“Product.”
She didn’t cry. She gripped my hand hard enough to hurt and breathed for six like I taught her. To our right, Sunshine did the same. Across, Juno said something under her breath that might’ve been a prayer and might’ve been a promise. Tess folded herself into something so small I couldn’t hear her at all.
“Count the steps when they come,” I said. “Listen for the light when it clicks. Feel the cold when the door opens. We’ll make a hole.”
“How?”
“By being the wrong kind of inventory.”
“That’s not a plan.”
“It is. It starts with being loud at the quiet parts and quiet at the loud ones. It ends with you on my bike.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“I stand by my word, Ariel. I’m getting you out of here.”
The world swayed a little when I tried to sit up. Adrenaline’s a liar. It makes you think you’ve already won. I could feel the crash coming.
She held my wrist through the wire and counted my pulse to steady hers. Laughter upstairs. Good. The next man through that door would lose his.
