Chapter 20
CHAPTER
TWENTY
I’m as shocked as he is when the blade disappears into the side of his neck. It went in so easily. His eyes bulge and he grasps at the handle, but I jerk it back out, holding on tight.
Blood gushes from the wound. He slaps his hand over it, but it doesn’t slow the flow. He tries to talk but only gurgles.
Time feels like it’s frozen. I’m glued in place, watching as blood pulses out between his fingers. His eyes get a flat, unfocused quality to them, and a second later, he slumps to the floor.
All I can hear is my heartbeat in my ears. A sharp coppery scent is so strong I can taste it. Troy calls my name from somewhere far away. “Sybil! Look at me!”
His voice breaks through the sudden fog, and I drag my eyes to see him with his face pressed to the bars. “Look at me, sweetheart. Breathe. You’re okay.”
It feels like someone else is controlling my movements as I look down at Governor Nolan lying in an expanding puddle of blood. “I killed him.”
“Yes, you killed him. You had to. You did really good. I need you to listen to me, okay?”
With a deep breath, I find myself again, and nod, pulling up my pants. My shirt and sweater are lying in blood.
“You have to run.”
His words make me whip around to look at him. “I have to get you out. His keys.” I kneel next to the body to search his pockets, grateful when I find the keys.
“Sybil.” His tone holds a heaviness despite the urgency in it. “He doesn’t have cell keys. Only Keeper does, remember?”
I’m not going to accept that. I pull the ring up that holds two keys. I watched him use one on my chain, but maybe the other…
I shove it in the lock on the cell, but it doesn’t go in, so I try the other anyway. It’s far too small. The cell keys are twice the size of the others. I’ve seen them. He doesn’t have one.
“Sybil, listen to me. You can’t get it open. We don’t have time for you to try. No one will likely come until morning, but you need to get a headstart. Now.”
He must be out of his mind. “I’m not leaving you! I’ll find something to pick the lock or break it.”
He calls my name as I run back to the workroom. I tear the place apart, searching every storage closet and bathroom. There has to be some kind of tool somewhere. A screwdriver. A hammer. Something.
But there isn’t. Of course there isn’t. They wouldn’t take the chance that we’d get access to anything we could use to break a chain or attack them.
“Sybil!” he shouts.
“I can’t find anything!” I sob, returning to his cell.
“It doesn’t matter. These locks aren’t going to break. Please, please, if you love me just stop and listen to me.”
That gets my attention and cuts through the panic. “I’m listening.”
“If you’re here when they get back, they’re going to kill us both. You know that, don’t you?”
I do. They’ve held us for this long because we weren’t any threat to them, but killing a governor? They could march us out for a public hanging and the other members would cheer. “I know.”
“You have to go. You have to get as far away as you can then tell the authorities everything about this place. Not the town cops or state cops. You need to get out of Wisconsin completely. Then send help back. That’s how you save us both.”
He’s not fooling me for a second. “No, they’ll execute you. They’ll know you attacked him.”
He keeps his voice calm and shakes his head. “No, they won’t. You’re the one who’s free. They’ll know you killed him. I’m not beat up. The darts barely left a mark.”
I’m trying to follow his train of thought when thinking is so hard. “Because they’ll see you were already locked in your cell. They won’t know you hit him.” It doesn’t matter. I can’t leave him.
He drops the darts and wires from the taser through the bars, and they land in the blood. I don’t know where the taser ended up but it doesn’t matter. Governor Nolan must’ve disconnected the wires before leaving Troy in the cell.
“That’s right. I’ll tell them he tried to rape you, tasered you, but you got his knife. You’ll be far away by the time they even know anything happened.”
“I can’t. I can’t leave you here. You don’t know that they won’t punish you. They could kill you anyway.”
“We’re both dead if you stay. This is our only hope. Please, Sybil, if you’ve ever believed me, believe me now and do what I say. You have to hurry. Go wash off the blood and get dressed. Now.”
I don’t agree to leave, but I do as he asks. As I clean myself up, my mind races, trying to think of any other way to get him out of that cell. Only Keeper has a key. Short of trying to break into the governors’ house and steal it, which would be suicide for both of us, I don’t know what to do.
I’m trying to convince myself that Keeper will blame all of this on me, not Troy. He’s locked in the cell without any sign of a fight. Something occurs to me. “Give me the shirt you’re wearing,” I demand, rushing back to his cell. “So they won’t see the holes in it from the darts.”
Relief that I’m going along with his plan makes his whole body sag as he yanks it over his head and thrusts it out to me. I shove it into a bag with some of my clothes. The whole time I’m preparing, part of me knows I can’t follow through. I can’t leave him here. I can’t.
He’s doing his best to rush me. “You know where the money’s hidden. I don’t know whether the keys to the car will work anymore. I doubt it if it’s been sitting for two years. But they keep the keys under the visors, or at least they did. Just try to find one that starts and go.”
I’m grasping at any excuse to stay, but I know he’s right. I grab the bag with three days of food that Matron Ruth left me and shove it through the hatch of his cell. “Hide it. They might try to starve you.”
“I will. You have to go now, sweetheart, please.”
One last thing. I rush back for the radio and push it through the hatch too. I won’t let him spend the dark nights alone without some kind of relief. If he survives them.
The time has come and I can’t make my feet walk away. My body shakes with sobs. “Troy, I don’t think I can. If I leave and they kill you…”
“They won’t. I need you to believe that.
Come here.” He reaches his hand through the bars, and I grasp it.
“I love you. I know you’re scared and I’m so fucking sorry you have to do this alone, but you do.
Get out of the state, then send an anonymous letter to some news stations and the cops.
Don’t go yourself. They could charge you for his death.
Describe where Georgia’s body is, tell them about the drugs and this prison. Do you understand?”
I nod with tears pouring down my cheeks as he presses his face to the bars.
I haven’t been able to kiss him in more than two years, and this may be our last. I can’t bear the thought.
His lips are warm, and I close my eyes, trying to imprint this memory so deep it’ll exist forever.
I never want to forget what it’s like to kiss him, to be loved by him.
The kiss is over far too soon. He presses his forehead to mine and says, “I love you to the edge of everything. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Remember that until we see each other again.”
“You saved me. You’ve saved me so many times. I love you so much I could die of it.”
“Neither of us are going to die, sweetheart. Go. Go. Please go.”
It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had to go through. Walking away from him is worse than any beating or starvation or punishment these monsters could dream up.