the mesh eyepieces in the mask.
“The next time you leave, you’re ours,” he whispered.
Sofie could only stare into those mesh panels, trying to see the man behind the mask, and hopefully the humanity within the man.
“You could make it easy for us. You could come to the Tulip Museum tomorrow at noon. You do that, we’ll let you ride in a seat in the car, instead of the boot.”
Sofie closed her eyes, vowing to be good. To never, ever leave her house except to go to the market at the corner, or the Basilica of Saint Nicolas. Her father had made sure those three places were safe—her house, the store, and a church so beautiful that she almost believed in the power of the divine when she walked inside. As long as she kept to those places, kept her life small, she was safe.
“We’ll see you tomorrow.” The man shoved her back, her calves hitting the edge of the low bed before she fell back onto it. For a moment, a different kind of fear gripped her, but the men merely turned and jogged down the stairs, leaving her sprawled on top of her rumpled duvet, heart racing as tears of fear started to slip down her cheeks.
Rage like he’d never known gripped Andrei as he watched three masked men abuse his angel.
Rage and fear.
The message from her father had bugged Andrei all day. He’d tried to shake it off but ended up going in to the Interpol offices in Amsterdam, despite being on vacation. He’d had no luck looking up a forger named Sofie, so her name might be another thing she’d lied about. He should have gone back to the club to talk with the construction crew about the progress, or to help Landon install some of the more unique pieces they didn’t trust the construction crew with.
Instead, he’d stayed in the city, and as night fell, he made his way back to the Jordaan District. The buildings on the exterior of the block were a mix of businesses and residential. One building had a café on the top floor with a tiny rooftop patio. There was a nice view of the canals, and the tops of several church spires, but what he cared about was the view of the lone building on the interior of the block.
Given the lush trees that filled the space, Sofie’s home wasn’t really visible. Luckily he’d picked up a few things at the office, including a wall-crawling camera that wasn’t illegal for law enforcement use only because it was too new for laws to have been passed about it. He’d been able to stick the remote-control device to the exterior wall of the café and then pilot it along the back of the buildings until he had an only partially obstructed view of Sofie’s home.
The camera on the crawler was advanced enough to zoom in and use AI to fill in blanks in the image where the tree blocked the shot. He’d watched on his phone as Sofie climbed into bed, only to toss and turn for hours before finally falling asleep.
A flash of his badge and some money had convinced the café to let him stay up here after they closed, and he’d called himself ten kinds of fool as he sat, shivering, in a cold metal chair in the middle of the night.
Until the video feed flashed up a warning and automatically switched to thermal imaging, which revealed four figures instead of one.
Andrei had sat up, shocked and half thinking he was imagining things.
In nonthermal mode, only Sofie was visible, but the feed kept flashing to thermal imagining, and though the vaguely humanoid blobs of color sometimes merged together, he watched them pull her out of bed. Hit her.
He raced down the café stairs, slapping open doors until he hit the ground floor. Rather than going out onto the street, he turned in the narrow hallway and headed for the rear exist.
The fucking thing was locked.
Andrei glanced down at the video, which had switched to regular camera, and the clouds must have shifted because now, there was enough light for him to see three figures in all black. Sofie wasn’t visible, except for one leg. They had her on the floor.
With a grunt, Andrei forced open the back door emerging into the verdant garden. There was a small patio here with tables—probably a break area for the people who worked at the international aid organization on the ground floor.
Andrei scaled the wall and hit the ground, taking out a bush on his way. He should call the National Police Corp. He should call Interpol. Hell, he should call Landon.
To do any of those things would mean stopping, if only for a moment. Every bit of training he’d ever had, told him the smart thing to do was to stop and call for backup.
But Sofie was in danger, and nothing else mattered unless she was safe.
Andrei shoved through overgrown bushes, skirting the fences and walls that delineated the back property line of the buildings. All the while, he held his phone, glancing at the feed every few steps.
He watched them shove her down onto the bed, and his stomach sank with different, sick fear.
No, no, no. Don’t do that to my angel.
The feed switched to thermal. The three figures…retreated?
Andrei cursed when he realized how far he still was from her house. If the assailants were leaving, he wasn’t going to get there in time to beat them to death for touching his angel.
It took him nearly five minutes to reach her house. Crouching low, he slid along the side of the building. Using his phone’s camera, he checked around the corner.
Her front door was closed, and there was no sign of the men outside.
Switching back to the video feed, he could see her heat signature. It looked like she was curled up in bed. The men could be on one of the lower floors. He’d tried positioning the crawler lower, but there was too much vegetation. He’d been happy enough with only having a view of the upper floor when he realized it was her living area.
Now he cursed not having a way to find out if the assailants were on the lower floors. If he tried to go in through the front door and they were still inside, more than likely they’d hear him, and this could too easily become a hostage situation.
He needed to get to Sofie.
Andrei backed up to the rear corner, then swiveled on the balls of his feet and looped up at the tree that obscured the back of Sofie’s house.
Sofie was scared to move. She thought she’d heard the door close, the security system beep, but what if that was a trick? What if they were still here and waiting for her to move or make a noise?
No, her father wouldn’t have allowed that. They respected his word. The way he’d protected her home.
Her home was safe, and what had just happened proved it.
Chest stuttering as she continued to cry, Sofie forced herself to move. To go to the panel on the wall. It unlocked with her palm print. Her finger shook as she tapped the security program controls, but she calmed a little when she watched the footage of the three men leaving. She didn’t go back far enough to see them entering.
Sofie swiped at her cheeks with her palms, wishing for dawn. Maybe she would go paint. Or sew. Colette had bought more than enough fabric. She could make another dress with the pale lavender satin.
No. What would be the point? She’d would never have anywhere to wear it.
She’d make it for Colette, and next time Colette came to commission a painting…
Except, would she? Colette was now going to steal things only to help museums improve their security. Would she need copies of the works she stole to do that?
A sense of loss swept over her, and Sofie pressed her back to the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. Colette wasn’t the only person she worked for, but Colette was the only one she considered a friend. Now who did she have? No one.
No one except her father, who’d warned her again and again. She’d finally decided to ignore those warnings, to break the rules, leave her sanctuary, and look what had happened.
The tap at her window caused her to freeze. Terror choking her, she slowly turned to look at the back window. A branch tapped in a steady rhythm against her window.
Someone was out there…in the tree?
A strangely detached feeling came over her. Maybe she’d simply felt too much in the past forty-eight hours, and there was no more room for any emotion, even fear.
Curious and oddly fearless, she climbed to her feet and peered out the window, slapping her hand over her mouth to muffle a shriek when she finally spotted the figure balanced on a large branch just below her window.
Fumbling for the latch, she swung the window up, ducking under the double-glazed pane to stick her head out. She stared at the man in the tree, and he stared back.
Andrei was in the tree.
“Andrei?”
She felt stupid even saying it out loud, because there was no way the man who walked out of her life earlier was now in the tree, tapping her window with a branch.
“Shhh,” he said, barely audible. “Are they still inside?”
Sofie blinked. “What?”
“Are they still inside?”
“How did you… Are you watching me?”
He dropped the branch he’d been using to tap on her window and climbed higher in the tree.
“You're going to fall.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Angel, if I were you, I wouldn’t argue with me right now.”
The cool, smooth tone of his voice didn't negate the hard warning. She responded to that threat in an unexpected way. The tension born of fear that made her shoulders and arms tight relaxed.
Now, they were eye to eye, though he was several meters back, having to stay close to the trunk for the limbs to support his weight.
“Sofie, are they still inside?”
“No. They left.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I saw it on the security video.”
“I don’t think you can trust your system. They must have overridden it to get in.”
Oh. He was right. She remembered hearing it beep the way it did when it was disarmed, so they must have hacked it.
“So they could still be inside?” she whispered.
“Probably not, given that we’re not being all that quiet,” Andrei said, “so… What are you doing?”
Sofie had already thrown one leg over the windowsill. “Escaping.”
“Fuck. Sofie, stop. The branches close to the building aren’t?—”
Sofie didn’t care. The fear that had retreated only moments ago returned like a high tide, washing away everything else. Those men might still be in her house. Waiting. For one wild moment, she considered simply jumping. Maybe the tree and bushes would break her fall. Maybe she’d break her legs. But she wouldn’t be trapped in her house with men who swore the next time they’d take her away from the place she should have been safe, but now knew she wasn’t.
“Do. Not. Jump.”
She froze at the command.
“You're going to reach out with your left hand and grab this branch.” Andrei jiggled a thick branch, the end of which was just within reach.
“Then you're going to put your foot on this one.” He indicated a second branch.
Sofie nodded, watching his face, shadowed by the tree and the night itself.
“Keep your weight on the windowsill until you have a good grip with your hand and firm placement with your foot. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Once you do, you’re going to move fast. You’re going to push off the wall, get both feet on the branch, but don’t stand there, keep moving. Come toward me.” Andrei held out his hand.
Sofie glanced from his hand to his face. “I don’t want to fall.”
“Why don’t you climb back in, and use the front door.”
Fear gripped her, and Sofie couldn’t stop the whimper that rose up her throat.
“Okay, okay. No door. Climb out the window into a tree in the middle of the night.”
His exasperated tone made her laugh. The laugh shifted this from terrifying escape to wonderful adventure.
Ignoring the fact that it was a request for adventure and excitement that had gotten her in this very situation, Sofie followed Andrei’s instructions, getting one hand and one foot firmly in place on the branches.
“Ready, Rapunzel?”
“Rapunzel? She was locked in a tower and…” Now that she said it out loud, that comparison was perhaps a little too apt. “I could make a rope out of sheets.”
“You could use the door,” Andrei grumbled.
No, because if she used the door, there would be no reason for Andrei to take her hand.
Shaking with a different kind of fear, Sofie swung her other leg out but balanced on the windowsill, one hand gripping the frame.
“Sofie, look at me.”
She'd been looking down, but at the command, her gaze met Andrei’s.
“Come to me, Angel.”
Sofie pushed off. For one terrifying moment, all her weight was on the too-thin branch below her. She felt it start to bend under her weight.
“Sofie,” Andrei barked.
Holding her breath, Sofie took three desperate, quick steps along the branch, hands moving one over the other on the branch above her. Then Andrei was there, and because she was too scared to let go and take his hand, he leaned out, wrapping an arm around her middle and hauling her into his arms.
Sofie curled into him, gasping as adrenaline once more pumped through her body.
“I did it.”
“You did.”
“That was fun.”
He squeezed her. “No it was not.”
“How do you know, you didn’t do it?”
“I meant, it wasn’t fun for me.”
The bark was scratchy against her bare feet, and Sofie was fairly certain her lower legs were scratched up, thanks to the smaller branches she’d scraped past in her mad scramble.
Andrei rested his chin on her head. “We can’t stay in this tree.”
“Why not.”
“Either your assailants are still in your house, or they’re not. Either way, we need to get away from here.”
“Away?”
“Yes. We’ll go to… Shit.” He paused to think. “I’ll get a hotel and we’ll work this out. I can’t take you to the Interpol offices. Too many questions.”
“No.” She jerked back, remembered they were in a tree, and reversed course, slamming herself against his chest hard enough he grunted.
“What exactly are you saying ‘no’ to?” His question was dangerously mild.
“I can’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is the only place I’m safe.” She pointed back over her shoulder at her house.
Andrei chuckled.
Why was he laughing?
“Angel, you can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“Three men just pulled you out of bed.”
“You saw that?”
Instead of answering, he gently gripped her chin, forcing her head away from his chest. “Did they hit you?”
“Just once.”
He turned her face to the moonlight. She wasn’t sure if there was something visible, but when he released her, his jaw was tight.
“The point is, your home clearly isn’t safe.”
“It is. It’s the only place. There and the store.”
Andrei stared at her, then firmly pushed her body away from his. Not far, and he guided her hand to grip the thick branch above them.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“We are getting out of this tree.”
“Oh.”
Andrei climbed down one branch, then reached up and guided her down with him.
That’s how they made their way down, step by step, him going first, then guiding her down beside him.
There were a few more scrapes on her arms and legs by the time they reached the ground, and Sofie was shivering. The soft shorts-and-shirt sleep set she had on was one of her favorites, but not meant for tree climbing.
Andrei looked around. “What’s the best way out of here that’s not the path to your front door? We can try going back the way I came, but I probably set off an alarm when I broke the back door.”
“I told you, I can’t leave.”
Andrei stared at her. “Are you deliberately trying to make me crazy?”
“No?”
“Sofie, we’re leaving.”
“I can’t! I have to stay here where it’s safe.”
“It’s not safe. You were attacked in your bedroom. You know it’s not safe, that’s why you climbed out the window.”
Sofie was starting to shake and it had nothing to do with the cold. “I know, but I was…I was scared the men were still there, and you were in the tree, and for a minute, I wasn’t scared and it felt like an adventure but I can’t. I can’t leave. If I do, something bad will happen.”
Andrei’s expression shifted from frustrated to something softer as she rambled on. Sofie forced herself to shut up, her cheeks the only part of her that were warm. She hoped he couldn’t see her blush of embarrassment.
“You’re in shock,” he said gently. “We’re going to go, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“No! I can’t leave.”
She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Sofie tried to pull away from Andrei, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Sofie, stop. I’m not letting you run back in there when you’re not thinking straight.”
“I have to stay!” She twisted and turned, but his arms were like a steel band around her. “That’s the rule. I shouldn’t have left before. That’s why they came.”
“Fuck, that’s a lot to unpack… Sofie, stop fighting me.”
She sagged in his arm, resting her cheek on his chest.
“It’s okay, Angel. It’s just the shock. The adrenaline.”
“I wish it was,” she whispered. Then Sofie dropped, sliding out of his hold. She winced as she hit the ground on hands and knees, but scrambled away, racing along the side of her house.
Andrei’s footsteps pounded behind her. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid of him chasing her. The desperate panic to get back inside overrode any other feeling.
She never made it to her door.
Andrei grabbed her, yanking her back against his chest, but only for a moment.
He spun, pushing her face-first against the wall and yanking her arms up behind her back.
“Fine, Angel. We can play it like that.” He leaned back, until the only point of contact was his hand holding her wrists at the small of her back. “You’re under arrest.”