“Eric, the bomb…”
“Don’t worry, no one was inside.”
Nikolett sagged in relief, as beside her, Gus stiffened.
Eric was watching him. “Disappointed,brother?”
Now, Gus staggered back as if the word were a blow.
Slowly, Eric stalked into the cell. Nikolett wanted to scream at him to run. Leave.
Eric was almost within touching distance of her when Gus raised a hand toward her. Nikolett instinctively flinched, but Gus wasn’t about to hit her.
He was showing them something. A small black box with a large red button.
“There’s a bomb in this building too,” Nikolett breathed.
“Yes, there is.” Gus smiled at her, and once more, she saw a flash of the man she thought he’d been. “A much bigger bomb.
“You have a choice,brother.” Gus flung the word back at Eric. “Leave her behind and you’ll have time to save the others. Get them out.”
“Go, Eric,” she urged. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
Being blown up or crushed to death when a building collapsed on her wasn’t most people’s definition for fine, but it was all about perspective.
Eric crossed his arms. “I won’t leave her.”
“Then they’ll all die with you.”
Eric shrugged. “Everyone dies someday.”
“Eric, please, go.”
“I’m not leaving you, Nikolett. Together until the end.”
Her heart squeezed itself into a tight, painful ball. “Together until the end.”
“Touching,” Gus snarled, though there was more emotion in his voice than there had been. “But you’ll still be dead.”
Nikolett looked at Eric, resigned to her fate. Their fate.
Eric caught her gaze, and his eyes widened just a little, a slight change of expression she might not have noticed if she weren’t obsessed with him.
Eric had a plan. Or someone else had a plan, and this was Eric’s part of it.
“At least tell us why,” Nikolett said, and when Eric’s shoulders slumped just a little in relief, she knew she’d guessed right. Whatever the plan was, they needed to stall. “Is it just because he’s your brother?”
Gus looked between them. “How did you figure it out?”
“Nikolett guessed.” Eric tipped his head toward her.
“You reminded me of him,” she said warily, unsure if that would be enough to set him off and cause him to detonate the bomb.
But that can’t be a detonator, because if it is, he’ll die here with us.
Maybe dying was his plan, but Gus didn’t seem like the suicidal type. That switch probably armed the bomb, starting a countdown. Which also meant Gus had an escape plan.
Given that there was no way he simply walked in the front door…he had a secret way in.
