Chapter 29
LEAH
“Now?” Suzie asks.
“No, not yet.”
“Now?”
“Not yet.”
“What about now?”
“Suzie, I’ve got this. I’m trying, okay? I’ll let you know when I get it.”
I hear an annoyed huff behind me. “Fine. Don’t bite my head off.”
Eliza watches with wide eyes, hugging herself as Suzie and I bicker like teenagers.
Suzie holds one end of a piece of yarn we’ve unraveled from her sweater.
The other half is attached to an old wire we found on the floor in the corner of the old office.
She tugs, and I’m leveraging the wire, trying to reach a key hanging from an old nail sticking in the wall through a small window that looks down on the warehouse floor from the office Marius has locked us in.
It’s the extra key ring Marius has given the men downstairs in case he isn’t here, and they need to get to us.
I just hope none of the guards down there looks up to see the wire sticking out of the window.
They’re downstairs, playing a game of cards, whiling away the time, waiting for some sort of word from someone about what to do with us.
They lay their guns on the table, though, a clear sign things could turn bad in a heartbeat.
“Ugh!” I slump back against the wall, trying to catch the breath I’ve been holding, and ease my arms from the ache of holding them in position for too long.
“Can I help?” Eliza asks.
“No, sweetheart. There’s really nothing for you to do, but I appreciate it.”
My daughter, despite the terrifying circumstances, is holding up rather well, or at least as well as can be expected. Suzie and I take turns holding her and telling her funny stories, and she curls around Benji to go to sleep. I notice the big Great Dane keeps watch on her and us all.
“Really, Mom. I can do it. I play fishing during recess, so I’ve had practice.”
Suzie and I exchange glances. I don’t want Eliza involved in this any more than she already is. Those men won’t hesitate to shoot.
“Please, Mom? I know I can do it.”
“Give her a shot, Leah.” I shoot Suzie a sharp, angry look, but she just shrugs. “What? Neither of us has had any luck.”
I sigh and bow to the wisdom of my best friend and my seven-year-old. I lift her and hold her tightly as she looks out the window, ready at any hint of attention turning our way to pull her back down.
Eliza hums quietly to herself as she works, biting the inside of her cheek as she focuses, just like I do.
But every muscle in my body is tense, anxious, praying my daughter isn’t spotted first, that she doesn’t drop the key or make a noise that will cause the men to shoot first and ask questions later.
“I got it!” Eliza whispers.
And sure enough, as Suzie pulls back, helping Eliza and me bring in the wire, the extra key is hooked on the end of it. I put her down, and she takes the key off the hook in the wire and presents it proudly to her Aunt Suzie.
“Great job, sweetheart.” I give her a big hug
“I knew you could do it.” Suzie ruffles Eliza’s hair, then straightens and looks at me, the smile sliding from her face. “Are you ready?”
I take a deep breath, holding Eliza tighter. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Suzie, far more athletic than I am, uses her upper body strength to boost herself through the small window on the opposite side of the room that looks down on the back of the warehouse.
Her shirt catches on the sharp shards, and I hear her hiss quietly with pain, but she wriggles through and drops silently to the other side.
A heartbeat later, the back door to the office opens.
“Okay, Eliza, just like we talked about. Just like we practiced,” I whisper.
My daughter nods, and I take her hand. Suzie takes Benji’s leash and shushes him as well. I don’t know if it will do any good, but I won’t argue.
We creep across the walkway, then down the stairs. Somehow, even Benji knows to be quiet, placing his paws ever so delicately, and even his tail is still. We’re all terrified, but anything is better than sitting around here waiting to be used against Viktor or waiting to be killed.
We wander through the maze that is the back of the warehouse and finally see the back door.
“Do you see anyone?” I whisper to Suzie, who shakes her head.
I want to run, to bolt, but I’m too pregnant to run fast. And anyway, the last thing we need to do is get overexcited and blow up our plan. So we creep toward the door, staying in the shadows, and ease it open. It opens onto muted winter light and snowfall, and no one is in sight.
“Go!” I cry. We start running. Freedom is within reach.
Then Suzie screams—Benji barks and snarls before yelping and falling quiet.
I turn and see my best friend held by the guards who came out of nowhere.
She struggles against them, but I know she isn’t going to get away with the two big and strong men holding her arms. They must have been hiding in the deep shadows or behind the crates, waiting for us.
“Go!” she yells. “Get away!”
Suzie is terrified, but I know she wants us to leave her here, to save Eliza. I waver for a heartbeat, especially when I see Benji lying on the ground. I can’t tell whether he’s dead or just knocked out, but there’s a cut on his head and it’s bleeding, staining the snow red.
“Mom!” Eliza cries.
“No!” The scream leaves my throat raw in its wake.
Marius holds Eliza, who looks terrified, her eyes wide and frightened, tears slipping down her cheeks.
“Did you really think you’d get away?” Marius asks. He doesn’t look angry, just amused. “You think I’d make it that easy for you to escape? That we would just leave those keys there like we’re some idiot villains in a movie? This place is wired with silent alarms and video cameras.”
Video cameras? They’d been playing with us the whole time; they knew the entire time. They let us think we were escaping, when in reality, escape was never a possibility.
“Let her go, please. She’s innocent and doesn’t deserve any of this. She has absolutely nothing to do with Viktor.”
“Maybe not,” he sneers. “But I do know I can use her to get you to cooperate. So I’m going to hang onto her for a while to ensure your behavior is extra good until my father gets here.”
“No!” I cry again.
Eliza trots to keep up as Marius strides to me, and Suzie’s guards meet him.
“You fucking asshole!” Suzie cries. “She’s just a little kid! Let her go, or I swear I’ll kill you with my bare hands!”
Before either of us can react, Marius backhands Suzie across the cheek. Suzie sags in her guards’ arms for a moment as both Eliza and I shout her name.
“I’d like to see you try,” Marius mocks. “Take them back. Dad says we can’t have fun with them just yet.”
I don’t want to know what kind of fun he’s talking about, and I shudder at the thought. Worse, Marius still has Eliza. I don’t think he’s going to let her go.
My heart shatters. It’s already cracked, but now it’s in a million tiny pieces.
I don’t know what to do. Hopelessness washes over me like falling into the middle of a black hole, pulling me down, tearing me apart as it will for the rest of time.
Viktor is lost, and I am lost, and I can’t save my daughter, the one person in this world I’m supposed to be able to protect.
I can’t help the hot tears that wash down my cheeks, and just before Marius shoves me into the room again, he grabs my chin, his grip painful, and jerks me around.
“You better fucking behave,” he warns me, and the menace in his voice makes me go entirely cold, a shiver of terror clutching at me like ice from an ice storm. “Like I said, your daughter is expendable, so you better be on your best behavior.”
The last thing I hear is Eliza screaming for me as the door slams shut, and I listen to it lock again, cutting me off so I can’t reach her.
“Eliza!” I fall on the door, tugging at the lock, banging on the old, rusted metal until my hands are numb and bruised, crying, screaming until my voice is hoarse, until my legs finally give out on me.
I slump to my knees, and Suzie crawls over to me, an enormous bruise blooming across her cheek and the side of her forehead. We cling to each other, crying, terrified, and realizing that we are entirely powerless to do anything.