Chapter 35 - Lilia
Despite the sun blazing on the water, goosebumps broke out all over my skin as Reuben shoved me ahead of him into the breaking surf.
I kept the small backpack with a few days' worth of clothes high over my head as we moved as fast as we could through the waves that pushed us back, then dragged us forward.
After only a couple of minutes, the water was up to my chin, and at the next rolling wave, my feet no longer touched the sandy bottom.
Panicking, my bag went under, and salty water splashed in my eyes.
A rough hand gripped my upper arm, and Reuben, at least eight inches taller than me, kept me from being swept completely under.
With an irritated look, he grabbed my bag and hooked it over one shoulder as he continued to drag me parallel to the rocks that separated me from the freedom I had been longing for.
Standing on the sand, they were majestic and glossy in the sun and the ocean's glare.
Now that they towered over my head and water kept splashing back on me from them, they were forbidding and dangerous.
But it was more dangerous to try to climb over them, sharp as broken glass, with deep, narrow holes between them that would be certain death by drowning if we fell in.
If we tried to stroll off the grounds any other way, we would be spotted on the security cameras.
Going into the water was the only way, and it hadn’t seemed such a huge feat when my feet weren’t paddling wildly, searching for solid ground.
By now, I was in way over my head, and we still had at least twenty yards to go until we could round the outcropping.
Even Reuben had to swim now and had let go of my arm to keep himself afloat.
With every new wave, we’d get tossed back several yards, then we’d paddle for all we were worth as it sucked back toward the deep again.
We couldn’t have been in the water more than ten minutes, but it felt like hours.
My arms and legs burned, and I regretted not forcing down a quick breakfast as I grew weaker with every thrash of the ocean.
Fear of drowning began to overtake the fear of getting caught.
Getting caught was starting to seem the best option. But that would make three failed attempts. I had to keep going for my own pride if nothing else.
A huge splash sent me off course. Reuben was beyond reach, and I found myself being swept straight toward the nearest black crag, jutting three feet over my head.
I screamed, my mouth filled at the same time I hit the rough surface.
Fire lit up on my left side as salt water burned the fresh scrapes.
I shoved off with my feet, only to jam into another rock with my back.
I barely heard the shouted curses and could hardly see through the continuous wash of water over my face, but once again, Reuben grabbed me and pulled me away from the rocks.
I sputtered, reaching up to rub my tender shoulder.
My hand came away with blood on it, quickly washed away in a swirl of red.
I met Reuben’s eyes, and he scowled, spit out a mouthful of water, and pulled me further toward our goal.
He was moving faster now, so the flash of fear I saw there wasn’t my imagination.
These Southern Florida waters were chock full of sharks, and I’d just become tasty bait with my torn skin ringing out a dinner bell.
Suddenly, the ocean itself wasn’t my greatest foe, and I swam as if I could already see the dark shapes gathering below me.
We made it around to the other side, and by the time I could feel the bottom again, I was close to hysteria, still heaving myself toward shore.
My bag was gone, ripped off Reuben’s shoulder when he had to turn back for me.
Finally, I could relax a little and let the waves sweep me along until I was only knee deep.
The rocks rose up in a mocking way, but I flipped them off and kept trudging until I collapsed in a heap on the sand, as far as I could get from the lapping water’s edge.
Reuben made it out before me and was bent over, catching his breath. “I hate swimming,” he said.
I could only nod. The sun warmed my back, but there was no time to relax and recover. He stomped over to me and hauled me to my feet.
We had to keep moving. Out on the small main road on the island, we ran along under the cover of thick trees and spiny bushes that seemed like a cross between cacti and squatty palm trees. Eventually, we came to a car that was half hidden in all the greenery, and Reuben switched directions.
“Finally,” he muttered, as if he had been looking for this all along.
Questions crowded into my mind. How did he manage to arrange for this car to be waiting for us?
Perhaps it was a coincidence, and he’d been looking for one to steal as we ran toward the causeway leading off the island.
But the door was unlocked and the keys in the ignition.
This wasn’t one of the few residents’ vehicles.
How long had he been planning this before he approached me last night?
The fact that we must have taken half an hour or more to get past the rocks and out of the sea had me too panicked to think about it for long. Unless I was willing to give up hope that I could save my family from Gavril’s attack, we needed to get off the island.
I climbed into the backseat, sprawled out, and dripping salt water everywhere as the guard slid into the driver’s seat and took off, head down, eyes straight ahead.
“We need to get to the airport.” I popped up as soon as we merged into normal traffic once we were off the island. The draw of sleep was too tempting to lie down. I needed to keep my wits about me.
Reuben laughed. “We look like drowned rats, and neither of us has anything to change into. Do you think anyone would let us into the building, let alone on a plane?”
He was right, and my bag with fresh clothes would have been soaked too, if it didn’t already belong to Poseidon.
The glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror showed my sopping wet hair pasted to the sides of my face.
Fresh blood seeped through the torn shoulder of my t-shirt, and my leg was covered in scratches and scrapes.
I had forgotten about them, but now that the adrenaline was fading, they started to sting all over again.
“So what do we do?” I asked, losing hope.
He shook his head. “Don’t panic. We’ll stop at a motel and figure it out. Get some new clothes somewhere.”
“And a phone,” I said. “I need a phone as soon as possible.”
With a grim laugh, he tugged his out of his cargo pocket and tossed it back to me.
It was completely dead, and I didn’t share what he seemed to think was a pretty funny joke.
Still, he had more to lose than I did if we got caught because we didn’t think things through.
Gavril would be mad at me, but he’d never hurt me after my other escape attempts.
Reuben wouldn’t live to the end of the day.
I handed the useless phone back to him, and he chucked it out the window with a mild curse.
I stayed quiet, watching as the city turned into swampland the longer we drove.
I patted the hidden side pocket along the seam of my sports bra, certain the wallet I had stuck in there for safekeeping would no longer be there, but the small, flat lump made me sigh with relief. At least we still had money.
I didn’t feel great about stealing the wad of hundreds I found in one of the drawers Gavril was using, but at that point, it was the least of my worries.
Every passing minute could be putting my family in danger, but a dark cloud of worry seemed to have descended over my accomplice, and I didn’t dare nag about when we’d stop.
Eventually, he pulled into an off-road motel, more of a convenience store with a single pump for gas and a narrow strip of rooms behind it.
The sign was neon, but turned off in the bright daylight.
Simply saying Motel as if no one could be bothered to show any creativity, this is far from civilization.
How long had it been since we left? A little more than an hour?
We weren’t far enough away for my liking, and I still didn’t have a phone.
I self-consciously fished the cash out of my bra and handed some of it to Rueben so he could check us in.
However, once we were in the room, he told me to sit down and relax.
I did the first part; the second was impossible.
I opened my mouth to remind him I needed to call my cousin to warn him, ready to throw the Petrov name around if I had to, to remind him who he was working for now.
But I didn’t have a chance. He gave me a dark glare and slammed out of the dank little room.
I turned in a slow circle, taking in the damp, dreary surroundings.
A scratchy red bedspread that might have been older than the scratched chipboard bed was the cheeriest thing in the room.
The walls were a faded, nondescript color, a cross between porridge and wet sand.
The light overhead flickered, and the only other furniture in the room was the bedside tables, in a different shade of faux wood from the headboard, a round Formica table that was once green, but the color was mostly scuffed away, and two plastic chairs.
A desk phone perched on one of the bedside tables, and I flung myself at it.
Clicked the receiver button a few times, hung it up, and tried again.
There was a droning dial tone, but when I tried to press the number buttons, only a shrill beeping sound came.
Nothing went through, and there were no directions on how to get it to call out.
Scurrying to the door, I cracked it open, not sure where I thought I was going to go, miles from the last big highway. Reuben barreled past me into the room.
“What the hell are you doing?” He tossed a flip phone at me. “I have to return that to the guy in the office, so be quick.”
I let out the breath I had been holding, and the guard laughed at me, a bitter sound. “Where do you think I was going?” He seemed to remember he also had a bag of chips, and he opened it, took a handful, and tossed the rest to me.
I was too busy trying to remember a single phone number.
As much as I wanted to assure Masha I was all right, I had to get word to Aleks as quickly as I could.
The only number I could get to emerge from the depths of my frazzled memory was the kitchen line at Aleks’s house, because I had called it so often when I wanted to request lunch in my room on busy work days.
A little bit embarrassing, but hey, it was a number. The cook answered at once in her slight Russian accent.
“It’s me, Lilia, please get—”
She shrieked on the other line, yammering in rapid Russian to someone else in the room. A moment later, I heard Aleks’s voice, then Masha came on the line.
“Where are you? Are you okay?” And then my ultra badass sister burst into tears.
“Lilia?” It was Aleks now. “Tell us where you’re at, we’ll send help immediately.”
“Miami,” I said breathlessly. “Somewhere in the Everglades, I think. I’m not in danger, but you are.” I could barely speak, so happy to hear his voice, and Masha was getting herself under control in the background. “The Collective is coming after you, all of you. It’s going to be big, Aleks.”
All he wanted to know was where I was. Reuben told me the address, and I repeated it, but reiterated that it was more important that they shore up for the coming attacks. He told me to stay where I was.
“No, don’t send anyone to come get me,” I begged. “You need every last man.”
“Lilia, we have things under control here.”
But I didn’t think he did. He was much too calm. All I had to do was tell him who I had been with for the last several weeks, and how I knew what was about to happen, but something kept me from uttering Gavril’s name. I covered the mouthpiece of the clunky old cellphone.
“Give me something specific,” I hissed at Reuben. “Or tell him yourself what you know.”
He held up his hands as if to ward off the phone. “No specifics, just that it’s going to be big. Everything at once. I shouldn’t know what little I do. But if they can come and get you, that’ll solve our problem about being able to get on a plane.”
“Just send one person,” I said to Aleks as a compromise. “Masha, don’t let him send an army,” I called out, hearing her nagging our cousin to give her the phone.
She must have managed to wrestle it from his grip because she spoke in my ear. “Hang tight. I’m on my way. Do you swear you’re safe?”
“Kittens in a basket,” I told her, an old code from when we were children, and we were coached on what to say to prove we weren’t under duress. “As safe as kittens in a basket.”
I smiled at Rueben, feeling so much better to hear my sister’s voice, and knowing this was about to be over.
But he didn’t return the smile. His eyes were ice cold.
Of course, nothing was over. My family was about to be under siege.
And there was still the chance that Gavril found us before Masha did.
But I had a lot more hope than I did that morning when I was wrestling the waves.
As soon as I ended the call, I felt an odd pang of guilt, but I was not sure why. Should I have told Aleks I had been with Gavril all this time? Surely I didn’t feel guilty for being on the verge of getting free of him for good?
There was no way I was going to miss him.
Something way deep down wondered if there was a way to… I shook myself out of that line of thinking, as fantastical as anything in a fairy tale. There was no happy ending for us, because in order for my family to come out on top, that meant Gavril didn’t get a happy ending at all. Just an ending.
By warning my family about the Collective’s plans, I had signed his death warrant.
The realization almost doubled me over. Before I could examine the whirlwind of those tortured feelings, Reuben grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out the door. “Time to go to the final destination,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked, stumbling along behind him as he tossed the borrowed phone back into the office and then shoved me toward the car. What was going on? Why was he being so rough? “My sister’s coming here. This is the address you gave her.”
He only laughed as we peeled out, heading further into the vast stretch of swampy nothing. “Is it?” he asked. “Or did I tell her where I really wanted her to go?”