“No.” My smile had been perfectly in place for this part. “I used Lacee to get close to you, to gain information about the weapons, but instead, all I found out was what a lousy boyfriend you were.” I had hoped my answer was enough to keep Lacee out of this, to convince Nicholas that she has nothing to do with the computer chips just in case shewassomehow innocent. But the truth is, I had no clue if that was true or not. It’s hard to protect something when you don’t know what you’re protecting them from.
Nicholas had pushed off the chair, stepping back from me with thin, narrowed eyes. “Tell me who you’re working for, or I’ll kill you and the girl.”
BygirlI’d assumed he meant Lacee. No words in my entire life had ever stressed me out as much as those words had, but I couldn’t show it.
“Do what you want with her.” I’d added a shrug to seem unfeeling. “She means nothing to me.”
“And what about your life? Are you willing to die with your secrets?”
I’d only smiled back at him. Every operative knows you die with your secrets. My hands were tied. Literally and figuratively.
“Very well.” Nicholas had nodded. “I can see you want to do this the hard way.” His eyes had darted to one of the men standing guard next to me, and with no emotion, he’d told the man, “Kill him.” Then Nicholas had left the room without a glance back.
That was about a half hour ago.
It took the two muscle heads that long to tie me up, hoist me upside down, and dangle me from the ceiling like a punching bag. Once they did all that, they brought in a small device no bigger than a cash box you’d use at a carnival. They set it on the ground below me and started the timer. Then they laughed as they exited the room as if they thought me hanging here, watching a timer count down the last fifteen minutes of my life, was funny.
Unless I can escape.
Ineedto escape.
I need to warn Lacee and protect her. Nicholas could be coming after her next, and she wouldn’t even know it.
9:49, 9:48, 9:47.
We’re in single digits now. Things are getting real, and if I know Nicholas’s type like I think I do, that’s not a typical bomb with one quick explosion. I’m guessing it’s some chemically charged freaky thing that won’t just outright kill me. No, I’m expecting a toxic gas that will drift up to my face—probably why they wanted me upside down—and melt my skin off, causing a slow, painful death.
And that’s not me trying to be a Debbie Downer.
Those are just facts.
“Okay.” I breathe. “Think Park. There has to be a way to get out of this. What if I hoist myself up and bite through the rope above where my feet are tied? That would require enormous abdominal strength and sharp teeth, but I’m not ruling anything out just yet.” I glance up, trying to see if I have enough slack to even make that plan possible, and that’s when I see the vent cover move. It wasn’t a big movement, slight enough that I start to wonder if it even happened at all.
I tilt my head, keeping my eyes trained on the ceiling. I blink several times, making sure what I think is happening is really happening. Because what I think is happening is the lid to the vent is opening.
Sienna.
She always said she’d find me.
Her timing couldn’t be better.
The first thing I see is red hair, then Lacee’s big smile. I squint my eyes looking up at her.
“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” she whispers. “I’m like Santa Claus coming down a chimney.”
“Lacee?”
“You didn’t say goodbye. I hate men that just end things without giving me a chance to have closure.”
“Lacee?” I close my eyes, shaking my head. “All the blood must’ve rushed to my brain, and now I’m hallucinating. It makes sense that my last thoughts would be of Lacee. But I thought I was more mentally tough than this.”
“Are you seriously talking to yourself?” She lets out a disappointed scoff that sounds too real to be fake, so I open my eyes and glance up again. She points at me with her pink-painted fingernail. “You’re better than this, Park.”
“Are you real?”
I think she might be real.
“Of course I’m real.” Her gaze swings to the bomb just as the timer hits the number 8:07. “It looks like you’re in a bit of trouble.”
