“I’m going to help her disable it, if she lets me.”
Kara reached out and grabbed his wrist. Her grip was weak, but her voice was clear. “Be careful.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’ll wait here until Lily comes back. I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“Okay,” she said and put her head on his shoulder.
Lily Graves went down to the basement where Nathan was leaning against the bars. “I heard you talking to someone,” he said. “Can they help? Why are you crying? Are you okay?”
Nathan didn’t sound scared, he sounded hopeful. Protective. He sounded far older than his years. He shouldn’t be forced to grow up so fast. He’d be twelve next month. But he sounded almost like a grown man. She blinked back tears.
“A man who says he’s with the FBI, but I don’t know. He has no shirt and is wearing sweatpants.”
“He said he was with the FBI? You think he’s lying? Why would he do that?”
“Why does anyone do what they do?” she said, exasperated. “I don’t know, pumpkin. I don’t think he’s with that woman, but I don’t know that he is a good person.”
“Mom, we need to trust someone. I heard him say his partner is hurt. Is that true?”
“I didn’t see a partner. What if he’s trying to lure me out? What if he is part of that woman’s twisted game, trying to trick me into leaving the house?”
“Do you really believe that?”
She didn’t. But four days being trapped in this house, barely sleeping, worrying that the gas would go off and kill her son, the best thing in her life, the child she vowed to love and protect from the minute she felt him move in her stomach... She felt gutted.
“Mom, if someone’s hurt, you have to help them. You just have to.”
“If that woman looks at the cameras and sees that I brought someone in here, we could all die.”
“Mom.”
He reached through the bars and took her hand. When had he grown up? Her baby was becoming a man.
“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice catching.
He looked her straight in the eye and, without hesitation, said, “Yes.”
31
Matt carried Kara into the house and put her on the couch in the living room. The house was just as hot as outside, but at least they were out of the sun.
“I could have walked,” Kara muttered.
“Lily is a nurse,” he said.
The woman still looked terrified and said, “You have to disable the gas. Please, right now. If she sees you here, she’ll kill my son.”
“Okay, show me your son, then please take care of Kara?”
“I’m not letting you alone with my son.”
“Lily,” Matt said with as much calm as he could muster, “Kara has a serious cut on her leg. You’re a nurse. Please look at it, see what you can do. You can trust me.”
“Not with my son.”
Kara said, “Matt, go. Take care of the kid. I’m fine.”
Matt knew she wasn’t fine, but said, “Can you bring her some water first?”
