Page 21

With a quick dash, I slip beyond the door leading to the warehouse and down the concrete steps. I’m careful to listen to the voices down the way. They have to remain far and muffled, otherwise the bullets fly.
Scanning the open space, I see cinderblocks, barbed wire, copper rungs, and some black tarps. The garage door is half-open. It’s one of those old-school, heavy chain-operated ones. If I wanted to slip out of here right now, I could.
The question is… should I steal Captain Dall back before the Russians have their way with him? This would be the last time he’d be intact.
I grit my teeth and run up to him.
He’s bloodied, head hanging low. Hm… might be unconscious. His breath sounds a bit gurgled, like he’d been punched in the ribs one too many times. When his mouth twitches in pain, I surmise he’s awake.
“Nod once if you understand what I am saying,”I speak in a harsh Russian accent. Blindfold and gag will help keep me invisible during this whole process.
His brow furrows, but he nods.
“I am going to cut your legs free. You are not going to make a sound, and you’re going to follow my every direction. I am breaking you out of here. Understand,svin’ya?”
He grunts and nods with confusion.
“If you try anything, I will put a bullet in your head.”I shift my gaze to the door, hearing laughter down the way.
“Mph,” he grunts his understanding.
Whipping out a knife, I slash the wire keeping his legs tied to the chair.
“Move slowly. No sound,”I say, guiding him to his feet.
He’s wobbly, probably because both his legs are asleep, and from being knocked around.
“Come.”I drag him out of the doorway line of sight and move toward the tarps. I can’t afford the cameras having any inkling of my body-type or my height, so I eye the black tarp and consider covering us as we escape.
That’d be far too noisy, so I look to the left for the dirtied paint sheet under a ladder. That’ll do.
I knife the sheet while keeping a close eye on the big bear of a cop.
Draping the sheet over us, I tell him to crouch as low as possible and suffer whatever aches until we’re out of the vicinity. The cameras are going to see us going north, but I’m a master of misdirection. As soon as we’re in the woods, we’re going to widely circle the warehouse until we’re headed south… back towards my hidden car a couple miles out.
Not a trace.
Chapter 7
Quinn
I turn on my side, cringing against a pool of sweat at my back.
I’m in my bed, mostly asleep, in that half-dreaming state after suffering my fifth nightmare of my dad being taken.
As I clutch my pillow tightly and spin it to the dry side, I notice a cool breeze waft over me. My window shouldn’t be open—
I blink several times to a silhouette standing over me.
“Ah—”A gloved hand claps tightly over my mouth.
Through hazy vision, I go to punch, but my wrist is already restrained.
Not again.
Not—
My vision clears to Silver’s perfectly defined face and fear-inducing eyes staring back at me. Once he sees the recognition in my face, his grip loosens.