Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
She pauses, tilting her head like she’s reconsidering.
“I mean, I might check in occasionally. To make sure you’re all still alive and cooperating. But if things get . . . intimate?” She holds up both hands, laughing. “I am immediately muting and looking away. Promise. Boundaries are important. Dr. Knight says healthy relationships require privacy and trust, and I want us to have a healthy relationship. Even if it’s, you know. Kidnapper and kidnappees.”
She pauses again . . . something or someone is distracting her.
“Ten days!” She holds up her fingers again. “Christmas Eve at midnight. Use the time wisely.” She blows a kiss at the camera. “Bye for now! Remember—try the Malbec!”
The screen goes dark.
For a long moment, nobody moves.
“She’s fucking insane,” Liam says.
I start laughing. I can’t help it—it bubbles up from somewhere hysterical, and once it starts I can’t make it stop. Liam stares at me, then his mouth twitches, and Knox makes a sound that’s either a groan or a laugh, and suddenly we’re all standing in our beautiful prison losing our minds.
“We’re so fucked,” I manage between breaths.
“Thoroughly,” Liam agrees.
The laughter dies as quickly as it came. Reality settling back in, cold and heavy.
Knox is already moving. “She said she’s watching. We need to find the cameras.”
He starts with the bookshelf, running his fingers along the spines, checking behind frames. Liam takes the kitchen, opening cabinets, examining light fixtures. I scan the main room—the fireplace mantel, the decorative objects, anywhere a lens could hide.
We search for twenty minutes. Every corner, every surface, every piece of furniture that could conceal surveillance equipment.
Nothing.
“They’re too well hidden,” Knox says, frustration bleeding through his words. “Professional installation. Could be pinhole cameras, could be built into the walls. Without equipment, we’re not going to find them.”
“So we just assume she can see and hear everything,” Liam says.
“We have to.” Knox’s jaw tightens. “Every conversation. Every plan we make. She’ll know.”
The weight of that settles over us. No privacy. No secrets. Ten days of being watched like animals in a cage.
“You should eat something,” Knox says to me. “Keep your strength up.”
I shake my head. “My stomach’s still off from whatever they drugged us with.”
“Same,” Liam admits. “Feels like I swallowed battery acid.”
Knox nods slowly. “Yeah. Me too.”
None of us move toward the kitchen. The thought of food right now makes my insides twist.
“So.” Knox turns to face us, all traces of humor gone. “Now what?”
Liam pushes off from the counter. “We give her what she wants. Tell her where the diamond is, take the deal, disappear.”
“No,” Knox says.
“Knox—”
“Think about it. She lied about Viktor. She had to have manipulated you into bringing Hailey here. That whole thing about you retrieving the Snowflake—how did she know about that unless she set it up?” His jaw tightens as the implication lands. “Everything out of her mouth could be bullshit, including the part where she lets us walk away.”
“She’s obsessed with us,” Liam says. “You heard her. We’re irreplaceable. She’s not going to destroy something she spent five years trying to acquire.”
“She threatened to destroy it thirty seconds ago,” Knox counters. “With a smile on her face.”
“That was a negotiating tactic.”
“That was a woman telling us exactly what she’s capable of.” Knox takes a step toward him. “The second she has that diamond, we’re loose ends. Three people who know what she did, who she is, what she’s willing to do. You really think she lets us walk away with all that?”
“So what’s your plan? Die on principle?” Liam says. “I’d rather take the chance she keeps her word than guarantee she kills one of us on Christmas Eve.”
Knox goes still. But he doesn’t soften.
“The deal is the trap,” he says. “She doesn’t need us alive after she gets what she wants. Right now the diamond is the only thing keeping us breathing.”
“Or we find a way out before it comes to that,” Liam argues. “Get out of here—with the diamond if we can, without it if we have to. But sitting here refusing to engage isn’t a strategy, it’s a death wish.”
“I’m not refusing to engage. I’m refusing to hand her the one card we’re holding.”
“You’re gambling with Hailey’s life.”
“You’re gambling with all our lives by refusing to consider the obvious solution.”
They’re squaring off now, and I can feel the tension ratcheting up. Different from their fight earlier—less about old wounds, more about strategy—but just as volatile.
“Stop,” I say, stepping between them with my hands up. “Both of you. She’s watching us right now. This is exactly what she wants.”
They don’t back down, but they stop advancing.
“Ten days,” I continue. “We have ten days. We use the time to figure out our options, look for weaknesses, come up with something better than ‘give her what she wants and pray.’ ” I look at Knox. “And something better than ‘refuse to cooperate and hope for a miracle.’ ”