Page 60 of Lethal Alliance

I shake his hand off, my eyes locked to the screen. “Not a fucking chance.”

I know why he wants a clear feed.

I already know what it’s going to show.

And I won’t look away.

Stationed directly inside the girls’ door, rifle across his chest and sparrow tattoo glaringly visible on his hand, is my brother.

19

OFELIA

I’m dozing against the wall, Masha clutched to my chest, when I’m woken by the soft thud of Alexei’s rifle butt against the floor.

My eyes fly open to find him watching me from beneath a lowered eyelid. He’s still entirely still, his head bent as if he’s dozing, but I know him well enough by now to see the tension in his body and the warning in his lone eye.

Bathroom time, he mouths.

Our breaks are strictly monitored, and we visited the bathroom across the corridor barely two hours ago.

There’s a reason for this.

I subtly shake Masha, who wakes instantly, staring up at me with unblinking eyes. I hate how quickly she’s become attuned to the tension we’re living with, reacting to my smallest signal.

“Excuse me.” I say it loudly for the cameras. “I don’t feel well. I need the bathroom.”

Alexei stands up threateningly. “You’ve already had your break,” he snarls.

I glare at him. “I can’t help it if I need the bathroom. Unless you want diarrhea all over this floor, I need the bathroom. Now.”

He makes an annoyed sound and looks up at the camera in the corner, lifting his shoulders as if to saywhat do you want me to do?

A disembodied voice comes through the speaker. “Take them to the bathroom.”

Alexei pushes off the wall and gestures impatiently to the door with his rifle. “Come on, then.”

I uncoil my stiff limbs, trying not to wince at the stinging of his most recent knife cuts. Fortunately, I’ve learned they usually don’t open again. Alexei’s cuts are thin and incredibly precise. They bleed profusely—Vilnus, I’ve learned, likes the sight of blood, and Alexei always gives him a good show—but they are surface wounds, designed to produce the greatest show for the least pain.

I don’t need a therapist to tell me how twisted it is that I feel grateful for the care Alexei takes when he cuts me.

We walk out of the room, the muzzle of his AR cold and hard at the base of my spine as he nudges me across the corridor to the bathroom. He accompanies us into the small space. The toilet has no door, and the mirror is polished metal instead of glass. The bathroom is an uncomfortable reminder that Masha and I are not the first ones to be held captive in this horrible place.

There is one advantage to the bathroom, however.

There’s a place in the corner, under the camera, that is out of sight of the watching eyes, which are instead trained on the toilet itself. Best of all, Alexei told me, there’s no audio feed in this room.

The bathroom is the one place we can communicate, however small those communications might be.

I push Masha toward the sink. “Wash your hands and face,” I tell her, smiling. I put my mouth close to her ear as if I’m kissing her cheek. “Keep the water running.”

She knows better than to nod.

I pull up my dress and sit on the toilet, my head in my hands as if I’m hiding from the cameras. In reality, I’m listening hard.

“Roman will be coming for you soon.” Alexei’s voice is low, and I don’t have to look at him to know his mouth is barely moving, although his rifle will be trained on me. “He’s hacked into the video feed, which means he and Darya are working together.”

I want to ask whensoonmight be, but in full view of the camera, I can’t. Alexei being out of sight is one thing—me, quite another. The one time I tried to stand in the corner myself, the door was flung open in seconds, and three guards chewed Alexei out.

---