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Ruby must have dozed off.
She sat still, her mind scrambling for something that seemed right there, like a word on the tip of her tongue.
What had woken her up? The TV? Or something else?
She stood and walked toward the intersection of the two halls — the one that led to the bedrooms and the other, with the guest rooms, the playroom, and Roman’s office.
“What are you doing, Mommy?” Olivia asked from the couch.
“Nothing, honey.” Ruby was aware that she was speaking quietly. Carefully. “Just stretching my legs.”
She looked at Vera and saw that the other woman was watching her, eyes alert.
And then Ruby heard it: the soft clink of metal on metal.
She followed the sound — past Roman’s office and the guest rooms, past the playroom — to the metal door at the end of the hallway.
Roman had told her it was an emergency exit in case of a fire. He’d wanted her to know, especially with Olivia, but Ruby had never given it a second thought.
Now someone was on the other side, trying to get in.
Georgiy? No, he would text her and use the elevator, like he always did when he needed to come up, warning her in advance so she wouldn’t be startled.
She walked backwards, her eyes still on the door. Vera met her on the other side of the island, clearly aware that something was wrong.
“Take Olivia to my room,” she told Vera quietly. “Lock the door and don’t open it for anyone but me.”
Vera nodded curtly and walked toward Olivia. “Come with me, Olivia. We’re going to take a break from the movie.”
Olivia looked confused. “But it’s not over.”
“It’s just a little intermission so Mommy can do some work real quick.” Ruby hated to use the work excuse after Adam had used it to keep her from Olivia but it was all she could think of on such short notice. “We’ll finish it soon, I promise. Why don’t you practice reading the books in my room with Vera?”
This appeased Olivia, but only a little. She loved practicing her reading, especially on “grown-up books,” but even the appeal of the books in Ruby’s room paled in comparison toGremlinsand M&M cookies.
She took Vera’s hand and Vera marched her down the hall opposite the emergency stairwell. They’d just closed the door, the click of the lock barely audible over the sound of the movie still playing on the big TV, when the metal door opened.
The hallway seemed to stretch, like one of those nightmare hallways in movies where the main character ran and ran and didn’t get anywhere.
Adam stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand and hanging at his side.
She might not have recognized him on the street. His hair had grown long and he hadn’t shaved in at least two weeks. His nose was bent, his eyes shadowed with bruises.
He looked nothing like the clean-cut cop she’d married. It was his expression that gave him away, an expression with which Ruby was all too familiar: pure unadulterated rage.
It was so powerful she stumbled back a step, like it was a physical thing, a blow to her actual body.
She had milliseconds to calculate her next move, could see Adam doing the same in the moments before she ran for Roman’s bedroom, Adam on her heels.
37
ROMAN
They spotted the outdoor lights around the house before they cleared the trees. Lyon and his men had peeled off a couple of minutes before, aiming for the front of the house, while Roman, Max, Pavel, and Mat had continued toward the back of the house.
They stopped at the tree line and Roman took in the scene: two men he didn’t recognize criss-crossing the property behind the house.
And now that Roman was here, a chord of memory echoed through his mind.
