I recognize the deep timber of my brother’s voice as well as the faint Russian accent that still laces his intonation.
“Hey,” Ryker answers. The word carries a familiarity that makes me prickle with discomfort. It’s the fact that my jailers are so well acquainted and Ryker now holds one of my secrets. “I need to discuss a detail about the wedding. Do you have a minute?”
“Of course. What do you want to discuss?” My brother asks.
“I’m actually close to the building. Mind meeting me in the conference room on the second floor?”
“Fine,” my brother replies. “How soon?”
“Five minutes.” And then Ryker hangs up the phone. Just like that, he’s cleared the apartment of Dimitri so that I can enter.
Because though my brother lives in another unit, he spends increasing amounts of time “checking” on me and Katarina.
But my brother being gone doesn’t mean I’m free from notice. The cameras will certainly?—
He dials the phone again, another male voice picking up.
“I’m in the garage. I need a cut in the feed from the garage to the third floor, through the right stairwell. Make sure to stagger it so that not too much of the system is off at once.”
I stare at him, my lips parting in surprise. Dimitri does not, as far as I know, have that kind of power.
Not that I didn’t know that the Smiths were always the puppet masters. But I’ve gone and played myself right into Ryker Smith’s hands.
He opens his door and slides out of his seat.
I already know there is no point in running here. Even if they shut the garage cameras down, the entire outside is rigged. I’d never make it. It took me days to learn the rhythm on the wall outside my bedroom.
Ryker opens my door and offers his hand once again. With a grimace, I slide my fingers into his. “How’d you get off the third floor without being seen?”
I shrug. If he thinks I’m telling him my secrets, he’s crazy. “I’m resourceful.”
“Hmm,” he says as his hand comes to my back again. The automatic lock of the stairwell door clicks and he pulls it open.
The guards must control the doors, it’s the only explanation I can manage before we’re in the stairwell and starting up the stairs.
We easily climb the three flights, but stop on the third-floor landing, the door from the stairwell to the apartment still locked.
That’s when Ryker’s phone buzzes with a text. He glances down. “Your sister-in-law is in the kitchen. You can’t enter yet.”
Ava. Despite not knowing how I feel about my brother, I like his wife. Smart, kind, and beautiful in this warm way, there have been a few times when I’ve considered asking her real questions.
But my father taught me a long time ago to be very careful who I trust.
But then a new thought occurs to me. “You have cameras in the apartment?”
Can the guards see me changing in my room? My face flames at the idea. I don’t have a lot of experience in that regard, and I definitely don’t want random men checking me out.
Ryker glances down at me. “Just in the kitchen and hall, they point at the elevator and the stairwell. For protection.”
My brows lift. “Who’s protection?” Because they seem to use the security a lot more for keeping us in, than for keeping others out.
But the door buzzing, interrupts me asking. Ryker opens it, putting pressure on my back so that I step from the stairwell and into the kitchen. “I’ll see you at the wedding,” he says as I look back over my shoulder, our gazes locking. My lips part to reply,but I’m silenced by the shadowed look in his eyes. His dark gaze assesses me before he closes the door.
I’m left staring at the blank metal barrier as the lock clicks back into place.
Still a prisoner.
But if I’ve been a little pawn waiting on the chess board, I think I might have just moved myself into play…
