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As soon as the screen flickers on, it’s gone. Whisked out of my hand before I can blink.
The man across from me is holding it between his thumb and forefinger like it’s a carrot he’s dangling in front of me. “You aren’t calling anyone. We’re the only people you’re gonna talk to.”
“Now,” the man in front of the door barks, “tell us where the fuck you are going, and who you’re meeting. Names. Now.”
Air hisses in and out of my tight lungs. I count the breaths.In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four.It doesn’t help, but deep breathing keeps me from talking. The less I talk, the better. It won’t take much more of this before I’ll say almost anything to get out.
The walls of the room seem to be pressing in from every direction. The deep male voices blend together into a single cigarette-and-coffee-stained rasp. I can’t hear any one of them distinctly.
“Let me out,” I whisper. “Please.”
I can’t tell what they’re saying, but I know they’re taunting me.
Why are you doing this?I’m not sure if I say the words out loud or not.Maybe I should tell them. I’m going to see Ashley and Gram. They’re in a bed and breakfast. They’re in danger. But I’m in danger, too. I’m going to suffocate in here.
Darkness is creeping into the edges of my vision, and I’m going to break. I’ll say whatever I need to say to get out of here.
But before I can open my mouth, there’s a loud knock at the door.
There’s some murmuring amongst the men. The one by the door cracks it open. I see a sliver of a leg. Hear a muffled voice.
Then the men leave.
As each man exits the room, I feel the oxygen in the space increase. My head clears. My vision returns. My heart is still racing, but I’m better. I’m safe.
I’m okay.
Then: “I’m disappointed in you, Piper.”
I hear his voice before I see him. All at once, the panic returns.
I’m not safe. I’m not sure I’ll ever be safe again. Not so long as he’s after me.
My vision narrows on the doorway just as Timofey steps into the threshold, a cruel smile on his beautiful face.
9
TIMOFEY
“She’s losing it.”
I almost detect a bit of sympathy in Akim’s voice. I’m not wholly surprised. He has said numerous times he would never slaughter his own meat.
“We had chickens when I was a kid. I like them. So chickens are off-limits,” he told me once. “And cows are too big. Those guns that shoot bolts into their heads? Hard pass. Maybe I could kill a bird, but…. No. Definitely not.”
It’s funny, considering how much death he has experienced. Still, if given the choice, Akim avoids the slaughter at all costs.
I’ve been around long enough to know that, sometimes, you don’t have a choice.
“Everything will end the moment she gives me the information I need,” I tell him.
Piper is fuzzy and pixelated when seen through the feed of the shitty security camera in the interrogation room. But I can’t take my eyes off of her.
Her white teeth shine when she smiles, but it’s going to take more than a pretty face to sway these TSA agents. I’m paying each of them more than they could make in a year to interrogate her.
Akim shifts behind me, mirroring the agent who just shifted in front of the door. “Maybe she really doesn’t know. She loves Ashley and her grandma. She wouldn’t risk their lives.”
“You don’t know that. People are capable of terrible things.”
