“I know. I just don’t want you here when that happens. I dragged you into this, and I’m so sorry. I had no idea this would get so…”
“Fucked up?” he asked between his teeth.
“Yeah. I’m going to give her enough information to let you go. Then, I guess, we’ll see what happens.” She was numb. She knew she should be petrified, but she couldn’t gather enough emotion to feel anything. Every part of her wanted him away from this. She had no idea how seeing her die would affect him, but given the last year, she had her suspicions. If she could just save him from this, she would be okay. She would die with no regrets. Well, that wasn’t really true, but she was trying her hardest to hold it all together.
“You’re sweet,” he said. “But you really don’t have to do that for me.” Suddenly there was no strain in his voice at all. It was like they were having coffee somewhere. “Just shuffle yourself over here a bit.”
She used her body to jump her chair over to David.
“Sorry about this,” he said as he put his feet on her thighs. He was using the extra height to try to flip his chains off the hook hanging from the ceiling. “I need more height.”
Crap. She used all her energy to shuffle over to the big wooden table that Victoria had put her case on. When she’d laid it there, Molly imagined it was full of torture devices.
“We have to hurry, sweetheart.” Still his voice held no tension.
She pushed the back of her chair against the table and shoved it. The effort was wearing her out. She felt weak and she didn’t know if it was from the drug they’d kept giving her, or the fact that she’d been strapped to the chair for…how long she didn’t really know. She pushed, and shoved. Willing herself to find the energy to move the table to him.
“Just a bit further, you’re doing great.” As he said the words, the door slammed open.
Shit. She gave one more shove, mustering all the energy she could. The momentum moved the table about a foot or two, and left Molly hanging in midair for a second before she crashed to the ground. She rolled on to her side to get her eyes on David.
From her prone position, she saw Victoria’s legs running toward them, but couldn’t see David’s legs, which hopefully meant that he was on the table. A crash of chains echoed around the room. Molly took a breath and tried to figure out how she could help him.
She rolled to try to get some leverage and heard the chair creaking. Maybe she could break it. She was sure she’d seen Black Widow do this in a movie. She rolled against the back of the chair. There was a snap as one of the chair arms detached from the back. Nice.
She rolled harder, slamming the chair against the concrete. Pain radiated through her bones as the back splintered away from the arms. She heard grunts, and the rattle of chains. Frantically she beat her bent legs down hard. Again and again, trying not to notice the shots of pain that radiated through her. One last crash, and the legs of the chair had broken. They were still attached to her, but they’d broken off the seat.
She leapt up. David was standing, barely. He was slumped as if he couldn’t stand up anymore. Victoria lay on the floor, one of her legs pointing in a very unnatural direction, unconscious. Maybe dead.
She got to David just in time to put her hands on him before he fell to the ground. She managed to brace his fall. “You were awesome,” she said. “You saved us.” She kissed the side of his head and held him, doing little more than rocking in relief. Her brain went fuzzy, and she closed her eyes, just wanting to be anywhere but here.
She roused herself to untie David’s wrists, and then her own when David just groaned. “We have to go. Can you stand?” she asked. The fight must have really taken it out of him. She pulled herself to her feet leaning on the table. She leaned down to pull David up, and for the first time, saw blood on the floor. Sticky dark blood. A pool.
She sank to her knees. “David? Are you hurt?” She tried to check him, but it wasn’t until she held him that she realized he was bleeding from his side.
“Go, sweetheart. They want you. You have to run. Go to the embassy. Ask them to call Sadie Walker. She’s a friend of Harry and Matt’s. Tell her everything. Everything you haven’t told me. She’s…” his voice faded.
“Fuck that all to hell. I’m not leaving here without you.” Suddenly immune to her own injuries, she looked around for something to help him.
Victoria’s case. She opened it. Torture devices? It was the suitcase she’d arrived with. Just freaking clothes, a wallet and…an iPad. She frantically rifled through her wallet and plucked out a credit card and pressed it against his wound to make the gaping hole airtight. She grabbed one of Victoria’s silk shirts and wrapped it around him, tying the arms around his waist to hold it in place.
He was barely conscious now, and as adrenaline pumped through her she knew she needed to get him away from the warehouse before the Russian came back with the water Victoria had requested. Otherwise David wouldn’t get the help he needed.
She was about to lift David on to his feet, when her brain registered a ringing sound. “Can you stand?” she asked. He waved his hand at her, in what would be a convincing shoo-away if it hadn’t been for the table he was leaning against scraping back on the concrete floor.
Victoria stirred at the sound of the phone, but didn’t come to. Thank God. Molly wasn’t sure if she could knock her out, although she was fairly certain she could outrun her. She made sure David was upright and likely to stay that way for a second, and went back to Victoria’s things. Phone. She had a phone. Where the hell was it?
She looked through the whole bag, and then started on the zipper pockets. There. Front pocket, along with a gun. She took the phone and left the gun.
A car door slammed outside, and without hesitating she went for the gun, tucked it into David’s back pocket, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Gotta walk now, okay? Come on.”
She half dragged him to the opposite side of the warehouse, behind some large wooden crates, to a window. Shit. There was water out there. She sat David down on the concrete, “Shhh.” She laid her fingers across his mouth and felt him nod beneath her hand.
She took the phone and dialed the only number she knew by heart. Her boss’s—Harry’s.
Harry picked up the phone immediately. “Hello?”
“Harry, it’s me,” she whispered.
“Who? I can’t hear.”
Molly looked at the phone. It had all the bars.
“Molly,” she ground out, peeking through the crates. The Russian was in the building now. And the whole place suddenly seemed like one big echo chamber. She hung up the phone, and texted Harry instead.
It’s Molly. Kidnapped by Russians with David Church in warehouse by the sea in Athens.
God, she hoped they were still in Athens.
He’s injured, but told me to get Sadie Walker on it?
She waited for a reply, and then realized that the text notifying ring would echo all around the warehouse basically identifying where they were. She fumbled for the settings, but it was too late.
Shit. She stuffed the phone into her pocket without reading the reply and looked for somewhere to run. She considered pushing David out of the window, but worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay afloat without her there. They sat in silence as the minutes ticked by. She was worried if she waited much longer to make a decision he’d bleed out in front of her.
She made her decision. She would leave David there, and give the Russian what he wanted, and try to buy some time. She held her hands up and stepped out from behind the row of shipping crates.
What?
The Russian was gone.
So was Victoria, and the broken chair, and her suitcase. It was like nothing had happened there. Even the pool of David’s blood had gone. Had she imagined the whole thing?