Page 60 of Flawed Revenge

“Stop doing that,” she muttered to herself as her head once again jerked up.

Guess thinking about food and how hungry she was only worked for a short time. If only she wasn't so exhausted. She’d barely slept the night after the crash. Between making love to Leo and then being woken up early, she just hadn't gotten enough rest, and now she was paying for it.

Not that she regretted her choices or would take them back if she could.

Leo.

Had he and the others all survived? What if one of them had gotten shot? What if they’d all gotten shot? What if they were all dead right now?

“No, they’re not. River implied that we’re here to lure the others in,” she reminded herself and clung to that thought. Leo and the others were alive, and they would find a way to come for her. Find a way to destroy River the same way they’d destroyed the woman’s son.

Glancing from her spot in the chair she’d dragged from over by the window to between the door and the bed, Kate looked at her peacefully sleeping child. Maybe River wasn't going to torture them, but she was going to experiment on Ariella, and given her daughter’s fragile medical state, that could kill her.

“Please come before they hurt our baby girl, Leo,” she murmured.

At least they’d been put in a nice room. When the helicopter eventually landed on the grounds of another pretty mansion, one that reminded her of Leo’s and yet at the same time felt completely different, she had been expecting to be taken to a dungeon cell, one right out of a movie. Instead, they were led through hall after hall until their armed escorts stopped outside a room and ushered them inside. They were locked in, and no one had come to them, brought them any food, fresh clothes, or anything. But there was an attached bathroom, and no one had taken the medical bag from her so she had the things she needed to treat her daughter.

It couldn’t last, though.

Sooner or later, someone would come for them.

When they did, she didn't really have a weapon to fight them off. Kate had grabbed a sturdy-looking lamp from the desk, removed the shade, and held the stand on her lap. When someone came through that door, she would swing it at them, hoping it connected with their head hard enough to knock them out. Then she’d grab her daughter and run and … pray for the best, because it was unlikely she could escape on her own, let alone with a sick nine-year-old in tow.

Noise had her straightening.

Was that someone coming?

Shoving to her feet, she clutched her weapon as tightly as she could. At first, when she’d followed Ariella into the night, she’d wondered if she could kill to protect her child. Now she knew she could do anything she had to in order to save her baby girl’s life. If she could face Leo again after the way things had ended between them for Ariella, then she could kill a stranger who meant nothing to her.

Facing the door, she waited.

Body tense, muscles bunched and ready to strike, the lampstand felt heavy in her hand.

Another noise, only …

It didn't sound like it was coming from the hall outside their locked door. The bed was quiet other than Ariella’s soft snores, and there was no one else in there. She knew because she’d combed the room carefully when they were first locked in, hoping to find a weapon, or a secret door leading to a tunnel that would get them out of there.

This time, when she heard that same sound, Kate’s head tilted to the side, and she focused, trying to figure out where it was coming from. If not from inside the room, or out in the hall. That really only left … the window.

Quickly turning toward the huge window dominating one wall of the room, she saw a shadowy figure outside it. They were on the third floor, who the hell could be outside the window?

And why?

If River wanted to send someone after them, she’d send them through the door. Wouldn't she? Unfortunately, this world that Leo lived in was so far outside what she was used to that she really had no idea of the rules or what to expect.

The room was dark, the lights off, so she wasn't sure if whoever was out there could see inside and spot her. Maybe they’d think she was in the bed along with her daughter, and she could use that to her advantage.

Sneaking across the room, she hid behind the heavy curtain and watched as the shadowy figure fiddled with the window a moment longer before they managed to open it. Because it opened outward, the person had to shift a little, balancing precariously as they moved around it, then stepped inside the room, shoving aside the lacy curtain still hanging in front of the window.

There was something familiar about the figure, but it was way too small to be Leo’s, too small to be one of the other guys as well.

Since she decided it was better to act first and ask questions later, Kate leaped from her hiding place, swinging her weapon as she went.

“It’s me,” the voice hissed when she had the lampstand mid-air and moving quickly toward the head of the intruder.

Letting her arm drop rather than connecting with the person’s head, Kate found she was breathing heavily, not something that was pleasant to do when you had broken ribs. “Rose?”

“Yeah,” the woman agreed, and now that she was paying better attention, she saw that Rose was also clutching a lampstand in her hand. Apparently, the woman noticed Kate’s choice of weapon and grinned. “All I could find too. Not a great weapon, but better than nothing, enough to take down a kidnapper if you use it right. Are you and Ariella okay?”