Forever by Janie Crouch

Chapter Eight

Jess

The slamming sound was disorienting,and it took three seconds too long for me to remember where I was. In those three seconds, there were hands on me, pulling me up and unlocking the chains from the floor.

I was still kidnapped, still stuck in this tiny hellhole, and I knew one thing for certain: the fact that they were moving us was not a good sign.

Those three seconds cost me. I wasn’t in a good position to struggle, but I did anyway. I shoved my elbow into the gut of the man who was holding me. Because his hands were on me and not his gun, that gave me just a fraction of an advantage.

And in situations like this, fractions were all you had. He grunted in pain before cursing and pulling me closer, speaking quickly to the man on my other side. I kicked out at them, but it was too late for me to get a good hold. Another curse as I managed to catch a shin with my toe.

The click of a gun froze me. I was hanging from their arms, off-balance and completely reliant on them to keep me upright. The gun wasn’t pointed at me. It was pointed at Alena, jammed up underneath her chin with a force that looked painful.

The guy who had kicked me had her. He’d figured out my weak point when I’d told them to leave her alone. It was a trade I’d make all over again in order to save my friend pain, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be tempted to punch the smug smile off his face if my hands were free.

Calm down, Jess. Focus.

I took a breath and then another. Survival first and foremost. Nobody got rescued if they were dead.

I needed more information. Maybe this change would provide it. Though if they were marching us to our deaths, I would fight like hell again.

The man holding the gun jerked his chin toward the door. “Walk.”

The light in the hallway was bright enough to hurt my eyes after so much darkness, but I blinked away the pain in order to look around. They weren’t bothering to hide our sight, which wasn’t a great sign, but I was going to soak up every detail I could.

There were more of them than I’d thought. In the short hallway they dragged us down, I counted at least a dozen guards. Alena had said there hadn’t that been many around, which meant more had arrived. Possibly with whomever the first guys had been waiting for.

That would make sense. Move us now because the boss was here.

The soldiers were armed, though not every weapon was the same. There was a variety, from semi-automatic rifles to simple pistols. So likely not something organized or with enough structure to make things standard issue. No obvious insignia or markings that would give me a clue about who they were or their motivations.

And that was all I could get before we burst through a door into another small, well-lit room. There was a folding table with four chairs, two of them already occupied by Russell and Susan.

They had a few visible bruises, but nothing compared to what our captors had done to Alena. In the light, it was obvious that she’d been beaten. A black eye was forming and her jaw was swelling. In the few seconds before they shoved us into the empty seats, she limped heavily.

No one said anything. I didn’t know which of our captors spoke English, and I wasn’t about to give them more ammunition to use against us, so I kept quiet.

The door swung open, and a man entered. He was better dressed than the rest of the soldiers, and he carried himself with an air of authority. So the boss had arrived. The other soldiers cringed away from him like they were afraid, averting their eyes.

This was the man who was going to decide if we lived or died.

He walked around us, smiling like this was a chat amongst friends and the four of us weren’t his captives.

“Hello,” he said. “My name is Radu. My apologies for the delay, I was detained elsewhere.”

Unlike the rest of his men, Radu’s accented English was perfect. Noted.

“There was some debate about what to do with you,” he said, looking at each of us as he circled. “Four American students are more a liability than anything else. But then I was informed that three of you have very wealthy families.”

My friends and I locked eyes with each other, nobody saying a word.

“Russell’s information made me rethink my original plan of a shallow grave.”

I glared at Russell. What an idiot. That was information we could have leveraged, but he had given it up for free.

Russell’s gaze dropped to the table. “They were going to find out eventually.”

I clenched my jaw and held my tongue. Getting into it with Russell over his mistake wouldn’t help us now. I had to keep what was important at the forefront: staying alive.

This new knowledge changed things. Adapt, Jess.

Radu smiled. “Well, at least three of you are worth keeping alive for the time being.”

A soldier stepped up behind Alena and yanked her head back by the hair, a blade already at her throat.

“So you’re going to ransom us?” I asked, trying to direct attention away from Alena.

“Yes,” Radu said. “I’m sure your families will pay well for your return.”

“They will pay well for our return, unharmed. All four of us.”

My heart kicked into high gear when Radu looked directly at me. I didn’t dare look away or show weakness to this man, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t terrified. His eyes narrowed, like he was evaluating me.

Then he nodded at the man who held Alena. She was out of the chair before I could move, and another man held me back from leaping after her. They threw her to the floor and began kicking her. I begged them to stop, other voices behind me as well, but all I could look at was my friend on the floor.

“That’s enough.” Radu’s voice was quiet, but they heard it and stepped back. I was suddenly free, nearly collapsing next to Alena with my hands bound as they were, but I managed to turn her over. She was barely conscious, but still breathing.

“Take them back,” he said.

I looked at him, memorizing his face and the condescending little smile that sat there. He’d pulled us out of the cells just to show us his power, and he’d used Alena to do it.

That he’d let us see his face made me nervous. Now I would never forget it, and he had to know that too.

He didn’t plan to let us go, even if he sent ransom demands to our families. I needed to figure out how the hell to get us out of here.

I tried to take in everything again as they marched us back through the hallway, back toward the tiny cells.

Yes, three out of the four of us could be ransomed for quite a bit of money. But could it really have been sheer luck that they’d grabbed us specifically off the street?

This had to be tied to the stolen research.

I’d spent the past three months trying to figure out who’d been slowly siphoning out information from the Vandercroft biotechnology lab. There was only a small list of people who could have done it, and I’d been systematically crossing them off one by one.

The only two left I hadn’t been able to confirm or eliminate were Russell and Susan. That had been the whole point of this vacation—to prompt some kind of action from them.

But being kidnapped was not the action I’d expected. I should have been more prepared, paid closer attention, expected something as grandiosely violent as a kidnapping.

But if this kidnapping was about the stolen research—and truly, it had to be—then Susan or Russell, or both, were far better actors than I’d given them credit for. Neither of them had given any sign whatsoever of knowing Radu or his men.

It couldn’t be chance that we’d been picked up in Moldova. Nobody’s luck was that bad.

I shouldn’t have tried to handle this situation by myself. I should have told someone when I’d realized that there was a problem. The head of the fellowship program, or the London authorities. Or hell, one of the many, many former military men in my extended family who had spent their whole lives dealing with things like this.

At the very least, I should have told Ethan.

He had a way of looking at the world in a different light. He found things that I missed because he came at them from a different direction. Maybe if I had told him what I suspected—that someone was about to sell very dangerous biotechnological research findings to bad guys—he would have found the missing link, and none of us would be here.

The soldiers pushed us back into the cell. I managed to keep my feet, but Alena collapsed against the wall.

I hadn’t told Alena about the research or that I’d suspected Russell or Susan. I’d wanted to be the hero. I’d made tracking their actions my primary goal.

Especially since Ethan had been so distant lately. He’d missed my birthday and then had seemed so much colder every time I’d talked to him since.

Damn it, I should’ve made him listen. Because poor Alena was the one who was suffering most.

The door closed behind us, and I went to her, thankful they hadn’t chained me to the floor again. The rope still chafed at my wrists and was too tight to escape, but I could work with some movement. “Alena, talk to me. Are you okay?”

She groaned, but helped me a little when I got her to sit up. Blood dripped down her face, and she looked dazed. But her eyes were clear. That was something.

I brushed a strand of brown hair away from her face. “I’m so sorry.”

She gave a tiny, weak laugh. “You in the habit of apologizing for crazy people now?”

“No, but it’s my fault that we’re here at all.”

She shook her head, then winced, freezing. That had to hurt. “I think we all wanted to go on vacation.”

“Only because I forced it.” I needed to tell her the truth.

“What?”

At least she seemed a little more coherent now. Maybe this was a good distraction from the pain. If I could keep her talking, that was good. “Someone’s stealing research from the fellowship program. I’m positive it’s Russell or Susan.”

“How do you know?”

“That’s why I’ve been sort of distracted lately. I’ve been following all their movements, hacking their emails and texts. I caught something about Moldova. I thought being here would do . . . something. Give me some intel to go on.”

“Did it?”

“No.” I leaned back against the stone wall. “The kidnapping was definitely unexpected. But I’m so sorry you’ve gotten so hurt.”

Alena was so quiet that I thought that she’d passed out. Could her beating have caused internal bleeding? Severe damage? A spasm of fear gripped me for a moment, until she moved slowly and groaned.

Thank goodness. I wasn’t happy she was in pain, but at least she was conscious. “Do you think the kidnappers are in on it? They didn’t say anything about stolen research while I was with them. All they talked about was money.”

I blew out a breath, fighting for a better hold on myself. I had to figure out what to do next. “I don’t think so. But I can’t be sure. I wish I knew what was happening with the others. Russell told him my and Susan’s families had money. Did he offer them something else to get himself released? The research he stole?”

Alena slowly took a breath. “Let’s focus on getting out of here. We can worry about stolen research later. I just want to go home.”

“I know. Me too.”

“But if they are looking for ransom, I don’t have anyone who can pay. Not like you guys.”

I slipped an arm around her. “You know that we have you covered, Alena. My dad will pay for you, or someone in my family. I’m not going to leave you here with them. I promise.”

Alena’s eyes were closed, but she managed a small smile. “Thanks. But that doesn’t mean we’ll all make it, Jess. You know that. I have a horrible feeling about this.”

So did I, but I didn’t want to agree. I needed not to panic, to use my brain. It had never failed me before, and I would think of a way out of here now. Some way to negotiate with Radu and give him what he wanted, convince him it was in his best interest to let us all go unharmed.

The yell was the only warning we got before soldiers swarmed the cell. They had Alena up and on her feet in seconds, dragging her toward the door.

Oh God. “Stop!” I threw myself at one of them, knocking him off-balance.

Light flared behind my eyes as one of them struck me, and I went reeling, only to be caught by the rope binding my wrists. The soldier yanked me closer and slapped me across the face. Then again before someone else yelled at him. I was shoved back, and they all disappeared out the door before I could make a motion to stop them.

I had no breath left in my lungs. It had all been knocked out of me, and the left side of my face burned with pain. And that had been just a couple of slaps.

What would they do to Alena?

Panic clouded my focus. I had to do something to draw them back, to make them pay attention to me. I wasn’t sure how much more Alena could take. As I forced myself to sit up, something was different. It took me a second to realize that the ropes on my hands were looser. They must have slipped when the guy grabbed them.

It wasn’t much, but I didn’t need much. One tiny mistake on their part would be enough.

I pulled up every memory I had about how to escape loosened bonds. There had been more than one lesson about that in the Linear Tactical classes. Twist my arms a certain way. Use my body for leverage.

It took far too long to get them loose, rubbing the skin raw on my wrists as I worked and twisted them. There was definitely blood on the ropes. But that worked in my favor, making the strands a little slicker. Just enough give for me to shove them off.

I wasn’t expecting the pain that rushed through my arms in the absence of pressure, and I hissed out a breath. But it could be worse. Alena had gone through worse—was probably going through worse right now.

I had to help her. I could make them focus on me. Take out as many of them as I could. Get Alena out, get help, come back for Russell and Susan.

I couldn’t see much in the dim light to work with in terms of weapons. The chains they had used to attach me to the floor were heavy, but bolted down and too far from the door. There was nothing else in here. Except . . .

There, in the corner. A piece of the wall was crumbling. Telltale signs of decay and little pebbles dotted the floor. When I pulled at the stone, it came away easily in chunks, and I kept going until I had one large enough to do some damage.

I was going to scream. Loud enough and long enough that one of them would have to come in here. They thought I was still bound, and they wouldn’t see the rock coming.

Then I would get Alena out.

I was opening my mouth to scream when the door creaked open slowly. My heart rate spiked, and adrenaline surged through me. Every other time they’d come in, they’d clamored and slammed all around.

If this one was being quiet, he was here for something different.

My skin crawled. One of Radu’s men sneaking in here was not good.

I crouched, hiding as much as I could against the wall as the shape of a man crept forward. I would only have one shot at surprise. When he passed me, I leapt at him with my stone raised.

He whipped toward me, not caught a bit off guard, knocking the rock from my hand while wrapping an arm around my waist. I opened my mouth to scream, only to have a hand slap over it.

Then I really started to fight, but I couldn’t get him away or get his hand off my mouth to scream. He was stronger than the rest, not throwing out punches just because he could. He was controlled and deadly.

I was in trouble.