The younger male’s voice could be heard in the hallway as Georgina spoke with him, telling him he was also wanted at the main house.
Domik waited until the voices in the hallway had moved away, before sliding the knife out from underneath his leg. He grasped the handle in fingers that were almost numb from how tightly his hands had been bound. He fumbled, dropping it twice before wedging the handle against the wall and sawing through the plastic tie.
It was with considerable relief that it finally gave way, sending blood back into his hands with a rush that made his hands tingle painfully. He flexed his fingers, rotating his wrists and rubbing to bring the circulation back.
He had scraped his wrists while cutting free; the serrations catching his skin and ripping it apart, but it was a wound he barely glanced at before picking up the knife from where it had fallen to the floor and, much more quickly this time, slicing through the tie binding his feet.
This one had been over the thick boots, not able to cut the blood flow to his feet, and he stood stretching out his limbs before approaching the door.
This had better not be a trap.
Domik closed his eyes, focusing his senses on the hallway outside. He couldn’t hear anyone, but he couldn’t believe nobody had been left to watch him.
Are they really that stupid?
He found it unlikely, but stranger things had happened. Like the Xakul passing over the motel and not sending soldiers to clear the place.
That was very out of character. Just like the ship they had used. It sounded like a Xakul ship, but there was something not quite right.
You can think about that later. Get out of here and find CJ.
His stomach clenched at the thought of the blond medic. He hoped, for theresistance’ssake, that she wasn’t harmed.
His lips thinned.
Don’t think about it. Just get to her and get out.
The window into the cell was closed from the outside. He would just have to hope there was nobody standing silently outside. He lifted the handle to the door and opened it, easing it open a crack and peering into the hallway.
Empty. So far, so good.
He eased the door open further and, when no shouts came, peered out. Empty. The hallway was empty.
Domik quickly slid through the doorway, shutting it closed behind him. He was standing in the middle of a long corridor, rooms like his own on one side, the other a solid windowless wall. He had been dazed when he had been brought here, carried by four human men, and he couldn’t remember which way he needed to go.
But which way had Georgina’s footsteps gone?
He turned to the right and continued slowly down the hallway, peering into the open doorways as he passed to ensure no one jumped out to surprise him.
He had begun to think he would get out of the building with no issues when a large figure stepped out of a side room a few feet in front of him, his back toward him.
Domik didn’t think. He moved like lightning, grabbing the man from behind, one hand over his mouth and the other around his neck. He slid his arm deep under his chin, dragging him backward and into the, thankfully empty, room the man had stepped out of.
He was big, the tallest human Domik had ever seen, but still had nothing on Domik, who lifted his thrashing feet off the ground as the man pulled at his arm, desperately trying to free himself.
Domik squeezed his biceps tight, cutting off the circulation to the man’s head and, eventually, he slumped.
Wasting no time, Domik laid him on the ground and, using the man’s own belt, tied his hands together. He found a bandanna on a table in the room and gagged him.
Satisfied he wouldn’t be able to make much noise when he woke, Domik left the room, shutting the door behind him.
He wiped his hands on his pants, smears of blood from the wounds on his wrists staining the gray fabric. The door at the end of the hallway was a solid wood. The barrier to him and the outside. Domik’s luck had held so far, but it couldn’t last forever. He had to be quick.
He turned the light off in the hallway, not wanting to draw more attention to himself than necessary, and left the building, sliding out into the cool desert night. Putting his back to the building, he skirted it until the main house that Georgina had mentioned came into view. The dark night offered many places for hiding, for both Domik and his captors, so he waited behind a stack of boxes, watching the stretch of open ground before him.
Where was CJ?
