21. SUTTON

The lights went out. Dumb and Dumber, the two men who had grabbed us from the alley bumbled and bumped into each other.

"What's going on?" Lazer asked.

"The lights are out," I grumbled, still pissed at him for what he'd said, pointing his finger at me earlier.

"Stay quiet," they shouted at us.

"Hush," the other snapped.

Focusing myself with a couple of breaths. "It's ok," I whispered to myself. "I think Danya did it." I knew he wouldn't let me stay kidnapped here. Only he had a free pass to kidnap me, and not his family.

"I don't think so," Lazer, audibly panicked said. "I think this is Maura. My bracelet. I was—I—"

"Shut up, or I'll put volts through you," they snapped back at us.

"The power is out," I said, trying not to laugh.

"Then I'll break your hands, if you don't shut up."

In the darkness, I glanced in the direction of Lazer and the gentle glow of the red from around his bracelet. I wondered if they knew the difference between the two of us. I hoped they did, because right about now, Lazer deserved something for the way he'd pointed his finger at me.

"It's Maura," Lazer grumbled.

Perhaps Maura was once more saving my life, the first time she saved my life was when she took me in as a teen. The second time she saved my life was after I ran away with the intention of trying to find my parents. The third time was when she grabbed me outside my apartment. The time I'd thrown myself down the chute, thankfully landing in the plush pile of trash.

"I hope so," I whispered back to him. At least I knew Maura wasn't threatening my life, although at this rate, she was probably only coming here for him and not me. "Did she tell you why she wanted that USB?" I asked once more.

"We don't get told anything," he reminded me. "You know, I was only doing what had to be done because I didn't want to be sold off to the highest bidder in need of a hacker."

I understood why he did what he did. I would too. In fact, the whole reason I was even looking into this mess in the first place was to save my own ass. I didn't like the idea that someone was out there impersonating me, and that they were doing a better job at stealing from the rich than I ever did.

"Maura will only cut the power," I grumbled, trying to recall some of the lessons she'd taught me. It was growing impossible to go back to that space in my mind where Maura had planted all her lessons on evasive maneuvers. "Do you think she's sending someone to collect both of us, or just you?"

In the dim red light emanating from his watch, he shrugged. "Maybe she only thinks it's me in here. But when someone does come, I'll make sure they bring you with me, and then we can go get that thumb drive back together."

A rock formed in my stomach. The thumb drive. This might have had something to do with that. Danya had only been gone ten minutes when the power cut to now. That was plenty of time for him to plug it in and then find out what was on it.

"I don't know why she even wants it," I told him. "It's to get me out of trouble. So, unless she wants me to get into trouble, then she'd let me have it."

The men hushed us again.

"It's fine," he mumbled. "I'll tell her it was taken, but she seemed to be pissed about it getting lost."

"Lost, or stolen?" My forehead ached to crease. "Because I'll tell you what I know if you tell me what you know." It wasn't exactly a bargaining chip considering he was scared for his life, and even more of Maura's current operations.

"I'm not sure if she said. Stolen, lost, what's the big difference?"

Maybe he was bumped on the head when they brought us here. There was a clear difference between the two words in their meaning. "Did she say anything about what was on it?" I asked. "Like, malware?" But that didn't make sense. Why would she have malware on a locked USB?

Lazer was no help. He had no real-world training, everything he did was inside the underground base of operations. He'd never had to run for his life in the middle of the night because someone was chasing him. And he'd never had to sneak into someone's home office to bug their computer to scrape their key logs.

The men spoke in Russian before shouting something at us.

We didn't know what was said, but they moved away toward the thin stream of light coming from the stairwell above them.

"When they've gone back, let's try and stand," I whispered to Lazer.

My hands didn't feel like they were attached to anything. In fact, they were zip tied and as painful as that became, at least it was easily hacked off with something sharp, and from my view of this room before the lights went out, I saw plenty of sharp materials.

The creak of the door above opened and light beamed onto the stairs for a moment.

The two men yelped before the thwip of something hit.

Their bodies fell, culminating in a pile of two at the bottom. The light revealing one of their faces in our direction. Staring at us. A bloodied bullet hole in the center of his forehead.

Lazer yelped.

"Shut up," I said, trying to swing my legs around to whack him with. "Jeez. Try and stand."

A thud of a footstep creaked on the floorboards above.

"No, you shut up," Lazer shouted.

A shadow cast out from the doorway across the stairs, covering the bodies of the men at the bottom.

Shit. We were next. Or it was Danya. But I doubt he would've done something like kill two men, especially since those men were also the same people forcing him into marrying his sister.

A flashlight of light appeared shining out over the two bodies, and then he appeared behind it. The shadow. Dressed from head-to-toe in black camouflage, and a reflected visor covering his face.

"Up," it said in a robotic deep voice. "Now."

Pushed against the hard surface, I stood.

"Who are you?" Lazer asked. "Did Maura send you?"

"Up," the robotic voice grumbled once more. "You have sixty seconds."

Kicking at Lazer's hand, he was panicking. "Come on," I said. "He's here to save us."

"I'm here to save you," the deep robot voice spoke. "I'll leave him if he doesn't stand."

I once considered Lazer to be a good friend, but after everything that had happened, I didn't consider him even an acquaintance anymore.

The tall looming figure forced us over the bodies and out of the kill room. He sliced the zip ties from my hands. It almost hurt for him to tug on my hand and then slice the binding free.

"Faster," he snapped at Lazer. "Go. Go."

I was trying to figure out the angle he had with rescuing us, but this wasn't anyone I would've known or found working with Maura. Although Maura seemed to lead a secret life. I didn't know if this was another person with skin in the game, or someone who had lost money from what had happened.

Outside of the shack, there was a garden that looked out onto Danya's house. I didn't even know this place existed, but I should've assumed they had a kill room on their property. In this line of business, the mafia tended to use their muscle when they didn't get their way.

The white door opened at the back of the house. Danya appeared, his brow furrowing. "What are you doing?"

Turning to see the man behind us. He nodded at Danya. "I'm taking them."

He held his hands out. "Go," he said, gesturing to the fence. "Quick."

I wanted to say something, but before I could say anything, I didn't have the words. I went forward with the guiding hand of the man. Lazer was still asking all types of questions, and annoying both of us by the sounds of it.

Outside the gate, there was a car waiting for us. A black SUV with blacked out windows.

"Where are we going?" I asked as the door opened.

Maura was sitting in the back seat. She shook her head and patted the seat. "Get in."

As I turned to see where the man was, there was nobody there.

"Come on," she continued. "Both of you. Jeez. You almost ruined all of this."

Lazer nudged me. "Let's go."

In the seat, I huffed and sat, my arms folded over each other. "What?"

The car zoomed off, jolting me back in the seat.

Lazer took deep breaths, trying his best not to let out any more of those whimpering sounds that he'd been saying in the kill room.

Maura sighed, rolling her eyes. "You made me leave the bunker," she said. "And you know I don't like leaving the bunker. Not for you, and not for anyone. Not even my own son. Now, you almost got both of you killed."

"No," I snapped. "What did I almost ruin?"

Grinding her teeth, the sound going all the way through me. "Listen," she said. "When I found out that you'd been framed for stealing that money, I did some digging of my own, including some inside digging with Santi in the police department."

Nothing was making any sense. "And?"

"Where's the thumb drive?" she asked, holding out her hand. "It's personal."

"No," I snapped again. "I'm not sure why you had someone attack me, and they had that with them."

Maura tutted.

"That was Bones," Lazer said.

"He wasn't supposed to have that with him," she said.

"Then why did he?" I looked to both of them. One of them had to answer me. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'd like to get out."

The doors locked, securing me inside.

"You're not going anywhere," Maura said. "That USB was being couriered to someone else. It contained sensitive information. Bones attacked you because—"

"Because of these," Lazer raised his wrist. "The bracelet."

I stared at Maura beside me, almost like she was a parent, and I was disappointed in her actions. "Are you really selling them?"

"One thing at a time," she said. "They're not being sold. They're being trained to work. The bracelets are for their safety. And you should be thankful. If it wasn't for them, you wouldn't have been found. And possibly been killed."

That prompted another question. "Who came in?" I asked.

"I've never seen him before," Lazer said.

"Nobody," she answered. "Now, back to what I was saying, Bones did his job, he protected the drive. Did you manage to open it?"

"No."

Relief washed across her face. "Good. Now, where is it?"

"Danya has it," I said. "And I gave him the code. I cracked it before Lazer came in and took it from me in the cafe."

She stared at me like I'd insulted her, which I was almost ready to do, but she had saved me from almost death.

"If he has half a brain, he'll know that the contents of it aren't for him," she said.

"Then tell me what's on it," I said. "Because I told him it was a crypto wallet."

She burst out into laughter. "You think I'd have a crypto wallet couriered across the city. And where would it be going?"

Nothing was adding up. The number on the phone had told me to go and get that person. They knew there was a thumb drive in their belongings, and they knew that it had information on their that would save me—both of us. "I don't believe anything you say anymore," I said. "Whatever it is, Danya has it, and he's seen it."

"Driver," Maura said. "Step on it. We're not going back."

"I thought you wanted it," I said.

"Believe me, it's only purpose was sentimental to someone I once knew," she said. "Someone I considered a friend. Well, we all know not to have friends, they only serve the purpose of disappointing you."

I turned around and when I turned back, Maura held a hand to my face. A cloth covered my mouth and nose, knocking me out.