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The man frowned. “More than you want to go against. She has friends and family in there. And she paid good money for them to stick around.”
I knew that would happen.
He swallowed and ran his hands through his hair again. He started to pace. “Why did you come out here? To gloat?”
“No, I came out here because I want to help her. But I can’t do anything for her. I can help you get the intel that you want.”
The weak link. He couldn’t call him that. He was the answer to his problem.
“And what do you get out of it?” someone asked behind him. He had to agree. What did the man want?
“I want to return the kindness that Kirsten gave to me. Sher locking her away is wrong, and I know that. I don’t know what is going on, but I knew she didn’t deserve that. I will get you what you want, and in return, you don’t sell me out.”
He took his offer in and nodded quickly. “Deal. Please tell me what you know, and I will be sure to leave you out of the way. I need to know who’s inside and the directions to the room that she has Kirsten in.”
He nodded and turned to leave, but he stopped him.
“And, if you can, please tell Kirsten that I’m coming. She just has to wait a little longer.”
The man gave him a soft smile. “I will if I can. If not, she knows. She’s a smart girl.”
He knew that. He knew that Kirsten was probably keeping herself together. She was probably remaining calm while he was the mess.
He took a deep breath and watched the man turn and head back to the gate. The rest turned to him, waiting for him to say something.
“We wait.” He watched him slip through the gate and nodded his head. “We wait, and if he has nothing to give, I’m done playing nice.”
FORTY
KIRSTEN
Kirsten was thankful to finally have Zara in her arms. It felt strange to become so attached to something that biologically wasn’t hers, but the time she had spent with the child had made her feel like she was turning into the motherly person she had always dreamt of becoming.
Her arms no longer felt empty as she held Zara, despite the fact that she was crying in a deep, heaving weep and wriggling around like a worm. Kirsten lifted her to her shoulder and began patting her back, soothing her with a soft song as she began to sway back and forth.
Sher was still standing in the doorway, a look of scornful annoyance on her face. She tapped her long, villainous fingers against the frame, then shot her neck in the direction of something that needed her attention.
“Stay here with her,” Sher snapped. “I’m leaving the door unlocked so you can go to the nursery, get her changed, or whatever.”
Kirsten nodded as she continued to sway back and forth with the child. Her weeping had begun to die down into tiny whimpers, with Kirsten’s lovely tone bringing her back to baseline. Kirsten knew it bothered Sher to see the effect another woman had on her baby, but it wasn’t something she was doing intentionally.
“Kirsten,” Sher said sharply.
She stopped moving for a moment, Zara shaking in tremors from her long, hysterical expression of what was likely hunger and confusion. Kirsten looked at Sher, dead in the eyes, narrowing like the predator she knew Sher could be.
“Yes?” she said, trying not to be argumentative.
“Don’t try anything stupid,” Sher sneered.
Before Kirsten had the chance to reply, Sher slammed the door shut, re-awakening Zara’s cries of discomfort.
“Shh, it’s okay, honey,” Kirsten whispered.
She was able to calm the child down quite easily again, eventually helping her to fall into an easy slumber on her shoulder, rocking back and forth like a ship at sea. Kirsten gazed into her diaper and found that it was full and dirty, another likely cause of her dismay.
Zara was wearing a sweet, pink onesie that Kirsten slowly began to remove after laying the child on the bed. She was dead to the world, asleep and hopefully lost in a world of rainbows and unicorns. Kirsten placed the outfit aside, then decided she better get her dirty diaper changed before she laid her down to sleep for the afternoon.
She realized that almost all of her anxiety had disappeared once Zara had been handed to her. The baby was like an anchor of sorts, helping her narrow her focus on what was needed in the present rather than what could happen in the hypothetical future.
