Still crouching and staring eerily at me, he reached to his belt and unsheathed his knife, a wicked, curved weapon with a jagged edge. He pressed it to his smiling lips for a moment, then began slowly tapping it on the bars of my cell. “Now, I’m going to leave you here for a moment—no use talking to you when you won’t be able to feel my gentle persuasion. While I’m gone, I’d like you to think—and think hard—about how much you’d like to help me. When I return, I think we’ll have just the loveliest conversation. Don’t you?” He tilted his head and sighed happily, then sheathed his knife, stood, and turned to walk away.
The shudder I’d been suppressing swept over my body. Revulsion swirled in my stomach, and I fought hard to keep from heaving. I couldn’t stop to think about the ludicrous things he’d said. I had to get out of there. I took three stilling breaths, and I was once again in control. I flexed my muscles, ensuring each one was back to working order. They felt a little sluggish, but I knew I could work through that. I had to act fast. I needed his keys, which meant I needed to shoot him as close to my cell as possible.
I stood up and moved toward the prison-like bars, Adolphe’s gun in my hand, hanging by my side. I began to lift the gun to take aim outside the metal bars to shoot. But my eye caught sight of Summer across the narrow hallway, hands gripping the bars of her own cell.
My eyes rounded in shock, and I groaned inwardly. That’s what he’d meant by bodyguard. They’d seen Summer shadowing me and assumed she was protecting me. They must have nabbed her first—how long had it been before they’d grabbed me?
She moved only her eyes in a way that told me to look up. I followed where her eyes pointed. Just down the hallway were cameras, one trained on each cell. Judging by the fact that she hadn’t just told me they were there, I assumed they had audio feeds as well as visual.
Quickly, I checked the gun to make sure it was still hidden behind my leg. I could hear a door shut above us and bolts slide into place. Each cell was made up of three cement walls and a wall of metal bars that doubled as a door. Summer sat down and leaned against the cement wall of her cell that faced away from the cameras.
I sighed and looked away, moving to the wall in my cell that hid me from the cameras, too. I should have taken the shot. It was most likely our only chance to escape. At some point Adolphe would notice that his gun was missing and would come for it. We would lose our chance at surprise. I had Summer to thank for that missed opportunity. Who cared if there were cameras? We’d have been out of there before anyone could have come. She tapped on the wall. I looked at her. She was blinking, but not looking at me. I opened the Sig Sauer P938 to see how many rounds I had. Summer tapped harder. I swung my head in her direction, and she gave me a bug-eyed look before turning her head, blinking again.
I scowled. Seven rounds. I caressed the gun. It felt good in my hands. Adolphe definitely knew his guns. I heard Summer’s insistent tapping again and jerked my head, ready to spout off at her, but she wasn’t looking at me. She’d assumed the same position as before and was blinking away. That’s when it hit me. She was blinking a Morse code message. At the same time, she spoke. “I’m sorry, boss.”
“You can apologize when we’re out of here,” I said, playing along, speaking French in Eva’s Portuguese accent.
“You should just tell them where the drive is,” she said. “I’d tell them if I knew.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her. Did she think that would stop them from torturing her? She was still blinking the Morse message to me, so I focused on figuring it out while also keeping up the conversation for the benefit of the guards.
“I don’t know anything about any drive, and I wouldn’t tell them if I did,” I lied. Why had she admitted to knowing anything about any drive?
“Please, just get this over with, and maybe they’ll let us go.”
Meanwhile, Summer continued her coded message. Smart. Too smart for the Summer I used to know. I slid the gun into my waistband and pulled my shirt over it. This wall of my cell was too far to accurately see what she was trying to relay, so I moved to the wall that exposed me completely to the cameras. Staring out of the cell like I was watching the door to the prison area, I read the Morse code Summer blinked.
Two guys. Poison. Hole in ceiling.
I forced myself not to look up and find the hole right then.
Killed two. Danger. No way out. Dead.
I ran my fingers over the steel that made up the bars to my cell. Realization hit me. She hadn’t made me miss the opportunity to take my captor down, she had saved me. Had I shot Adolphe, his partner, Cardwell, who was most surely watching the feed, would likely have released the poisonous gas and paralyzed both of us, blocking our escape. They would have taken the gun from me, and we would truly have been dead. I moved into position to talk to her. She seemed to read what I was doing and moved so she could see me. I couldn’t let her give up.
Escape. Come together?
She didn’t move, but slowly blinked that they had only come in once together and that was
