44
Harper clutchedthe stolen keys so tightly in her fist the metal teeth cut into her palm.
Someone had drawn a sun in yellow paint on the wall years ago, a wide smile and crooked rays, and now the erratic fluorescent light made the painted smile jump strangely across the wall.
The women gathered behind her.
“Stairs,” Olga muttered from behind, gun held low and ready.
Harper gave a nod, even though her hands were shaking. Somewhere below, gunfire cracked again—short, controlled bursts that echoed up through the old school like the building itself had become a drum.
The women flinched as one.
“Move,” Harper said in Russian. Her voice came out rough, but it carried. “Stay together. No shouting.”
She didn’t know if she sounded calm. Her stomach was knotted, and her feet were numb against the freezing concrete. A contained explosion punched through the building somewhere below.
Several women screamed. The walls jumped. Dust sifted from the ceiling in a soft, filthy fall, and the fluorescent strip above wavered before grinding back to a dim, unstable hum.
Fox. Or Zak. Or?—
No.
She couldn’t let herself believe something just because wanting it made breathing easier. But something was happening. The compound had been under tight control when they locked her away. Now it was shouting, gunfire, alarms and men running.
Something was tearing through the compound. She pushed through double doors onto the stairwell. The air here was even colder, if that was possible, nipping at her skin.
Lena released her hand. Harper pivoted, but Lena backed away until she hit the wall.
“No.” Lena shook her head. Her eyes were huge and unfocused. “No. No, I can’t. They’ll kill us.” She slid to the floor and buried her face in the stuffed rabbit.
The surrounding women bunched up, worried chatter spreading through them. A corridor full of terrified bodies and nowhere to go.
Olga’s jaw tightened. She looked at Lena, and for a second something human cracked through the flinty shell of her face. Then it vanished. She turned to Harper. “Leave her. You stop for one, they take all of us back.”
“What?”
Olga’s mouth was set, the gun still aimed toward the stairwell, but there was a cost in her eyes now. Calculation fed by old wounds. “If we stop, we all die.”
“Don’t move.” Harper stabbed a finger at the floor, then hurried to where Lena crouched on the floor.
For one heartbeat, she almost said it.You’re going to be okay.The lie reached her tongue and stopped there. She didn’tknow if that was true. Concrete bit her knees as she dropped in front of the girl.
“Lena.” Harper slid a finger under the younger woman’s chin. “Look at me.”
Lena shook violently, barely pulling in air.
“Lena.” Harper locked both hands on Lena’s shoulders and held her there. “Look at me.”
The girl’s eyes dragged to hers, pupils blown wide with fear.
“Breathe with me.” Harper slowed her breathing by force. “In. Out. Again.”
Another burst of gunfire ripped through the building below them. Lena jerked, a sob breaking loose.
“They always come back,” she whispered. “They always find us.”
The men outside don’t lose.
