dumb.”
“I was wondering if you think you knew enough about us by now,” Eve interceded quickly. These two young people, who were ordinarily mature far beyond their years, were striking sparks off each other and reacting in a way that was out of character. Hell, maybe that was healthy. It was just getting in the way right now. She glanced at the stream of light that was now pale and fading. “The sun is going down. Czadas said Rakovac was coming tonight. He didn’t say what time.”
Luke gazed at her without speaking.
“Do something,” Kelly said. “We’re both here because of you. Now get us out of here.” She paused. “If you can do it. I don’t know whether to believe you or not. Maybe you’re just full of bull.”
He gazed at her without expression. “You’re trying to make me show you that I can do it.”
“Yes.”
“It wouldn’t be smart of me to do what you want just to prove I can.”
Kelly threw up her hands. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, then just do whatever you want.”
“I will.” Luke suddenly rose to his feet. “But not because I want to help you. I just won’t let them kill me.” He was moving toward the chest across the room. “But I guess you can come along.”
“Thank you,” Eve said dryly. “Kelly was only guessing that you might know a way out of here. Is it-”
“It wasn’t a guess,” Kelly corrected. “It was a natural progression of his pattern.”
Eve ignored her. “You said you could do it, Luke. You led Natalie out of the house. But I can’t imagine that route wouldn’t have been sealed after they discovered how she had gotten out.”
“They didn’t ‘discover,’ she told them. She told them everything.” He nodded. “And they put double locks on that door.”
And Luke had been brutally punished because she had told them he had been involved. It was no wonder he didn’t trust strangers.
“Chateau d’If.” He opened the lid and fumbled at the bottom of the chest. He drew out a wooden panel that had obviously been the floor of the chest.
“Chateau d’If?” Kelly repeated, bewildered.
He glanced at her impatiently. “
“
Kelly was of the generation of Harry Potter, and it wasn’t surprising she hadn’t made an instant connection, Eve thought. “Chateau d’If was a prison, and the hero took years to dig his way out to freedom, Kelly.”
“Is that where you got the idea, Luke?” Kelly asked.
“It worked for him,” Luke said as he climbed into the chest. “Or it would have if the other prisoner hadn’t died, and he found a better-” He broke off. “I’ll go first. This floor is above the basement. It’s a ten-foot drop. Hold on by your arms, then jump. It’s a dirt basement, and there’s a high window that leads outside. I’ve piled lots of boxes so that I could get up and down without anyone hearing me.”
“Where does the window lead?” Eve asked.
“A stretch of grass at the back of the house that leads down to the lake. Mikhal keeps a rowboat three miles down the bank.”
“Guards?”
“They aren’t usually at the back. There’s one at the front and another at the side by the garage. One of them usually goes down to the bank and patrols the lakefront once or twice a night.”
“You’ve evidently studied the situation,” Eve said. “Just like the Count of Monte Cristo.”
“But he managed to gather lots of money together,” Luke said. “I didn’t do so good.” He was gazing at Eve critically. “Kelly will fit. But you’re kind of big. Oh, you’re skinny enough, but I’m not sure you’ll fit through this hole.”
“Then make it bigger,” Kelly said curtly.
“You go on.” Luke got out of the chest. “And don’t knock over the boxes.”
“I’ll wait for Eve.”
“Stop arguing, Kelly,” Eve said quietly. “Get out of here. I’ll be right behind you.”
Kelly hesitated, then stepped into the chest and levered herself through the hole. The next instant, Eve heard a soft thud as Kelly hit the dirt floor of the basement.
“You go on, too, Luke,” Eve said. “There’s not much time. I’ll find a way to make that opening big enough for me.”
He was gazing at her with a strange expression on his face. “You’re not afraid, are you? If you stay here, you could die.”
“No, I’m not afraid.”
“I am. I’m afraid of dying.”
“Then you’d better hurry and get out of here.”
He slowly turned toward the chest. Then suddenly he whirled. He was across the room and turning over the chair. In a minute he had pried the leg off the chair and ran back across the room.
“Luke.”
“Shut up.” He was prying up the boards around the hole in the floor until there was a wide jagged opening. He threw the metal leg aside. “Go on. Hurry.”
Eve nodded. “Right.” A moment later, she was hanging by her hands, then dropping to the basement floor.
“Where is he?” Kelly whispered.
“Following. It seems Luke has the instincts of a gentleman. Odd, isn’t it?” Odd and encouraging. For a moment she had thought the boy would leave her to her own devices. Considering his background, she couldn’t have expected anything else.
Luke dropped down beside them. “Come on. The window.”
He was climbing on a box and gently prying the window open, then he was hoisting himself up and wriggling through the opening.
Eve followed Kelly as she went after the boy.
It was dark now, and Eve hadn’t been able to see what lay beyond the glass. Not that she would have been able to anyway. As she climbed through the window, she found the outside of the glass was smeared with mud so that no one could look into the basement.
Luke’s work?
Probably. She was finding the boy amazingly inventive and detail-oriented.
Like Catherine.
What was happening to Catherine now?
Pain!
“Wake up!”
Catherine’s head jerked sidewise as another slap rocked her.
“Come on. You pretend to be so strong. A little sedative shouldn’t have put you under for this long.”
Rakovac…
Another slap.
She opened her eyes. Rakovac’s face loomed above her. He was smiling.
Bastard.
“She’s appears to be a little fuzzy, Czadas.” Rakovac was talking to a man standing beside him. A big man, muscular, bearded…
She was lying on a couch in a spacious room with high ceilings. “Where am I?”
“Now that’s a trite question. Can’t you be original?” He slapped her again. “I’m becoming bored. It’s time to move things forward.” He gave a sly glance at Czadas. “Though the search wasn’t boring, was it, Czadas? I told you that she was a fine piece of flesh.”
