Both of us, meaning Koen.
I keep my mouth shut.
Koen always said that less talking the better in a hostage situation, which is what this is now, since I’m alone.
I can’t believe the team would leave me here, so hope still dances in my chest that they’ll come bursting back in with the cavalry to save me.
Hope is dashed when Helms moves a panel in the wall, revealing a fire door that appears to be armed and soundproof.
“Inside. Now.” His eyes watch the door behind me warily, and I wish like hell I could get to my gun in my boot and hate myself for putting it there.
Cautiously, I step inside the dark room.
Lights flicker on at the movement, revealing a young girl on a bed.
She’s battered and dirty, and without thinking, I rush her, checking her over.
Her fearful eyes are trained on Helms behind me, her mouth is gagged with a dirty rag, and one of her wrists is tied to the metal headboard.
I open my mouth to ask if she’s alright, but I know she’s not.
She might never be okay again with the trauma she’s likely endured down here in Helms’s torture basement.
“Why are you doing all this?” I ask, turning to glare daggers at Helms as he tosses handcuffs at me.
“Put those on.”
I finger them and hold them up, and the light in the room dances off the metal.
Helms waves the gun around as if I could forget he’s got it trained on me. “Put the fucking cuffs on.”
I swallow, listening because I don’t see another option. If he shoots me, I’m sitting too close to the director’s daughter, she might get hit.
Fuck, what I wouldn’t do for Koen to be up out of that fucking bed and watching me.
He’d never let anyone manhandle me like this.
That’s his job.
“Good. Now sit back on the bed.”
I glance at the girl, and she gives me a nod, fear still glazing her eyes.
Sighing, I sit back.
Helms pockets his gun, flicking his eyes between us. “One of you makes one wrong move, you’ll regret it.”
For the girl’s sake, I stay still as Helms binds my left foot to the footboard before standing back up and training his gun on me once more, as if I’m not bound to a fucking bed and helpless.
He didn’t search me, which I find odd given his training, but I silently pray that he doesn’t later. All I have to do is get my gun and lie in wait for him to come back.
All I have to do is kill him.
I’ve killed before, I tell myself, giving myself false hope as Helms exits the room.
Well, kinda…
37
