put his face up. Before the world turned on him and butchered him.
Nita swallowed. “Don’t think of that.”
His smile was bitter. “Kind of hard not to.”
Nita sighed. She couldn’t blame him. Wasn’t she just as consumed with her fear over the black market, the release of that damn video of her online?
She rose and went to the washroom to splash some water on her face. She was tired, and she hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep because of Gold’s midnight escapades. She rubbed her temples and considered healing her body of its sleep deprivation, actually going in and replicating all the things sleep did. But that would probably just make her more tired and seemed like a waste of effort.
Instead, she closed her eyes, focused on her adrenal gland, and made it start releasing more adrenaline into her body in an effort to wake herself up. She opened her eyes and immediately felt more alert, but underneath the alertness was a bone-deep exhaustion that had been building for the last week. Something was going to have to give. But not yet.
She made her way back to the lobby and found Kovit eating cold greasy pizza leftovers.
Nita sat down beside him and took a slice. “Gold tried to escape last night.”
Kovit hesitated. “Is she hurt?”
“No more than she was yesterday. I tied her back up with some duct tape.”
“That’s good.” His shoulders relaxed.
Nita sighed. Despite Gold’s hatred, she didn’t think Kovit would ever stop caring for the other girl. They’d been friends once, and Kovit was far too loyal to discard someone he’d once cared so much about that easily. He’d had to be right at the breaking point with Henry, and Gold hadn’t done anything nearly as terrible.
Nita rubbed her temples. “I’ve got her taped to the bed, but something has to change. She’s going to find a way to escape again.”
Kovit shrugged. “We’ll just check her bindings regularly.”
“Kovit . . .”
He rose. “Let’s check them before we leave.”
Nita followed him into the studio Gold was staying in. She was awake and lying in bed, awkwardly pinned by Nita’s sloppy duct tape job.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice still rough.
“Morning.” Kovit smiled softly. “That looks uncomfortable.”
“That’s because it is.” Gold’s eyes were cold. “Which you already know, because you can feel my pain.”
Kovit’s smile fell a little. He fumbled for a moment and pulled his switchblade out.
Gold tensed and turned to Nita. “Convince him to kill me after all?”
Kovit tensed. “I’m not going to hurt you, May.”
She raised her eyebrow at the switchblade.
“For the duct tape,” he explained. “I’m going to redo it so it’s more comfortable.”
He knelt down beside her and carefully cut her bindings, then pocketed the blade. Nita went to Gold’s other side, and they each took an arm and helped her to her feet.
“This way.” Nita pushed Gold toward a chair on the other side of the room.
Gold stumbled forward. She grinned, sharp and cruel. “I feel like I’m on my death walk. You know, right before they lead the prisoners to the electric chair.”
Nita sighed. “Do you ever shut up?”
“I try to annoy my captors as much as possible.” Gold’s eyes narrowed as she smiled at Nita. “Though I suppose you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be a prisoner, would you?”
Nita stiffened, but didn’t rise to the bait.
They retied Gold together, and Nita tugged Kovit away before Gold could say anything else incendiary. Gold was far too good at hurting Kovit, and he had enough to deal with today.
They went and checked on Fabricio before they left.
Nita pushed open the pastel blue door to Fabricio’s room, and Fabricio raised his head. They’d left him tied to his chair all night, and there were circles under his eyes that told her that he hadn’t slept much. Small cracked flakes of scabs had fallen off and covered Fabricio’s pants like tiny bugs. Nita kept her eyes from straying to his hands. She didn’t want to see what they looked like.
“Good morning.” Nita’s voice was forced cheery. The pizza lay on the floor where she’d left it the night before, and she picked a piece up and shoved it in his mouth. “Breakfast time.”
Fabricio’s huge blue-gray eyes looked at Nita steadily. Judgingly. They stared right into her soul, and they found her wanting.
It made her want to poke them out.
Nita blinked at the sudden, violent urge. Hadn’t she once had nightmares about being forced to rip Fabricio’s eyes out? And now she fantasized about it. How times had