If I’m lucky, the abductors will put a bullet through my head, but if I’m not…
A shudder runs down my spine.
The alternative is unthinkable.
Veer stops talking, and I smooth a hand down his shoulder. “Sorry.”
My finger catches something metallic. “Is that your David Bowie badge?”
He nods. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m going to break it apart and see if I can file it into sharp edges.”
Veer hisses through his teeth. “You wouldn’t.”
“It’s just a precaution.”
As he breaks into hiccuping sobs, the more cynical part of my psyche wonders why I spent so long angsting over this guy. His emotions are understandable, but in this world, getting overwhelmed in times of danger will only get yourself and others killed.
I unpin the badge, which has a conveniently sharp point around the back I can use to pierce an eye.
Nausea slithers up my throat at the mental image, but I force it down. If I can get through this in one piece then I’ll have an entire lifetime to cry about it later.
“Veer,” I whisper.
“What?”
“Please, stop crying. If they realize I’ve freed you from your gag, they’ll punish us both.”
“Sorry.”
The van drives through a road with several bumps, and I use that opportunity to smash the badge until it’s reduced to its metal casing, a flat battery, and a donut shaped circuit of metal chips and copper wiring.
“Hey.” I turn to Veer. “Did you know your badge has electrical pieces?”
“What?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” I shake my head. That’s not important right now, I need to turn the casing into a weapon. “Do you know how to break out of handcuffs?”
“No,” he says with a moan.
“Are your feet free at least?” I scrape the steel casing along the van’s metallic floor.
When he hesitates, I fumble down his legs and check his ankles. There’s a rope holding them together, and I clench my teeth at having assumed that they wouldn’t secure his legs.
Untying him is fast work, and after I’ve freed his legs, I say, “Eventually, they’ll stop driving and drag us out. I want you to kick as hard as you can. Forward and backward.”
I wait for him to agree, but he remains silent.
“What’s wrong?”
Before he can answer, the van comes to an abrupt stop.
ChapterForty-Four
MARIUS
I need to leave. Leave this room before Phoenix falls into Crius’s clutches. Leave before his men hurt her.