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“Please,” I whimper. “He needs a doctor.”
“Shut up and sit down, bitch,” Jerome snaps.
“Luka issick,” I try again, desperation clawing at my throat. “Please. He has a high fever. He can barely breathe. You need to get him to a doctor.”
Calvin eyes me suspiciously. “What are you playing at?”
My heart sinks. “You have to believe me. I’m not playing at anything, alright? Luka can barely breathe!”
“Dani.”
I turn, trembling as I watch Luka pull himself up. “Luka, please, you need to—”
“It’s okay,” he says softly, shuffling over slowly. The hallway lights may be dim, but I can clearly see the dark circles beneath his eyes. He’s a shadow of himself, cheeks sallow and hair unruly. But that burning fight in his gaze… That’s still the same. He hasn’t given up hope yet. “I’ll be back soon,” he tells me, kissing me on the cheek before Jerome and Calvin lead him away.
The moment the door closes, I sprint to the tunnel entrance, desperately clawing out the dirt. I have to be close to the surface by now. I can feel it. Ihaveto be. We have to make our escapetonight.
I dig and dig and dig. I lose feeling in my fingers. My back cramps from the awful angle of the tunnel’s slope and the cramped space. Rage and desperation and fear renew my motivation, igniting me with purpose. I scrape past dirt and rocks and roots. Clumps of worms, mud, and grass until finally—
My first gulp of fresh air doesn’t feel real. For a moment, I wonder if I’m dreaming. Was the breeze always this cool and light against my tender skin? Is that… sunshine burning a hole into my retinas?
Holy shit.
Holy shitI did it!
My stomach lurches. I could go right now. Make a break for it and get help. If I can figure out where I am, I can make a phone call to Peterson and call for backup. I could have the FBI swarming this place.
But what about Luka?
If he returns to our cell and finds I’m not there, what will he think? That I abandoned him? I can’t do that to him. Not to mention Jerome and Calvin will no doubt see our escape tunnel. What if they punish Luka for my disappearance? I can’t let that happen. I can’t leave him behind.
So, reluctantly, I crawl back down, sliding backward until I’m back in my prison. My tunnel isn’t going anywhere. When Luka returns and the coast is clear, we’ll make our move.
Chapter 27
Luka
“Why do you send the money in such weird amounts?” Calvin asks me as I type away on the computer. “Why not transfer it all at once?”
I cough into my elbow. My chest stings like my lungs are made of shards of glass. It’s hot in here, but I can’t stop shivering. I’d kill for a jacket right now.
“There are millions of dollars in these accounts,” I manage to say. My mouth tastes like blood from coughing so hard. “If I transfer it all at once, it’ll draw the wrong kind of attention.”
Calvin hums. “Oh, I get it.”
I don’t think he does, but I’m not in the mood to argue with him.
$10,100.11 sent successfully.
$11,001.01 sent successfully.
$11,011.10 sent successfully.
$11,001.00 sent successfully.
I check my work carefully, checking every single one and zero on my screen. To Calvin and Jerome, it looks like I’m doing as The Trinity asked and wiring the Antonov Bratva’s money to their accounts when in reality, it’s far more clever than that.
Little by little, I’ve been sending my brothers a message through binary code. I can only get a couple of letters to them each day. Sometimes a full sentence if I’m lucky. There’s no doubt in my mind they’ve realized their money’s been draining out of their accounts. While I’m the tech whiz of the family, my brothers are by no means tech illiterate. We used to run a cybersecurity company together, after all.
