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“Down the Rabbit-Hole,” I said and read the heading for the first chapter, and Izzie wiggled her bottom and curled up in my arms. Her body relaxed as I read, every word seeming to comfort her. Could it have been a simple fact that this was a distraction that made her feel better?
“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversations?’”
Izzie rested her hand against my chest, over my heart, as she closed her eyes. Envious that she could sleep through anything, including a mad man waving a gun at us. Well, for the moment, the gun was tucked into his pants, but it was within his reach.
I kept reading, page by page. Her body slumped as she fell asleep in my arms. A sigh of relief fell past my lips and spilled out as I finished the second chapter.
“Keep reading,” Nikolai demanded of me.
I did as he said, only because he flashed his gun at me, threatening both of our lives if I didn’t do as he commanded.
Every so often, I glanced up as I read in a soft hushed whisper to find a strange semblance of something familiar cross Nikolai’s face.
“You’ve read this before,” I said. The only solution was to get him to open up and talk. If I could find a way that related to him, maybe he’d spare our lives.
“We’re not talking,” Nikolai said. His finger gestured for me to turn the page and continue reading.
Avoiding conflict, I didn’t shut the book. However, I also didn’t do what he wanted. I kept the page unturned, the book open, my eyes wide as I stared up at Nikolai. “Your sister, Hazel, is quite a bit younger than you.” While I didn’t know how old Nikolai was, he had years weathered to his skin, his brow, his hands, and neck. Stress aged a person, so did murder.
He didn’t stop me, but he also didn’t comment on my observation.
“Did you read this book to Hazel when she was little?” I asked. Could I conjure the good memories, and he’d come to his senses?
He pushed himself away from the corner of the room, his arms still folded against his chest, protective in nature. At the moment, he wasn’t trying to scare me or wake Izzie. He paced the length of the room, back and forth, his jaw tight.
Nikolai’s hands fell to his sides, his hands bunched into fists. “I read that book to my sister, but it wasn’t Hazel.”
“You have another sister?” Had she too been sold and married off to another mobster? I held my tongue; it wasn’t an appropriate question to ask if I wanted him to open up and find a way out of this disaster.
I needed to act with stealth. I had to be sneaky if I was going to interrogate him without him even realizing that’s what I was doing.
His bottom lip jutted out, and his top lip tightened. A tic coursed through him once, forcing his eyes to soften. As quickly as it happened, he grunted and shuffled his feet, pacing louder.
Please don’t wake Izzie.
He couldn’t read my mind. Not that I expected him to, I just didn’t want her to be frightened again. She deserved some peaceful slumber free of nightmares. I wasn’t sure I’d be so lucky if I survived today.
“Yes, I had a baby sister before Hazel. Her name was Rebecca.” Something flashed behind his gaze, a flicker that made me believe he wasn’t always the monster he’d become.
“You used to read to herAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland?” I needed to make him see the connection, the familiarity, and maybe then he wouldn’t put Izzie in harm’s way. If only he realized her innocence and that she was an innocent child.
He stopped pacing and hovered above us.
I shivered from his presence, from his brooding nature that made me feel tiny and insignificant.
Nikolai reached toward me, and I shuddered from fear.
He grabbed the throw blanket on the back of the sofa and unfolded it, placing it over Izzie as she slept.
The warmth comforted me too. Was he not the monster everyone believed him to be? I didn’t know how I could ask him if he had shot everyone in the compound without him turning defensive and building up a wall.
“Thank you,” I whispered, staring up at him.
He grunted and stepped back, his nostrils flaring as he breathed heavily in and out of his nose.
“Are you and Rebecca still close?” I asked. I had to keep asking questions to understand what he was doing and maybe find a way out.
Nikolai’s gaze grew dark. “She’s dead.”
