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“He’s going to kill you,” Marshall spit out around his pain.
The Russian just laughed. “He has no idea where we are.”
Ava hoped that wasn’t the case—she hoped Keegan had been able to find them and Cap was even now on his way to save them.
“Bring me the feed,” the Russian told one of his minions. Ava didn’t have time to wonder what he was talking about because another of his men brought a TV screen in front of her and set it down.
“Look what you’ve made us do,” the Russian said and there was a mournful quality to his voice.
Ava closed her eyes, which earned her another punch to the head. Her vision swam and pain nearly overwhelmed her. He’d pistol-whipped her and she could feel blood running down her face from her forehead.
Through the blood, she was still able to see the screen, and what she saw had her crying in earnest.
They had Josephine and they’d worked her over horribly. Her head hung low, and her arms were tied behind her back. Blood dripped sluggishly from her head to the floor, and she wasn’t moving.
“Awww, you don’t like the way we’ve treated your friend?” the Russian mocked. “Then tell us what we want to know!”
Spittle flew from his mouth as he yelled at her, cursing her in Russian and English.
“Take me to Minneapolis,” she told the leader. “I’ll find it—whatever it is you’re looking for, I’ll find it!”
He got in her face again. “That’s what I like to hear.”
She grimaced as he dug his fingers into her shoulders, shaking her.
“But you don’t know what we’re looking for,” he told her. “How can you search without knowledge of what we’re looking for?”
“Tell me then, damn it!” she yelled in his face.
He hit her again, and this time, he knocked her over. She fell hard to the floor and her head bounced off the cement. Her vision swam and she just barely retained consciousness.
Then he picked her up, tsking to himself and wiping her off as if she’d gotten herself dirty on the floor. “You make me mad.”
He straightened his coat and sleeves and just stared at her. “We’ve been through your entire house. Why is it you think you can find it if we didn’t?”
Her ears were ringing, and she wished she didn’t have the earbuds in—she was getting feedback that made the ringing worse. “I don’t know…just tell me what you’re looking for,” she pleaded.
“It’s a small flash drive,” he said. “Now where do you think it could be?”
“I—I don’t know,” she began and flinched when he raised his hand at her again. “But I can help you look.” She’d do anything to keep Marshall and Jo from being hurt worse.
One of his men came up and whispered something in his ear. “They’re here?” he asked in English and the surprise in his voice was real. “Let them come.”
Everything went black. Someone had cut the power.
The Russians were panicking.
Marshall yelled out, “Get down, Ava!”
Ava tipped her chair over again, landing hard but able to keep her head from the cement this time. Bullets peppered the basement and she felt men fall around her.
Then there was silence. Her earbuds had run out of juice. She lay there, not hearing anything but feeling the percussion of the bullets that were being fired into the room. The lights suddenly came back on and…wait, it wasn’t the lights. It was flashlights, lighting up the dank basement. They crisscrossed the basement searching for something.
One landed on her, blinding in its intensity. She closed her eyes which were almost swollen shut from the beating she had taken.
Hands were all over her then…picking her chair up and when she opened her eyes, Captain stood before her. Her hands were suddenly cut loose and it hurt so bad she knew she groaned. She brought them forward but Cap grabbed them and held onto her.
“I’ve got you,” he mouthed.
