I stepped away from the chair in front of me. Face to face, we appraised each other like two duelists preparing for battle. I didn’t believe for a minute he’d just let me stroll in there and get her. “You’re going to let me and her just walk out of here? That’s it?”
“Yes. That’s right. But you have to walk away from your shot at taking me down. I know how badly you want to.” Malokin smiled and waited.
“Want” was a humongous understatement. The thought of ripping into him had me salivating, and my nails were digging into the skin of my palms. My pulse picked up as I thirsted for revenge.
Palms up, he said, “Her or me. That’s your choice. You won’t get a chance at both.”
He was baiting me. He knew exactly what I wanted to do, and it’s what he wanted as well. Why, though? Was it a trap of some sort? If it was just my life, I might be willing to take the chance, but it wasn’t.
My head turned toward the bedroom doors. I believed she was in there, too. I made my move closer to the window and made the gesture that would bring reinforcements. “I choose her,” I said to him, hoping I’d still get both.
He was disappointed. He waved toward the door leading to the bedroom, slightly deflated. “Go get her.”
I didn’t move, but my eyes jumped to the door again. When I turned back he was gone. I’d let him out of my sight for less than a few seconds.
I ran and opened the double doors, expecting to be attacked at any moment. Kitty was there, as he’d claimed. She was lying tied up and unconscious on the bed. Her chest moved up and down. She was still with us.
“Kitty?” I grabbed one of the knives holstered at my ankle and started to cut through the ropes that bound her. “Kitty,” I yelled a bit louder. “You’ve got to get up.”
Her eyes opened and the breath caught in my throat. Her eyes focused on me, but she didn’t look like Kitty anymore. They must have given her something. I hoped that was all it was.
“You’ve got to get up. Do you hear me?” I was practically shouting in her face now.
She simply lay there. Her clothes—the same ones she’d had on when I’d seen her last—were filthy. Her hands…I couldn’t look at them. They’d clearly started to heal in the broken position they’d been left in.
Pity wasn’t something I had time for, right now. All I could focus on was getting us both out of there. I looped her frail arm around my shoulders and grabbed her about the waist. She was lighter than she used to be, or I wouldn’t have been able to get her out of there on my own.
As it was, the stairway—if I could find it—wasn’t an option if I had to carry her. The elevator was asking for trouble. If those doors opened to the wrong people, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
“Kitty.” I squeezed her waist, trying to make her more alert. “I need you to try and walk.”
She didn’t even acknowledge I’d spoken.
Struggling, I made it into the other room, her feet dragging the entire time. They’d said as soon as I’d signaled, they’d be here in less than five minutes. Where were they? Fate and the guys should’ve been storming in by now.
I’d have to choose. I’d never make it down all those stairs but wasn’t willing to wait here for them, either. Fate had said I’d die by my neck being slit. If that were true, I wasn’t going to get shot full of holes in an elevator. Choice made. I rearranged Kitty onto my back, holding her on with her arms in front of me and dragged her into the hallway.
I hit the down button and looked upward. “You got me involved in this mess. You’d better get me out!”
The doors opened seconds later. I propped Kitty up under the floor buttons, so she wouldn’t take any bullets if the doors opened to fire. I leaned slightly over her and hit the lobby button.
It was the longest elevator ride of my entire life. Malokin wouldn’t make it this easy. I looked at the walls of the elevator and I wondered if instead of saving her, I’d dragged Kitty into a metal coffin. It occurred to me now that I knew the means of my death, not hers.
Three floors.
Two floors.
The doors started to open to the lobby without gunfire, and I felt a glimmer of hope that we were going to get out of there. Relief started to bloom inside of me, and I let out half a cry from the excitement that not only did I have Kitty, but we were both alive.
“Kitty, you gotta help me and get up.” I’d deal with the lobby people, but it would be easier if I wasn’t dragging her the entire way. And where was my backup? Could they have missed my signal?
Either way, it didn’t matter now. Kitty wasn’t budging, and I needed to get moving. She wasn’t going to make this easy on me. “Hey, cat girl, get your ass moving!” I felt bad for screaming at her after everything she’d been through, but she needed to wake the hell up. We could both easily end up dead. Until we were miles from Malokin, I wasn’t going to feel safe, lobby full of people or not.
She didn’t even look at me. So much for tough love.
In my concentration on her, I hadn’t bothered to assess anything beyond the lobby hallway, but now the smell of smoke drew my attention.
Where were the people in the lobby? Why didn’t I hear them? I poked my head out of the door that was trying to close.
There was nobody there; no one behind the desk, even. But beyond it, on the street where I could see through the makeshift barred glass doors, was absolute mayhem.
The building across the street was a roaring fire, flames shooting ten feet out of the broken windows. People were running in every direction, with sticks and makeshift weapons in their hands. What the hell had happened?
I kneeled down in front of Kitty with a renewed sense of urgency. I grabbed her face between my hands. “Get. Up.”
Her eyes, which I thought were deadened a while ago, now showed so much pain that it made me physically weak myself. A tear escaped and drifted down her cheek and I wiped it away, not wanting to see it there.
“Kill me.”
My jaw dropped open, but I couldn’t speak. What had they done to her that was so bad that even in the face of freedom, she preferred death?
“No. Do you hear me? You’re getting up and coming with me. Neither of us are dying today.” I yanked her arm around my shoulders again and dragged her slowly out of the elevator with me. “If you want to die, you do it by yourself. You aren’t pulling that shit on me. You hear me?”
She didn’t answer and I didn’t care. I’d carry her all the way to South Carolina on my back, if that’s what it took. Hopefully, it wouldn’t.
Once I got us out of the elevator and behind the receptionist’s counter, I dug my phone out of my pocket and scrolled down quickly to Fate and dialed. When it went straight to machine, three times in a row, my hand started shaking. The cell towers were down.
A banging sound drew my eyes to the glass doors, and I peeked out from our position. Men and women, from every walk of life, were starting to ram the doors. A metal garbage can smashed into the glass. A long crack appeared, but it was still intact, even if it wouldn’t be for long.
I shoved the phone in my back pocket and shook out my hands. It was all me. There was no time for nerves now.
“Listen to me,” I said to Kitty, as I kneeled down on the marble surface next to her. Her eyes flickered to my face. “I don’t want to die here. Do you hear me?” She nodded. “But I will not leave here without you. So if you want to die, you’re going to kill me, too.” The words were harsh, but I would’ve said worse to get her moving.
More tears started coming down her face but I couldn’t let them affect me. “Stop crying and help me get out of here.”
She shook her head then looked down at her legs. “I can’t walk.”