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)
Then his eyes lift. They move from Knox to me, taking in my damp hair, my swollen lips, the way Knox’s shirt is buttoned wrong.
He doesn’t say anything. Neither do we.
The fire pops. Somewhere in the cabin, a clock ticks.
Finally, Liam closes his book and sets it on the cushion beside him. “Shower’s free, then?”
I choke on something between a laugh and a groan. Knox tenses, but I catch the ghost of a smirk before he kills it.
“All yours,” I manage.
Liam nods slowly. “Good to know.”
And that’s it. That’s all any of us say about it.
The rest of the day is the strangest strategy session I’ve ever been part of.
We spend the afternoon huddled in the blind spot by the fireplace, talking in low voices with our backs to the cameras. Whenever one of us needs to get up for water or food or to use the bathroom, we break apart and act normal. Bored captives killing time. Then we drift back together and pick up where we left off.
The first problem is communication. The cameras in the cabin we can work around, but if we ever get out of here, Marlena’s people will be between us and anything resembling freedom.
“The cameras have Wi-Fi—that’s how she’s getting the feed.” Liam says it casually, like he’s mentioning the weather. “I pulled the kitchen board while you two were in the shower. It’s behind the bookshelf.”
Knox and I both stare at him.
“You—when did you even—” I start.
“Figured if Marlena was watching anything, it wasn’t the kitchen ceiling.” He doesn’t look at me. “With that board, I can rig the Wi-Fi chip to push out a signal. Reach Cole, maybe. Or at least a distress ping.”
“Could you actually do that?” Knox asks.
“Give me a few hours with it tonight and we’ll find out.”
I pull my knees up, resting my chin on them. “What about when the ten days are up? Say we can’t get a message out. Say nobody’s coming. What then?”
That’s the bigger question. The one none of us wants to sit with.
“She has to move us eventually,” Knox says. “The diamond isn’t here. Whatever happens at the end of this, she needs you to lead her to it. That means transport. That means a window.”
“A window where we’re outnumbered and she controls the logistics,” Liam says.
Knox looks at both of us. “A window where she expects us to be cooperative. If we play along. Give her what she wants to see. Hailey agrees to take her to the diamond, but on her terms—all three of us go, or she doesn’t talk. That’s leverage.”
“And then what?” Liam asks.
“And then we use whatever we’ve got.” Knox’s eyes are steady. I can see him thinking about the fire extinguisher, the chemicals under the sink, the knives. “We’re not walking into that blind. We bring what we can hide and we wait for the right moment.”
It’s not a great plan. It’s barely a plan at all. But it’s the skeleton of one, and for the first time since we woke up in this place, the helplessness loosens its grip just a fraction.
We go quiet after that. There’s only so long you can talk about your own potential death before you need a drink.
By evening, Marlena’s wine collection has become our only reliable source of comfort. We sit by the fire, each of us nursing a glass of something expensive and red, the silence thick but not entirely uncomfortable. It’s the silence of people who have too much to say and no idea where to start.
Liam pulls the camera board out from behind the bookshelf. He just sets the board on his knee and turns to Knox.
“I need another pair of hands. You in?”
Knox moves to the floor without a word. They sit close, the board between them, and Liam starts pointing out the components he’ll need to work with. Their voices drop low out of habit even though we know the cameras don’t have audio.
I stay on the couch with my wine and watch.
Liam’s hands move while he talks, tracing the circuit paths, tapping the Wi-Fi chip with the tip of a butter knife. Knox is still beside him, taking it in. At one point Liam reaches over to reposition the casing in Knox’s hands, showing him how to pop it without cracking the housing. His fingers close over Knox’s and stay there. Not long. But long enough.
Knox doesn’t pull away.
I take a sip of wine and pretend I didn’t notice. But I did. And from the way Liam’s eyes cut to me for half a second, he knows I did too.
They keep going. Liam explaining, Knox asking questions that catch Liam off guard. I can see it each time—the half-second where Liam has to rethink whatever assumption he’d made about the man sitting next to him. He came into this cabin thinking Knox was just muscle. He’s revising.