Page 127 of Single Teddy
Slade shook his head, and I huffed.
“You think they know we’re watching?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore. But this…this is weirdly suspicious. I’ve been tracking comms for months now, and there’s been nothing. Then all of a sudden…this.”
“Maybe he slipped.”
“Or maybe it’s a trap,” Slade suggested.
“Well, then,” I said and opened my door. “It’s time to get to work and find out.”
THIRTY-FOUR
WESLEY
Iwas still alive.
Somehow, I was still alive. We all were.
After Barnes pointed the gun at me, another man, a bald man with a dragon tattoo all over his skull and a couple of tattooed teardrops under his eyes, walked in and whispered in Barnes’s ear, and then they both walked out.
We might be alive, but judging from them, we wouldn’t be for much longer. If they’d gone from hiding their faces behind woolen masks to walking around brandishing their evil smiles, we were as good as gone.
The question was, what were they waiting for?
A sniffle shook me back to the here and now, and I turned to find Valentin hunched over his lap. Niko turned to his brother, and he started crying too.
“Boys? Oh, boys, please don’t cry.” I scooched over to them, biting back tears myself.
How could I blame them for being emotional when we were trapped in the dark with no way out? I was feeling the despair. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how they felt. How much of this predicament did they understand?
“It’s going to be okay, Valentin. Please don’t cry.” I searched for the boy’s gaze, but he only cried harder, and I couldn’t do anything to console him.
I glanced from him to Niko, and my chest felt heavy. I’d done this to them. They were here because of me. Because I hadn’t thought before I acted. I didn’t pause to consider. I just let my emotions guide me, and this was where it had gotten us.
Someone shouted outside and I glanced at the door. Bile rose in my throat, making my mouth bitter.
It wasn’t all my fault. Barnes was to blame too.
I couldn’t even fathom these poor kids living with a stranger for a year now. A stranger who neglected, abused, and mistreated these kids, and all for what? Why had he even taken them on? Why had he kept them if he didn’t give a shit about them?
“Who knows what’s two plus two?” I swallowed down any fear or anger and raised my voice with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
Niko looked up at me, confused, and mumbled four.
“Excellent. And what’s three plus three?” I aimed that at Valentin and waited.
I didn’t think he’d heard me at first, but then he—without looking up—whispered the right answer, and I nudged him, hoping to get any sort of reaction out of him.
I didn’t, and I couldn’t blame him.
“I’m sorry.” I sighed. “Math questions aren’t going to make anyone feel better right now.”
Niko shook his head, and Valentin? He finally looked up at me.
“I’m a silly billy,” I said.
Valentin laughed.
