“Yes. He’s an influential man. She handles his schedules, meetings, and many of the confidential documents. They wanted information.”
She leaned forward. “Kedrov?”
“And the FBI agent,” Lauren whispered.
Of course, Morgan would be involved.
“Stuck in here for so long, I don’t know all the details,” she continued. “Sometimes the guards talk. Once… they put me on the phone so Shannon would know I was alive.”
Her heart lurched with sympathy for the sisters, twins who were two halves of a whole, and who would feel the separation more deeply.
Lauren’s voice trembled as she went on. “Shannon begged them to let me go. They told her she had to cooperate. That she had access to the information they wanted.”
Her mind leaped to all sorts of possibilities. “Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Lauren shook her head helplessly. “Everyone has been more on edge the past few weeks. They mentioned a warehouse raid. Do you know about it?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Are you the—” Lauren hesitated.
How could she know? “Am I what?” she asked cautiously.
“Most of the guards are Russian. They speak only broken English, and only when the American guards are on duty. But some of the words are the same in English and Russian. FBI, Rangers, and… empath.” Her voice trembled, uncertain. “That’s you, right?”
“Yeah. That’s me,” she admitted.
Lauren reached out to touch her then thought better and pulled her hand back. “You should know. Kedrov is determined to…”
“You can tell me,” she urged, although she could guess.
“They said ‘the boss will make the bitch pay,’” she said, barely above a whisper. “Sorry, their words, not mine.”
Silence settled again, but this time it wasn’t empty. It was charged.
“I’m not paying,” Erica declared suddenly. “Neither are you. One day here is too much. Seventy-five is unthinkable. We’re getting out.”
“How?”
Good question. “I don’t know yet, but we will.”
She felt something building inside her. Not numbness. Not grief. Determination.
She opened the crackers and forced herself to eat one.
Lauren watched her, relief easing her taut, bruised features.
Above them, footsteps echoed, doors opened, and something metallic clanged.
Erica turned to her fellow captive. She’d had a lot of time to listen and learn routines. “Tell me all you’ve learned about the house, the grounds, and the guards. Don’t leave anything out.”
The next time someone opened that door, they needed to have a plan.
***
The sun had set, and their dungeon cell lay in darkness when heavy footsteps thudded down the steps. Erica stiffened. Lauren’s breath hitched.
The lock scraped. The door swung open.
