And then I see Ethan. He’s slumped against the wall just outside the room, unconscious, his head tipped to one side, one arm limp across his lap. There’s blood at the corner of his mouth, dried dark against his skin.
I stop breathing. “Ethan?”
He doesn’t move.
Panic takes me properly then, cold and violent. “What the hell is going on?”
Maksim pulls me forward. “Keep walking.”
“No.” I dig my heels in, uselessly, because he’s stronger and I’m barely standing. “What did you do to him?”
“He’ll live.”
That’s not an answer. That’s a sentence people use when they have already decided survival is enough.
I start shivering. I can’t stop it. My whole body is trembling now, from fear or blood loss or shock or all of it at once. I can feel myself coming apart.
“Please,” I say. “Please don’t do this. My daughter needs me. I need to go back to her.”
For the first time, Maksim’s face twists. “Don’t,” he says.
“Please.”
His grip tightens, then loosens just as quickly when I gasp.
He looks at my bound wrists and seems to make a decision. To my surprise, he pulls a knife from his pocket and cuts the restraint. My hands come free.
For half a second I can only stare at them, numb and red, the skin rubbed raw.
Then I look past him.
Outside the open door, his car is parked close to the entrance, engine running, driver’s side door open. Beyond it, there’s a broken stretch of yard, a wall, a gate that looks rusted but not locked.
A chance.
Maybe not a good one. Maybe not even real.
But it is something.
Maksim grabs my arm again. “Move.”
I move.
Not where he wants.
I swing with everything I have, using the full weight of my body and all the fear in it. My fist catches him hard near the side of his face, clumsy but enough. He howls, shocked more than hurt, and stumbles back.
I run.
Two steps. That’s all I get.
His hand catches my coat from behind and yanks me back so hard pain rips through my abdomen. I cry out, twisting away, scratching at his wrist, my nails catching skin.
He hits me. The blow snaps my head sideways. For a second there’s only light. White, bursting light and the taste of blood in my mouth.
We both lose balance. Maksim grabs for me as he falls, and I go down with him, my body hitting the concrete badly, my head striking the floor with a dull, sickening crack.
Everything blanks.
