Page 126 of Hold On

Ren shuffled until they were lying back-to-back. “I’m going to get my wallet out. See if you can hold it open while I feel inside.”

Dominic felt Ren stroke his thumb and swallowed at the lump in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” Ren whispered.

“I know.”

“Hold it there,” Ren said and a moment later hissed a quiet, “Yessss.”

“What do you have?” Dominic rolled so that he could see.

Ren was sawing at his wrists. “It’s a tiny blade hidden inside the lining of the wallet.”

“Why would you have something like that?”

“I like to be prepared. How’s your leg?”

“Painful.”

Ren freed his wrists, then his ankles before he freed Dominic’s wrists.

“You need to leave my ankles tied together,” Dominic said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. The less I move that leg, the better.”

“Do you need to take a leak? I know you said…”

“Even if I drag myself over there, I’m not sure I can stand up.”

“Piss in a bottle.”

Ren handed him one, then crawled over to the first of the doors. By the time he’d checked out every door except the one out of the room, Dominic had filled the bottle and zipped up again.

“I’ll empty it and refill the other.”

He crept over to the bathroom and came back with one empty bottle and one full one.

“I’ve found a place where you can hide. The family that owns this house have stored all their Christmas stuff in the eaves. I’ll have to take a lot of it out so you can slide in, then I’ll pile it up in front of you. Bottle to piss in, bottle to drink. Don’t muddle them up. Drinking your own piss dehydrates you. I’ll feel slightly better about leaving you if they think we’ve left together.”

“Okay.”

Dominic watched as Ren went in and out of the crawlspace bringing out boxes and bags. If anyone came up now, it was all over, but no one did. When Ren came back to his side, he kissed Dominic.

“I’ve made you a cosy place to lie. I’ll be as quick as I can. If I… If I don’t come back, wait as long as you can before you come out. Hopefully, they’ll have gone. You’ll…”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“You areallI worry about. We’re going to get out of this, and if that fucking arsehole Kilic changes his mind and tries the same sort of thing, I’m going to be very pissed off.”

Dominic managed a little smile. “You want me to go in there now?”

Ren nodded. “The sooner I go, the sooner I’ll get help.”

“It’s not really dark.”

“I can’t wait. And I’ve no shoes. I need to see where I’m putting my feet.”

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