I lie down beside her, close enough to feel warmth but not touching.
"Isn’t this the same thing?" I ask.
She doesn't answer. I don't push it.
After a while, she says, "Did I do something? I keep thinking — what did I miss?"
"Nothing you were supposed to see."
She turns to look at me. I'm not sure why I said it like that. She seems to take it as comfort.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I'm a disaster."
"You're not what’s broken here."
I reach over and wipe her face with my thumb — the wetness at the corner of her eye, the tear track along her cheekbone. I drag my thumb to the edge of her mouth before I realize I’m doing it. Her breath catches slightly.
I pull my hand back and look at the ceiling.
I can feel her watching my profile in the dark for a long time before her breathing finally slows and evens out.
She shifts in her sleep. Turns and presses her back against my chest. I settle my arm over her waist and let her in.
She fits there easily.
She trusts me.
That's the part I keep coming back to.
Theo thinks this is simple. A means to an end. Information and leverage, and a girl stupid enough to provide both.
I'm starting to think he's miscalculated something.
I'm not sure yet if it's her — or me.
Chapter 14: Adela
Asoundpullsmeout of sleep.
I open my eyes to darkness and a shape above me that doesn't belong.
A mask.
The same one from the video call on Cody's laptop, inches from my face.
My body reacts before my mind does — I try to scream, try to move, and then a gloved hand crushes down over my mouth, cutting off all sound. I thrash against the weight pinning me to the mattress. Nothing. He's immovable.
I hear something behind me. A grunt. A body hitting the floor.
Beckett.
I strain to see him. He's on the ground beside the bed, arms up, as another figure drives a boot into his ribs. Once. The air leaves him audibly. Again.
I try to scream his name into the hand over my mouth. It comes out as nothing.
They work efficiently. No theater. No hesitation. The man above me flips me over and zip-ties my wrists behind my back before I understand what's happening. My ankles next. Then fabric shoved into my mouth — rough, thick, wrong — and tape sealed over it before I could gag it out.
I breathe through my nose in shallow, panicked pulls.
