Page 52 of Mine

“Straps,” he said finally. His voice was scratchy. “Take off the straps.”

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I—”

“You stupid little bitch!” he yelled. Spittle burst from his lips. “Take off these fucking straps!”

“I can’t yet,” I said, trying to explain my reasoning. “There’s no way—”

“You don’t trust me?!”

I stopped and stared at him. I hadn’t even thought about not trusting him until he mentioned it. What was there not to trust? We were both prisoners in here.

“Is it because of what he said? Don’t believe him! You can’t believe him!”

Gary’s voice was ragged in the air. I let him drink another sip of water. My mind was churning.

“I can’t untie you. If Rien finds you untied—”

“I didn’t kill them.” Gary shook his head back and forth wildly. “I didn’t. I swear it! It was a faulty valve in one of our factories.”

I frowned.

“But you were convicted, weren’t you? Isn’t that why you’re leaving the country?”

“You can’t listen to what that maniac says. The feds are on our side.”

I paused. He had said that the police had brought us here. But that didn’t make sense.

“If that’s true,” I said carefully, “why haven’t they come to rescue us yet?”

Gary shook his head, cracking the scabs on the side of his face. Blood began to run down his cheek.

“I don’t know. Listen.Listen. He was in here with his friend earlier. He was talking about you.”

I peered at him. I’d heard voices through the bookcase, but didn’t know that someone else had been in there.

“Who was in here?”

“Some other guy. They’re both killers. He was planning on killing you.”

A chill ran through my neck.

“What? When?”

“He didn’t say. He said that he was just using you for fun, and that when he was tired of you, he would kill you.”

I blinked.Kill me?Rien said that? The chill in my body turned to an icy dread. Despite all that I had seen, I couldn’t believe that he would kill me. Not for that reason, anyway. And yet…No. In my mind, I saw Rien’s hand around my throat, squeezing.

I shook my head and refocused on the current situation.

“We need to figure out a way to escape.”

“Let me go.”

“Once we figure out a way to escape, I can,” I said, trying to be patient. “But I can’t yet.”

“We can attack him when he comes in. Both of us against him. With knives.”

“I can’t. He’ll kill us.” He could have a gun kept away in the other side of the house. And even if he didn’t, I’d felt Rien’s power. He wasstrong. I didn’t think I had a shot at him. And Gary looked like he was half-dead. There was no way we could take him.

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