She set her forehead to the wire. “You think your club will find us?”
“I’m sure they’re already working on it,” I said, honest. “If they move us, I’ll leave clues only they’ll see.”
“You’re bleeding on the floor.”
“Good,” I said. “That’s step one.”
She made the sound she makes when she wants to scold me and can’t because I’m right. I let the mesh take my smile. She said nothing else, but the line of her spine changed. The quiver in it turned to a wire.
Up top, a phone buzzed at someone’s hip. An old pop song. A hand slapped it quiet. Voices went short and business-like. A faucet squeaked. Water ran and shut off. A mop bucket rolled. Somebody whistled a tune that was almost in key. Bleach tried to hide a metallic stink and failed.
I closed my eyes again. Saw the door inside my head, right of the staircase, not left. Springs on the hinge a little tired, so the door doesn’t swing clean, it stutters. Light switch to the left when they come in because the beam arcs that way first. Cages along two walls with open space down the middle. Three a side, maybe a fourth rolled farther back. My guess? They parked me where I could see her and not reach her.
“Ariel,” I said. “If I say flat, you go flat.”
“Okay.”
“If I say quiet, you breathe into your shirt, so they don’t hear you. You don’t speak until I tell you.”
“Okay.”
“If I say bless me, you cover your ears.”
“Why bless?”
“Because we both need it.”
She swallowed. “What if they open my door?”
“Then I get in the way.”
“You can’t take all of them.”
“I don’t need to take all of them.” I tightened my grip through the seam. “I only need the one who thinks he’s the brave one. The others make mistakes when he drops.”
She shivered. I set my jaw to the wire beside her fingers so she could feel it. I felt her counting my heartbeat again where my wrist pressed the mesh. It steadied her. It steadied me.
Tess breathed like she was trying to be invisible. Juno scratched her wrist and stopped when it made sound. Sunshine let a little noise out that sounded like waking through a fever. Her cough dropped lower. I didn’t like the way it sounded in her chest, fluid where air should be. Filed it. A body with a problem needs a plan same as a room.
Minutes passed and stacked. I needed a plan fast. I felt Ariel shiver through the steel.
“Remember the night you came over with the church casserole,” I said near the seam.
She sighed and the sound feathered the wire. “I’m never living that down.”
“You baked it yourself.”
“I stole it from a potluck.”
“You put it in a dish like you didn’t.”
“I never lied.”
“You didn’t correct.”
“It was good.”
“It was terrible,” I said, and heard her laugh for real. “I ate every bite.”
