Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I pace back and forth until an idea comes to me. “We don’t need to break it down completely. All we need is something thin and hard enough to pop open the pins, right? Which means we have to unwind a single edge and that should be enough.”
Painstakingly, inch by inch, I work my fingers under one of the wrapped metal wires, cutting myself more, clenching my jaw at the pain. I take it and swallow it and keep going as I unwind one of the springs until a single long point is poking out. It’s not easy, and my forearms are shaking, but I keep telling myself that I can suffer worse, I can suffer so much more, if it means getting Adrienne out of this mess, out of this nightmare I put her in.
Meanwhile, Adrienne preps the bucket, and once we’re ready we take the whole setup over to the door, we pause to listen. Nobody’s coming, there’s no noise anywhere nearby.
“Ready?” I ask her.
She nods. “Ready.”
We get the square springs into position. I press the unwrapped wire until the point is beneath the pin’s bottom lip, and slowly, painfully, and quietly, begin to hammer.
Each strike sounds like an explosion. Adrienne’s sweating and pale, and I’m so scared I could throw up, but inch by inch the pin comes out. My hands are shaking and I have to keep wiping the sweat and blood off on my pants, and I can’t believe we’re doing this, but it’s happening, until the first hinge comes free and we both fall back, grinning stupidly.
But there’s no time to celebrate. We get back up and repeat the process on the second hinge until the pin pops out and drops to the floor, leaving the door without any support. It sags, ever so slightly, but it’s still locked from the outside and supported by the three exterior bolts.
I toss the spring section into the back of the room and we stand there, staring at the door.
“Okay,” Adrienne says after a long silence. “The hinges are off. Now what?”
“I honestly didn’t think this far ahead.”
“Someone’s going to come with food and water, right?”
“As soon as they unlock the door, it’s going to fall inside. It’ll probably scare the crap out of them.”
“That’ll be our chance.” Adrienne nods to herself. She must know this is practically suicide for her. If they’re going to kill someone, it’ll be her before me. But she doesn’t seem deterred and that gives me hope. This is a completely crazy idea and won’t work, but we’re out of options and I’m not turning back. I can be brave and I can be strong. I’m done letting them walk all over me.
I say softly, “I should warn you, whatever happens next, it’s going to be bad. We’ll have to hurt whoever comes in through that door… we might have to kill him. Can you live with that?”
“Absolutely. Those bastards beat me within an inch of my life. I’ll gladly return the favor.”
I chew on my lip and say nothing. She’s angry right now, but what will happen if we manage to pull this off and ambush the guy that comes inside? What if we kill him and it still doesn’t work out? The Russians will hurt us both very badly, and I’m not sure Adrienne will survive another beating. Can I live with myself?
But we’re out of options. Unless we pull this off, I’m going to marry Matvey, and Adrienne will be used to keep me in line until the day she dies. We’ll be in hell, and I didn’t come all this way just to throw myself into the inferno and let Adrienne suffer because of me.
I don’t care what it takes. We’re either escaping, or we’re going to die trying. No more sitting around and waiting. No more hoping someone else saves me.
I’m taking control now.
Chapter 26
Luca
It’s dark by the time we find the house. Denny did throw us into a trap, but at least he gave the right address.
The engine revs then goes quiet as I turn back the key and shut out the lights. I park down the block far away from the target and around a bend so we’re easily out of sight. Finding the new wheels wasn’t easy, but I called in some favors and spent some more money, and a local Triad gang came through in the end. “We don’t like Russians,” their leader said to me as he handed over the vehicle, a heavily modded SUV with an extra-large grille in the front reinforced with steel bars, designed for ramming through gates. It’s the sort of vehicle perfect for a frontal assault.
Which is exactly what we won’t be doing.
“Plan is simple,” I say, checking my sidearm, my rifle, and my vest. Everything’s in order, no different than it was twenty minutes ago when I obsessively checked it all over the first time. “We go in, stick together, kill anything that moves until we find Kacia. Then we get out. Understood? No lingering. No hunting for the leadership. Get in, get the girl, get out.”