‘You can divorce them,’ I heard from the window.
‘True, true.’ The Blade nodded. ‘Vasha over there has four ex-wives! Four! Now drink.’ He pointed with the knife and gun at the side tables.
Cam and I looked at each other again, then slowly, reluctantly, we both reached for the shot glasses.
‘Hurry, hurry, we don’t have all day and I’m a very impatient man.’
We put the glasses to our mouths and then both paused at the same time. I sniffed the liquid. It smelt like nothing. But clearly it wasn’t.
‘And don’t you dare think of tossing it away, because if you do, I’ll have to use the hypodermic needles I have in my pocket, and that dose is much, much stronger – maybe too strong, hard to say. I mixed it myself and I’m not a chemist.’ The Blade leaned in conspiratorially. ‘It was Vasha who brought me the drugs, and between you and me, he’s not a very good dealer. I heard he gets his ingredients from Temu.’ He burst out laughing again.
I risked another glance at Cam. He was looking more shaken than I’d ever seen him. But also angry, like he was about to explode. I shook my head at him, urging him not to do whatever the hell it looked like he was thinking of doing.
‘Listen to your fake fiancé. She knows what’s good for her, and you,’ the Blade said, sitting down on the bed. It was a very strange and twisted intimate moment that we were all sharing, and a part of me wanted to laugh. But I didn’t. ‘Go on, it’s not going to kill you, I promise. I used it on someone just last week. He woke up a day later, said it was the best sleep of his life.’
I raised the glass to my lips again.
‘Lizzy . . .’ Cam said in an attempt to stop me.
‘We don’t have a choice, Cam. Please,’ I begged. The thought of him getting hurt suddenly pumped fear into my veins. It was a very unfamiliar feeling, and I didn’t like it.
He sighed, gave a small nod and then downed the shot in one go. I followed suit and started to gag.
‘I put a bottle of water on the table for you so you can wash it down,’ said the Blade. ‘Don’t say I don’t take care of you.’
I grabbed the water bottle, twisted the lid off and took a gulp.
‘You remind me of my niece. Whenever she has to take medicine,she spits it all over the place. And then who has to clean it up?’ He tapped the knife to his chest.
I looked up at him. It was hard to imagine that the man holding a gun and a knife to our heads had a niece. Or a wife. Any family, for that matter.
‘Now what?’ Cam asked.
‘Now you must tie each other up.’
‘Uh, slight problem with that. I can’t exactly tie Lizzy up if she’s already tied my hands.’
‘I know, it’s a dilemma. I thought you could start with each other’s feet, easy enough. Then Lizzy can tie your hands, and when you can’t move and Vasha has his barrel pointed directly between her eyes, I will tieherhands. And if you so much as twitch . . .’ He pointed his gun at me and made a fake shooting sound. ‘Bang.’
So that was what we did. I tied Cam’s feet together, he tied mine, and then I tied his hands behind his back. I stood dead still while my own hands were being tied, and when it was over, the Blade stood back to admire his work.
‘I hope you can both hop?’ he said, and pointed his knife at the cupboard. Cam looked like he was fuming, like he was about to explode with some emotion I’d never seen on his face before. It totally unsettled me.
‘When I’m out of there,’ he spat, ‘I am going to come after you and I’m going to fucking kill you.’
‘Cam!’ I scolded.
But the Blade just laughed again. ‘Now hop, my little bunnies. Hop.’
‘Let’s do what he says,’ I said. Cam was usually the one having to cool me down, but for some reason he was acting verynotCam. I started hopping towards the cupboard and he followed. When we finally got there, calves aching – it’s harder than you think to hop when your legs are tied together – the Blade opened the door for us.
‘Come on, bunnies,’ he said, tapping the side of the cupboard withthe knife. The sound reverberated around the room as if it were the loudest noise ever made. Cam and I climbed inside with difficulty and settled in as best we could.
‘Nice and cosy in there,’ the Blade said, and slammed the door shut. Everything went black. I heard a locking sound, and then a chair scraping across the floor and being pushed up against the door.
And that was it. Cam and I were in the closet . . .again.
‘Well,’ I muttered. ‘That didn’t go to plan.’
