Shaking out my hands, I take a breath and stand.Shit. A rush of nausea grips my forehead, and I steady myself on the bars. Our water’s been out all day. Oh, the fucking irony.
“Katerina,” I call, my dry throat burning like sandpaper.
Her hand freezes above Griffin’s bloodied ribs. She looks back at me, her eyebrows shooting up. “My pet. To what do I owe this honor?”
I force my expression to look desperate, my lips turned down. “I need to talk to you. Please. This”—I gesture to Griffin, the blood dripping to the floor—“I can’t take it. It’s too much. I’m gonna fucking be sick.” That part might be true, but I have my deteriorating physical state to thank for that.
Her head tilts, and she sets down the instrument. Griffin’s body relaxes against the table, his chest going up and down with rapid breaths as Katerina steps away. Her eyes soften with each step she takes toward me.
“Is that right, my sweet boy?” She reaches the cage, and I move slightly to the left for what I’m about to do. “Is it painful for you to watch? Seeing someone suffer before they’re put to sleep?”
I nod slowly, keeping my body relaxed. When she inches closer, I swing the door open and lunge. She gasps as No Name and I double-team her, shoving her inside and locking the cuffs around her wrist. My chest hammers straight to my ears. No Name locks the cage door while I reach between the bars, forcing her to the floor by securing the cuffs around the water dispenser, just a foot above the ground.
Her forehead connects with one of the bars, and she winces before staring up at me. “My pet.” She sounds genuinely hurt, and my face twists with disgust. “You tricked me.”
Holy shit. Yes, we fucking did.
Turning for Sofia’s cage, I don’t respond. We don’t have time to waste on Katerina. No Name gets to work on the sink while I lower to my haunches in front of Sofia. I’ve never been this close to her, and she looks even smaller from here.
“Hey,” I mutter, trying to smile even though my adrenaline is through the roof. “You still sure about this?”
She nods, her sky-blue eyes twinkling up at me.
When a familiar humming fills the room, all three of us look back at our old cage. Katerina is sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching us, and fucking singing. Except she’sactuallysinging, lyrics and all. She’s too quiet for me to make out all the words, but I catch something about children coming with her, into some kind of garden. A cold shiver shoots down my spine, and I break my gaze away before her level of psycho sucks me in any more than it already has.
After a second, I pull myself up, grabbing ahold of the bar this time for support. Glancing at No Name, I wipe my sweaty forehead with the back of my arm. “I gotta get those crate kids out, man.”
He arches a brow, flicks his gaze to the hall. “You still sure about that? We might not have enough time.”
I shake my head. “Stay with Sofia. I don’t want her seeing that room.”
When No Name’s eyes dart to Sofia, he barely contains his loathing. It pisses me off, but I don’t have a choice. I have to leave him with her. There’s no way I’m walking her into a room overflowing with street kids stuffed in crates, especially when I don’t know how they’ll react once I break them out.
“Fine,” he grumbles, “but you won’t have time to come back and get her after all that. I’ll bring her out with me. I’ll make sure she’s safe.”
I cock a brow.Yeah, no fucking way. “Nah. I got her.” Shifting back to Sofia, I soften my voice. “I’ll come back for you.”
She hugs her teddy bear tighter.
“Go, Lucas,” No Name says, angling his head toward the exit. “Unless you want this to take all night. I still have to get to those pipes.”
No Name turns away, and I head to Griffin. Shit, he’s tore up. But the wounds are mostly superficial. Might be fatigued, but he should be able to stand. I grab a white cloth from beside the table and wrap it around his torso, then unstrap his wrists and ankles.
When he looks up as I pull him forward, our gazes lock. For a second, I’m taken aback by the black holes staring into me. I saw him before she strapped him down. It was obvious even then he’d been through hell already. But the look etched into his face now? It’s like Katerina carved his heart out and left him to bleed.
I don’t know how you come back from something like that.
Maybe you don’t.
Maybe none of us will.
He grimaces as he slides off the table, but he walks pretty good as long as he leans on me. Just as I step foot into the hall, a small voice stops me solid.
“Promise?” it squeaks.
I look over my shoulder. Sofia is standing in the cage’s open doorway, peering up at me.
When I don’t respond, she hugs her stuffed animal. “Promise you’ll come back for me?”
