Athena was blinking groggily, awake but not yet alert. Nadia had a zip tie left over, and she figured she might as well put it to good use. Brandishing the stunner, she cautiously approached Athena, who was waking up more every second.
“Call for help, and I’ll make you wish you hadn’t,” Nadia growled, hitting the trigger on the stunner and causing an electrical spark. Athena’s eyes widened, and she swallowed hard. Amazing how intimidating a sixteen-year-old Executive girl could be when she had a stunner in her hand and righteous anger in her heart.
“I’m sorry,” Athena said, making no attempt to struggle as Nadia none-too-gently turned her over onto her stomach and fastened the zip tie around her wrists.
Like she cared about Athena’s remorse or lack thereof. “What did they offer you?”
Athena sniffled, and there were tears leaking from her eyes. “They were going to set me free. Give me a new identity and enough money to start over.”
Nadia snorted in disdain. Athena’s wrists were now firmly fastened, so Nadia loosened the belt robe and retied one end of it with enough slack to secure the other end to Athena’s ankles.
“And you believed them?” she asked incredulously, shaking her head at Athena’s naiveté. “Ten to one you would have been dead and buried before the night was through, and your family would never know what had happened to you.” Athena would have been a dangerous liability, and Lily probably wouldn’t have lived much longer. The Chairman didn’t allow people who posed a threat to keep breathing for long.
Lily had come to and was now struggling against her bonds. Nadia quickly finished tying Athena’s ankles and pulled the canister of knockout gas from her pocket. She gave it a quick shake, and a liquidy sloshing sound told her she still had plenty of “ammunition.”
“They’ll try again,” Athena said through hiccuping sobs. “You have to get out of here.”
“Thanks for stating the obvious.” Nadia didn’t know whether Athena was genuinely sorry for the betrayal, or whether she was just sorry to have lost what she thought was her chance at freedom. And she didn’t care. Since Lily had conveniently provided a ball gag, Nadia decided to use it. “Open wide,” she prompted, and Athena was so beaten down that she obeyed without hesitation.
Nadia stopped with the gag just inches from Athena’s mouth. “Was anything you told me true?” she couldn’t help asking, even though she knew she couldn’t trust the answer.
“What I told you about the Chairman and Ellie was true,” Athena answered. “If you ever get a chance to tell Nathaniel, please do. It was Ellie’s last wish.”
Nadia nodded brusquely, then went to stick the gag in the other woman’s mouth, but Athena turned her head.
“The override code I gave you will only work for the hall door,” she warned. “Plans changed this evening, but originally I was just supposed to be cozying up to you for future use. There isn’t usually an override code—they just programmed it into the door for tonight so I could gain your trust. Take Lily’s key card.”
Apparently, Athena didn’t think much of Nadia’s intelligence if she thought there was a chance she wouldn’t take the key card.
Having said her piece, Athena allowed Nadia to insert the gag and tie it firmly into place. Nadia made sure she had everything she needed tucked into her pockets, then rose and shut the window. Lily was struggling more vigorously now, and though Nadia thought she’d done a pretty good job of restraining her attackers, she would not take any chances.
Holding her breath one more time, Nadia sprayed both of them with another dose of the knockout gas, then slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Shit. He was busted.
Nate froze where he was, bending slightly forward in his interrupted attempt to grab onto Fischer’s shoulders and drag his considerable weight into the men’s room. He held his breath, meeting Agnes’s eyes across the distance.
Would she bolt back into the box and raise the alarm? It seemed like the logical thing for a mousy Executive girl to do.
And yet, instead of bolting, she took a couple of steps closer to him and dropped her hands from her mouth. Her face was white, her eyes wide enough to show white all the way around.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice so soft he could barely hear it.
There was no good explanation for it. Nothing except the truth, that is. Nate didn’t feel up to coming up with a convincing lie.
“Nadia’s in trouble,” he said simply. “I have to help her, and I can’t do it with a bodyguard on my heels.”
“What kind of trouble?”
He didn’t have time for this. “The kind of trouble that’s bad enough to do this,” he said, gesturing at Fischer’s limp body.
Agnes processed his words for what felt like five minutes. He figured he was lucky she was taking a moment to think about it before sounding the alarm. She’d probably never broken a rule in her life, and the very thought of standing by and letting him do something so obviously against the rules probably made her feel faint with horror. Nate wondered if he was enough of a bastard to try to knock her out as he had Fischer.
If that was the only way to get to Nadia, then yes, he was. He only hoped that thought didn’t show on his face, because the last thing he needed was for her to become even more frightened. Then she would run for sure, and he wouldn’t be able to get close enough to knock her out.
“I know I’m asking a lot,” he said, “but please go back to your seat and forget you saw me.” Letting her go would probably be foolishly trusting of him, but he wasn’t going to hit a girl unless there was no other choice.
To his surprise, perhaps even shock, Agnes nodded to herself and then started coming toward him.
“I’ll take his feet,” she said, bending down and grabbing Fischer’s ankles.
Nate stood there for a moment, blinking stupidly. “I’m not asking you to help me. I’m just asking you to keep quiet.”
Something flashed in Agnes’s eyes, and he realized that had been the wrong thing to say.
“That’s probably the first time anyone’s ever told me to keep quiet. Usually, they’re badgering me to talk, then looking down their noses at me when I can’t think of what to say. If Nadia’s in trouble, then I want to help. She’s the only person in all of Paxco who hasn’t treated me like a pitiful dimwit.”
Nate winced, realizing he’d treated her even worse than that.
“Besides,” she continued, “just because I’m shy doesn’t mean I’m a coward. Now let’s hurry, before he wakes up.”
Nate could see he’d gotten her back up and he was stuck with her help whether he wanted it or not. Which was probably just as well. Fischer had to weigh about 250 pounds, so dragging him anywhere wasn’t going to be easy.
Keeping a careful eye on Agnes, Nate stuck his hands under Fischer’s shoulders and heaved backward. Agnes picked up Fischer’s feet and pushed. Hauling Fischer’s dead weight took all of Nate’s strength, and he was sweating and panting by the time they got the bodyguard all the way into the men’s room. He stood up to leave; then, on a whim, he bent and removed the gun Fischer always wore in a shoulder holster. He doubted he would need it, and didn’t actually know how to use it, but it couldn’t hurt to be prepared for any eventuality.