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I looked to where she lay curled up on her side. "I want to check on her as well."
Using his good arm, he pulled a black pistol from his hip and aimed it at her. "I said treat my wound." He already had a medical kit at his side on the metal bench seat.
When Katya was in my garage, I had to figure out ways to alleviate her suffering. I also sat by her, so we both had company. That hadn’t provided her with any comfort, but I was an enemy then. Now I would do all that I could as a friend.
I went to the bastard who was from my own homeland. He was a monster, just as Armon pointed out multiple times. My wounded captor maintained a snarl similar to what my brother and all his comrades bore when still alive. A self-proclaimed tough man who would do whatever means necessary to make sure his word was final.
I took the supplies from the medical bag and began to clean and wrap his arm. The occasional whimpers from the floor had my attention returning to Katya. I needed to help her, but wisely. These men were likely worse than what she’d previously endured. The only options I had for defending us were his gun—which was impossible to get—and whatever was in the medical bag that wouldn’t be seen by the brute.
I slowly cut the gauze while considering the best items. In the end, the only defensive items were the small scissors I currently used. But how to distract him? I chunked everything back into the medical kit aside from the scissors, which I tucked at my wrist and angled away from him.
Nikki’s panicked watch of my actions made me thankful she couldn’t speak, but I also hoped the man didn’t take note of how she watched my hand.
"Can I help her?" I already leaned downward toward Katya.
"You can watch me take care of her once we're stopped," he said, grabbing me by the shoulder before he yanked me to his side. The rapid action sent the medical kit to the floor with contents scattered. The moron made it easier than I would have imagined possible.
Katya was clever, a defender of herself if given the smallest opportunity. This would be our opportunity. And we would need to help Nikki as well, though she seemed more of a liability given her terror level.
“Pick up that mess.” He shoved me so hard I fell to the floor, barely missing Katya as I landed.
Nikki’s legs kicked forward to my wrist that landed in front of her. I wasn’t certain if she intentionally began to panic to win his favor and point out my activity, or if she no longer had control of herself and everything increased her terror.
As I picked up items, I rested my weight next to Katya’s bound hands and slid the scissors in.
She grasped them and tucked them between her wrists.
"Let them go, or Armon will come for you." I wished my voice had come out stronger, but it didn't. I wanted to grab the gun on the other side of him, but I couldn’t.
He grabbed me by my hair and yanked hard, so my neck was pulled to a barely tolerable position. "He’s outnumbered." He smiled as his attention went to Katya, who squirmed in frustration. I saw where her eyes briefly flicked to the gun beside him, then scanned away. Did she expect I could get that? She might have the skill under opportune circumstances, but not me.
What surprised me was the way she was able to roll onto her back and kick toward him. Not that she hit, but he knocked me back as he lunged at her. The small gun with an added one-inch barrel on the tip had a silencer. We could kill him without the awareness from the people in the blocked off front. So long as I managed to get to it.
I went for the gun, hearing the pop of her knocked to the metal side. He must have known I had gone for it by the way he turned. Her ankles, duct tape cut from between them, clamped his shins, not doing much, but slowing him as I grabbed the weapon.
Maybe it was an innate desire to survive, or maybe because I felt the need not to fail her. But my hesitation had him barreling at me, and me shooting without aiming. The whistle of the shot wasn’t too loud, at least.
He grabbed his throat where blood leaked down from his hand. That moment went by too fast before he landed on me, knocking me hard against the front metal barrier. A slight swerve, then a rapid decrease in speed had us all knocked forward, with Nikki flailing on top of Katya.
Gun still in hand, though barely gripped with strength, I aimed it at him again and fired. He fell on Katya, whose back arched as she wiggled from beneath him. I spotted a utility knife on his belt and took it to the thin rope bindings on her wrists and began sawing. She’d already used the scissors to cut the tape at her ankles.
The entire time, Nikki sobbed through her duct tape, inching closer to be next. Of course I would help her, but her knocking against me made the rope more difficult to cut.
The binding wasn’t all the way sliced through before the van came to a complete stop.
Only moments passed before doors slammed, shaking the van. I continued, rope thinning as I worked, but not completely by the time the door opened.
Frozen. I was absolutely unable to move at all. It felt as though I’d lost all ability to do anything. Not Katya. She was still wiggling and jerking at the thinned rope. She kicked to propel herself toward the two men, who grabbed her and threw her to the asphalt.
Still on my knees, I turned to pad for the gun that Nikki had managed to scoot to and attempted to grab with the hands bound behind her. Seriously? Of all the times she had to be in the fucking way, it was when our survival depended on that gun. These men would do the most unimaginable things to us. I attempted to get the gun from her.
One captor grabbed my ankle.
Without thought, I had the knife grasped and swung it backward to his hand, then took the gun from Armon’s moron of a wife. It was in my hand, hardly clasped as both men were on top of me. Me—foolishly struggling and kicking, as Katya did earlier. Wherever she was, hopefully wasn’t the ground anymore.
I got my answer when shots sounded, and the men stopped moving. She stood outside in the darkness, having managed to get a gun from one of them. How she’d been captured by my brother would remain a mystery, given her ability to defend herself. She dragged the bodies off me, and I found the knife and went to work on the ropes at Nikki’s wrists.
The moment she had been freed, her trembling fingers peeled the duct tape from her mouth. Her voice quivered when she spoke. “A phone…we need to find a phone.”
