I could see the glee in his eyes, see how much he relished dragging this moment out, how much he thrilled in watching me squirm.
I was having much less fun.
This situation was foreign to me. I didn’t squirm. I didn’t give up the upper hand, but I had done both in less than two minutes. And my gut told me worse was yet to come.
“Ask the question, and you’ll have your answer,” I said.
He smiled, shook his head. “You really are amazing,” he said. “Such calm under pressure, such resolve. I can see now why you’ve done as well as you have. It’s impressive, really, Nikolai. I hope that you can keep it up.”
Rage, frustration, anger, and that edge of worry that had me going along with this charade were at war inside me, but I kept the emotion under tight control and didn’t give a hint of it.
Detachment was the only way I would navigate this, but this man, he would experience the emotions I was feeling and worse. I didn’t appreciate being toyed with, and I swore I would find out if he felt the same.
“You had a question,” I said, not surprised or impressed when I managed to keep my voice impassive. Maxim had taught me well, and right now, I would use every skill I had acquired.
When the man smiled, the shiver became a full-blown chill.
“Your life or hers?”
Twenty-Nine
Milan
I was going to get out of here.
It would be easy, a piece of cake after the last three days.
Loosen the cuffs that held my hands rigid against the pipe I was attached to.
Unlock the chain that held the door closed.
Make my way outside and to freedom.
Simple, easy. A three-step plan.
I was delusional if I thought it would be that easy, but there were no other options. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I did have another option, and that option involved accepting I was currently handcuffed to a pipe behind a locked door with no clue where I was and no idea of how to get out.
Hell, I had no idea if I even could get out. So, yeah, even considering that other option was off the table, because even thinking about it made me panic, and panicking in this situation would only make things worse.
Second to panicking, standing here thinking about how I’d gotten here wouldn’t help either.
Technically, I was here by choice, but what choice had there been? When the man, Benton, had told me my choices, there hadn’t been any. Going with him, being here, was the price of Priest’s life, one I had no hesitation to pay.
But standing here and letting my mind whirl instead of taking action wouldn’t get me anywhere.
Movement, action, that was exactly what I needed.
So where to start?
I again took in my surroundings, for maybe the hundredth time since I’d been here. It had been a couple of hours, at least. I was sure of that. I’d tried to keep count, but I’d eventually lost track. It hadn’t been more than four hours, though, I knew that for sure. The little sliver of night sky that I could see from the room was still deep, dark, no hint of sun of the horizon.
The man who had taken me had arrived between eleven thirty and midnight, so after about five hours, I could expect to see the beginnings of dawn. I didn’t yet, which placed the time before five but after midnight, and given the long minutes that had passed, I had narrowed in on the time.
I wasn’t quite sure the time mattered. It wasn’t as if there was a clock, some indication that something would happen once the sun came up, but it felt like a good thing to know and to have.
What else?
I was handcuffed to a pipe, but had a surprising range of motion. I could sit and stand but lateral movement was severely limited. When we’d gotten here, the man had allowed me to cuff myself to the pipe, and I’d snapped them closed but not too tight, so the blood flow in my hands was not constricted.
I twisted my wrists, the cuffs hanging almost loosely, for which I was grateful. I shimmied the cuffs up the pipe until I stood at full height.
Then I lowered myself until I was sitting on the floor, and as I went, I tugged at the pipe.
It didn’t move an inch. Didn’t give even a little bit, but I wasn’t undeterred.
I would get out of this.
Time passed, and I continued to work, no closer to figuring my way out of the cuffs than when I started but still intent on getting out of here. Panic, worry threatened to ease in, but I fought them both, kept myself focused on working on the cuffs.
“How long did you plan to keep at it?”
I froze at the sound of voice, and managed, just barely, not to scream.
He wouldn’t get my screams. Didn’t deserve them.
So I paused, breathed deep, and then turned. I met his eye and refused to gaze away.
“As long as it would have taken,” I said.