CHAPTER 4
Zaid
On the black and white screen, Heather tiptoed through the basement, her gaze tracing the cell. Her sister cowered in the corner, her hair and skin glowing. Muffled with echoes in the small quarters, their whispers grew louder with panic.
“Hazel! Is that you?”
“Heather?”
Hazel quickly stood, carefully finding her footing in the damp cell. Each part of this house was custom made, built with intention. It was no accident that Hazel slipped on the ground once she was left alone in the basement cell. The ground was slick, to make the simple act of walking that much more difficult. She met Heather at the bars. The two sisters reached for each other between the thick metal.
“What happened?” Heather asked.
“You’ve got to get me out of here.”
“Who put you here?”
“That psycho! He’s out of control!”
“Out of control? How?”
Even in the night-vision footage, the shift in Hazel’s shoulders showed her complete incredulity. “What do you mean, how? I’m in a cage like a fucking animal, Heather. How is that not crazy?”
“Did he put you here? Was it Eric?”
“What don’t you get about being locked in a cage?”
“We’ve got to get you out of here.”
Heather felt along the bars, then the walls. Hazel was glued to Heather’s dark shadow as it wandered around the room. As Heather turned towards the prison cell, her eyes flicked over the camera lens, hidden in the corner, her eyes white globes. She turned back to Hazel.
“I don’t feel anything,” Heather said. “There’s no way out.”
“What about the way you came out?”
“Won’t they see us?”
“I don’t fucking care. We need to leave.”
“How are we going to get you out of that cage? Is there anything?”
Grant, the second in command of my company, as well as my closest associate, a man I considered a younger brother, appeared in the doorway. His shoulders straight, his hands clasped behind his back. After he had driven us back from Club Hades, he checked the perimeters, as ordered.
A curt dip of his chin to indicate the lack of threats, and I nodded in return, then turned back to the screen. Hazel was pacing now, catching herself from slipping as her steps increased. Heather continued to feel the walls.
“No keys,” Heather said. “Nothing.”
Hazel sighed, and desperately ran her fingers along the wall too. A noise from the ground floor made them turn towards the stairs. Heather’s jaw clenched.
“I should go,” she said. “If he finds me down here, it’ll breach our agreement—”
“Fuck your agreement,” Hazel said. “You aren’t seriously going to leave me here, are you?”
“I can try to get information out of him. The key. Something—”
Grant cleared his throat. I kept my eyes on the screen.
“You baited her into this,” Grant said.
