are, Charlie, because I caught you, didn’t I? He made us study you, you know. You and others like you. Motivation,” he said. “It’s how I know all your secrets.”
Milo began lifting his head, but then it dropped, lolling to the side once again. He didn’t wake.
“I know you think I’m crazy, and maybe I am,” Axel said, turning back toward them. He shrugged. “But maybe madness in itself is a kind of sight.” He paused. “The things I’ve seen . . . the things that were done to them . . .” He nodded to Liza, Milo, and Sabrina in turn. “All these so-called experts can call it whatever they want, make excuses for it, blame it on any number of things, try to treat it, medicate it, incarcerate it if they want, but they can’t ever convince me evil doesn’t exist. And evil. Must. Be. Destroyed. None of us were meant to be . . . here. And all I want, all I want, is to go home.” He leaned back against the wall, letting his head fall back, breath coming sharply.
“You can’t go home, Axel,” Charles said. And though he’d been almost flippant a moment before, Liza was caught off guard by the sincerity in his voice. She wondered if it was real or pretend. “Take it from me. No matter how many people you kill, no matter how much justice you exact, you can never go home.”
Axel stood straight, opening his mouth to address Charles when something caught his attention on a shelf near where he was standing, a picture blinking to life. “The motion sensors,” he muttered, moving closer. Liza strained to see, ice hitting her veins as she made out the figure on the camera. Reed. Oh God, Reed. He’d found them. How had he found them? She wanted to scream for him, but he was far too far away, and she was in a pit under the earth.
Axel set the monitor back down. “Detective Davies won’t interfere,” he said. He looked at Charles. “I have tripwire at the perimeter of the property, right at the edge of the fence. Explosives. I told you, I’ve planned this. I couldn’t risk anyone surprising us. Because this is my night. The angels are on my side. All of heaven is cheering us on. But . . . we don’t need to watch the detective blow up, do we? That would be . . . unpleasant. I’m not a cruel man. I had to keep you all safe though. It had to be done.”
Liza’s stomach plunged.
She looked over at Charles and his jaw was tight with something that looked like rage as he glanced away from the monitor that Axel was still watching, his attention focused there as Reed walked around his car, looking up at the front gate. How far was he away from the perimeter of the property? The edge of the fence? Oh God. “Not good timing, Caleb,” she thought Charles muttered. She stared at Reed’s biological father as his eyes moved to the other three people in chairs across from them, and then finally to her. He pinned her with his eyes.
Her gaze moved as he slowly lifted his feet, his stomach muscles straining. She blinked up and saw that a red strip of skin was peeling back from his hand as he held his weight entirely by his arms.
Her eyes flew to Axel and then away. His back was still to them.
Liza’s eyes widened and she stared at Charles again, confused and horrified as he moved his feet slowly upward. She blinked. There was a small metal tool in the side of his running shoe. Her eyes flew to his again and he nodded to the video screen that Axel was beginning to set down. Go, he mouthed. And in one movement, he brought his feet around to her shackled hands and she plucked the tool from his shoe, Charles lowering his feet to the floor in the second before Axel flicked off the monitor and turned back around.
A bead of sweat dripped down Liza’s face. Charles Hartsman had given her a tool. Why? Why did he do that? Why hadn’t he used it himself? Maybe he couldn’t? Maybe he figured she would be quicker with her hands behind her back rather than over her head like him? Her heart pounded. Her hands felt slick with sweat, and she feared she’d drop the tiny file-like object in her hand. Go, he’d said.