Ana studied Benning’s son in the castoff from the flashlight’s beam. There was a hole in the sleeve of his pajama shirt and not much color in his face, but otherwise he seemed unharmed, and that was what mattered. Tears burned in her eyes as pride transformed his features from hopeless to excitement. “Great work. You’re really good at this game.”
“What’s next?” The tremors tensing his small muscles hadn’t abated, even with him tucked into her side. Her breath materialized on the air. He’d been taken from his home—from Benning—in the middle of the night in his pajamas. No coat. No socks. Nothing to keep his body from dropping into hypothermia while he’d been held. They had to get out of here. Now. Before his organs started shutting down.
“Okay. Now we need to find something that can cut through these ties on my hands and feet. Shine the light over here.” She pressed her heels into the floor to sit higher and twisted her head around to search the shelves. The flashlight beam wavered over the shelves filled with cleaning supplies, rolls of toilet paper, cleaning rags and paper towels for steel bathroom dispensers. No tools. Nothing that could cut through plastic. “I don’t see anything, but that doesn’t mean we’ve failed. Here, move over here. I don’t want to accidentally hit you.”
He did as asked, bringing the light back to her as she rocked forward onto her knees and stood. Increasing the tension between her wrists, she bent forward slightly, then slammed her wrists against her lower back. Plastic cut into her skin, and she bit back a groan and tried again. Taking a deep breath, she kept her gaze on Owen’s. If she couldn’t get out of here, they were both going to die. Ana closed her eyes and slammed her wrists down one more time. Her arms shot out to the sides as the zip tie fell away.
“Whoa!” Owen’s eyes widened in delight. “How did you do that?”
“My three older brothers made sure I knew how to escape any kind of situation when I was younger.” Her stomach clenched as she thought back to the countless hours they’d spent in their family basement practicing escape tactics, and the reason why, but all of it had paid off. In this moment. Dropping into a fast squat, she smiled as the ties around her ankles snapped and she handed the plastic to Owen. “After we get you home, I’ll teach you.”
“Cool.” He took the zip ties, then handed her the flashlight. “I’m going to tie up my sister and see how long it takes her to get out. She’s always hiding my stuff in our fort.”
“Yeah. I’ve been on the receiving end of that. Here, put these on.” She pulled off her windbreaker, followed by the Kevlar vest, and unlaced her shoes to get to her socks. If it hadn’t been for Olivia’s interception of Harold Wood’s skull, they never would’ve connected Owen’s kidnapping to Claire Winston. Although, it would’ve been nice to have known she’d taken it in the first place. Ana handed over her socks and helped Owen with the oversize windbreaker. Strapping her vest back into place, she ignored the slight chill on the air and tunneling deep into her bones. She’d give him everything she was wearing to ensure his body temperature came back up, but the best thing she could do for both of them right now was get the hell out of here. Ana used the flashlight to search the rest of the room. Shelves stocked with cleaning supplies, a few mops, brooms, a single drain in the center of the floor and a rolling bucket. It was a janitor’s closet. But where? She tested the doorknob. Locked. But had she expected any differently? A large vent rained dust down from overhead as the air kicked on. “Here, hold the flashlight and point it toward this vent.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I’m getting you out of here.” Dragging the mop bucket from the corner, she centered it beneath the vent. She balanced on the cheap plastic, the bottom of the bucket threatening to cave in from her weight, and she stretched slowly toward the ceiling. Swiping her fingers along the edges, she found the single screw in each corner but couldn’t get any of them to turn. Disbelief pierced through the small amount of hope that’d surfaced. The vent had been welded shut, and unless she found something to carve out the sealed edge, they were trapped. For as long as their kidnapper wanted.
The door swung open.
Ana jumped from the bucket, maneuvering herself in front of Owen as the man in the ski mask centered himself underneath the door frame. Her heart pounded loud behind her ears, every breath still strangled from the pressure of her cracked rib. “You.”
“I was getting worried I’d packed too much explosive into the device under Harold Wood’s remains.” Pulling his gloves from his hands, the man in the mask widened his stance, as though expecting a challenge. “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want anyone to find him in Claire’s basement or the skull behind that wall, Agent Ramirez, but I’m coming to realize it’s going to take more than a window and a bomb to shake you from this case. But you’ve always been that way, haven’t you? Like a pit bull with a bone. You just couldn’t let it go, and well, neither could I. Now, here we are.”
She pushed Owen behind her, ready to fight the bastard for however long it took to give the boy a chance to run.
