“Michelle? Miss Springer?” Maddie is whispering low. I turn my attention back to her and crawl slowly towards her voice. “Where are you? I can’t see you.”
I shh her, like the practiced teacher I am. She can’t be heard right now. It’s more dangerous than ever for us to get any bit of attention. I quickly find my way through the dark to where she is laying, her head facing the ceiling and her arms clasped tightly around her waist. I sit up next to her, finding a support beam to rest my back on. I grab her arms and lay her head on my lap as I say, “We can’t talk loudly down here. If we can hear them, they can hear us. And we don’t want to make any noise. Do you understand me?”
She nods her head yes and rolls towards my stomach, talking as low as possible in my shirt so even I have to bend lower to hear her. “Did you hear what that guy said? He said someone was attacking the clubhouse. Do you think it’s my dad?”
I hesitate. Should I tell her her dad is headed towards a horrific death and that he’s not anywhere near us or should I save her hopes? I go with the best answer I can muster. “I don’t know for sure, Maddie. But whoever is attacking the clubhouse is making them very nervous and mad.”
A flicker of light from the window dances near us as I get a quick sparkle of her tear filled eyes. “It has to be them. The Mustangs wouldn’t just leave me here. Right?”
“I am sure your dad is doing whatever he can to get you and Erin out of here as fast as possible.” My voice cracks as I try to get the last words out, “We just have to be patient.”
Maddie scoffs, “Patient? My dad would never be patient. We should be attacking them…you know, kicking them in the butt and stealing their guns and stuff. My dad wouldn’t let them do any of the shit – oh, um, sorry, crap – that they’re doing to us.”
I try to hold back a little laugh. But she’s right in theory. With Cal miles away from us and distracted by the war he just started, it’s up to us to save ourselves. No more damsels in distress. I think back to what I saw the moment the men dropped Maddie back down in the basement. There was a glitter, a glimmer, something shiny that caught my eye. My hands run through her hair, almost immediately finding it.
I yank the hairpin out, her curls going flying. She lets out a small yelp as her hands shoot to the knots I accidentally pulled. “What are you doing, Michelle? That’s my hair!”
I hold my hands over her mouth. This little object is our biggest weapon, and if we were going to use it, we were going to need the art of surprise on our side. No giveaway, nothing. I find Maddie’s hands in the dark and hold them up towards my face. I place the hairpin in and begin rocking it back and forth, twisting it side to side, just as I had seen in all those movies. Nothing. No clicks, no movement, no loosening.
Maddie pulls her hands away and sits up next to me. She takes the pin out of my hand and I can practically make out the corners of her lips shooting up into a smile. “Miss Springer!” I shh her again as she excitedly whispers into my ear, “You’re amazing! Red Dog taught me how to pick locks when I was three years old! I can do this.”
I’m frozen as she takes the pin and places it into her own lock. She fidgets around with it, even placing the cold metal to her ears. Her eyes squint as she concentrates on finding just the right spot…and click. The cuffs fall to her lap as both of us look at one another, dumbstruck by how easily it worked. She pauses before wrapping her arms around me tightly, pulling me into one of the most important hugs of my life.
After a few beats, she lets go of me and places the pin in my lock. But I shake her off. “Not me. Not yet, at least. We need to get Erin out of her ASAP, and we can’t do that easily if we don’t have her cuffs off. Can you do hers, too?”
Maddie nods as she crawls to where Erin still lies still, just feet from us. I take her discarded cuffs with me just in case we need them and then follow her stealthy moves. This time, she talks me through her lock picking. “Red Dog always said to start by using the big part of the lock to bend the pin back, then take zigzag part of the pin and bend it in half there so the zigzag faces the inside. Like a real key! Then you just need to figure out how to line the zigzag part up with the pins and stuff inside…” She looks down at Erin’s wrists as she twists and turns it repeatedly. “...and then it comes off!”
Maddie holds Erin’s cuffs above her head, high enough for me to see them. I grab them out of her hand and place them back on Erin’s wrists, being careful not to click them into place. I give Maddie hers back as well and explain that she has to keep them on her in case a guard came down. “They can’t know about this, or we are in big trouble. Just keep one of them on like a bracelet.”