Cheap laughs. “No wonder we didn’t find anything. We were searching under the wrong name.”
Hulk clicks his tongue. “You’re a dark horse, Tatiana.”
I look around, already knowing there are no cameras in here.
“You have a minute,” Hulk says.
I blink, perspiring more profusely. Turning in a circle, I take in the room. The boxes can only be opened with a code. They don’t have keys. It’s more convenient for people who tend to misplace or lose keys. I’m not sure how I know that. The knowledge is simply a part of me. It’s like knowing the earth is round.
I don’t remember the safe box number, but my feet carry me to where it feels familiar.
“Is this it?” Hulk asks next to me when I stop in front of a safe box.
I don’t know how I know this either. I just do.
I nod.
He pulls out the box and carries it to the table. I eye the water again, but he wipes an arm across the tabletop and knocks down the carafe.
I stare at the puddle that grows around the broken crystal on the floor, wanting to go down on my knees and lap it up.
Hulk’s command is clipped. “Do it.”
“Wait.” Cheap catches his arm. “She may have a gun stashed in there. It’s best if you open it.”
“Good point.” Hulk curls his fingers over my shoulder and shoves me a few feet back. “Give me the code.”
I close my eyes. The four numbers flash like a stuttering tungsten light through my mind. I hesitate but only for a second. I’ll do anything not to go back into the trunk.
“Zero, six, one, two.”
Noah’s birthday, I register.
Hulk punches the numbers on the code pad. The red light turns to green.
He shoots Cheap a grin. “I told you I’d break her.”
The latter pushes closer, both of them fighting for space as Hulk opens the box.
Boom!
A deafening explosion rocks the space, sending my body flying into the metal boxes behind me. I crumple to the floor in a stupor, my ears ringing and my body shaking.
Hulk and his accomplice lie a distance from me. Most of the thinner man’s face is blown away. Something gray shows through the huge hole in Hulk’s skull, the metal lid of the box still lodged in his head.
Alarms blare in the space.
I push myself up, coughing through the thick smoke as I battle to stand.
The door opens and security guards rush through.
“What happened?”
“I—” I wipe away something wet on my temple. My hand comes away with blood. “I don’t know.”
The guard who addressed me speaks into a two-way radio. “Call an ambulance.”
Another guard approaches me. “Are you all right?”
