“I’m waiting, Tatiana.”
I shake my head. If I say water, he’ll ask me questions I can’t answer. Then it’s back to the trunk.
His voice is deceptively gentle. “Where’s the necklace? Tell me where it is, and you can have a glass of water.” He reaches out and takes something from the darkness. “Here. Listen.”
Bells ring through the air, pure and angelic.
“It’s nice and cold.”
Ice cubes, not bells. Aren’t they the same?
I feel myself going, giving in to the mercy of darkness, but a rough shake jerks me back to the cruel present.
“Do you want a sip?”
“Yes.” I shiver with anticipation. “Please.”
“Then tell me where the necklace is.”
I utter a cry that doesn’t even qualify as a sound. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He sighs. “Come on.”
No!
My scream is silent as he drags me back to the trunk. With a single push on the center of my breastbone, I go down, falling onto my back. I don’t have the energy to pull my knees to my chest. Hulk does it for me, folding me double before he forces the lid down.
Click.
When he pulls me out again, I simply go with the flow, letting him dump me on the floor.
“Tatiana.”
I know that girl. In a distant corner of my mind, I remember her face. Her history seems intimately familiar. I try hard to focus because if I get the questions right, I can have that water with the tinkling bells. No, ice.
“Where’s the necklace?”
I curl into a ball, not wanting to go back into the trunk.
“Where did you hide it? At home? Somewhere else? In a safe?”
Safe.
An image of a metal box pierces my memory. Gold letters on a black façade.
“Did you bury it like a treasure?”
Four numbers flash through my mind.
“My poor Tatiana.” Hulk hauls me up by my arm. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” I rasp as he heaves me toward the trunk, my uncooperative legs dragging behind me.
He pauses.
“Prosperity.”
His voice sharpens with his greed for answers. “What was that?”
