25. SUTTON

For a hacker, not having any power was a death sentence. Maura was powerless, even if I had heard her say she had my mother. A woman I probably wouldn't have entertained even if she came out of a closet and professed she was her, the woman who gave me away when I was only a toddler, and not a single memory of her.

Massaging the pain around my wrist, I walked slowly around the maze Maura had created. It had been expanded heavily since I last lived here. It's possibly why she didn't want me around when she took me and then threw me back out on the street hours later.

From behind, I was taken, a hand over my mouth. I thrashed around until I heard his voice.

Inside a dark room with only dull red emergency lights shining from the ceiling, I couldn't see him properly, but I'd felt those hands on me behind.

"Danya, what are you doing?" I asked, waving my hand around. I whacked his arm. "That's for not saving me."

"Sutton," he said, his hand feeling around at my face. He stroked under my chin. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry," I said. "You have to make it up to me." I reached to his hand, still as warm as I remembered it. But this was no time for us to come together again.

A tiny electronic squeak sounded. "Fuck," he shouted. "Right. So, long story short, the person who was sending those texts to us was your mother. Now, she's giving me directions. I got her access to the system here."

"What?"

"I know," he chuckled. "I had to figure out the servers, or whatever is in here. But now we need to leave."

"My mother," I scoffed. "Why?"

"I don't know everything, but she's waiting at the apartment," he told me. "We must be quick though. She's a wanted woman."

I sighed, backing away until I was against something solid. "I don't know if I want to see her," I admitted. "It's not just because she left me to the system, but it's because everyone has lied to me, every single person has been using me. And I know about the Russians, they used one of the kids here to hack into your family's bank, which was easy to do by the way." I knew how easy it was because I'd seen how lax their online security was. I was half-surprised they hadn't been hacked and stolen from before.

Danya placed a hand on my shoulder. "It's ok," he said. "I always knew you didn't have anything to do with it."

That was a lie, but right now, I was clinging to that as a form of truth. "So, are you here for me, or was there an ulterior motive?" I asked. He'd already admitted to slotting something into the server.

"I don't know, but I came here to get you," he said. "And—she's telling me now that we need to get out. The police are on their way to raid the place."

"What? You're talking to her?" I reached out, trying to find his face. I pulled out the earpiece. "Hello?" I mumbled, slotting it into my ear.

"Sutton," her voice, like Maura's, it took me aback, thankfully I was already pressed against the wall, otherwise I might've tripped. "Hi," she said. "I'm gonna need you to pass this back to Danya. He'll lead you out. And then you'll come back to the apartment, and we'll finally get to catch up."

Holding back tears, I was thankful that Danya couldn't see my face properly right now. I didn't want him looking into my eyes, feeling sympathy for me. "Ok." There was so much I'd wanted to say to her. So much I'd told myself that I would say to her given the opportunity. I'd wanted to tell her so much. Like the pain, the hurt, and a little longing for a real parent in my life.

I took the earpiece out and Danya took my hand, collecting the earpiece. "It's ok," he said as I let out a quiet whimper. "We'll get out of here before the police arrive, but when they do—"

"No," I said. "I need my bag."

"But we need to leave."

"I need my bag!"

There was silence. "Where is it?" he asked. "Your mom has a map of this place. Tell me and we can get it then leave."

"Maura's office," I said. It wasn't completely essential that I got my bag, but the tech wasn't easily replaced.

"On it," he said. "You wait here. It's easier if I go alone."

"No chance," I said, wiping my eyes. "Absolutely not. I know my bag. And I know how to get into her office. I've got the code."

"Jokes on you, the power is out, and your mother has remote access," he said.

I wished he'd stop calling her that. She was Petra. And she'd abandoned me as a child. She wasn't a mother.

"I'm still coming,"

He grabbed my hand by the wrist.

"Ow."

"What?" he grumbled. "I've been more aggressive."

"No, it's where she put that band on me," I told him. "Take my other wrist, but like, leave this one alone for now, at least until I can put a cream on it." He stroked my face again, and this time, I met his face with mine and kissed him. "I suppose I should thank you for saving me," I said.

I relied on Danya to take us to Maura's office. I didn't know where it was from here. I didn't even know where here was, other than a server room, which was unmanned. That didn't surprise me too much considering Maura believed herself to be above the law, and everything it stood for. I didn't see how people feared her until I was outside of her operation. It might have made a little more sense now since she always knew she was my aunt and I got special treatment, even if some of that treatment was to get my mother—that woman who left me.

It seemed empty. But I knew from seeing into some of the rooms how there were kids in there. Kids she took from the streets without their families, not abductions, but kids who didn't have homes, and were already in the system, she gave them a home, and a purpose, and I suppose that gave her some blind loyalty.

"Do you know where we're going?" I asked him, tugging on his hand to pull us to a stop. "Seems like we're going around in circles." The red lights above us gave her limited vision. It was a strange light to have, almost like we were in a photography processing studio, except the red seemed darker, and almost made certain things seem invisible.

"I've got someone talking me through all of it," he said. "So, yeah. I know exactly where we're going. Or do you want to lead? And everything looks the same. We're not going around in circles."

"How long do we have until the police arrive?"

"I don't know, and I'm trying not to think of that clock counting down right now," he said. "You want something, so we'll get it. And then we're getting out of here."

I knew that once we were out, it was into a storied parking lot. It was easy to blend in there. "Ok," I said. "Thank you." I rolled my eyes, he couldn't see me do it, but he deserved that thank you, even if it was forced.

As we continued to walk, in what I considered circles, I had more questions.

"So, what happened with your wedding?" In the dim light, he didn't appear to be in any type of tux.

"I killed everyone," he said in a serious tone before throwing out a little chuckle. "Most of them."

"The man who took me?"

"No," he said. "He is in the pit, and he'll—" He came to an abrupt stop. "We're here."

It was a door that looked like every other door in this light.

It opened without a code.

The same red light was on in the office, but thankfully we didn't need to look further than on the desk. I raced to it, investigating. Nothing had been taken from the bag, not even the bag of unopened chips had been taken.

A tongue clicked, prompting both of us to turn. Turning around. Maura stood in the doorway.

"You're not Petra," she said. "Where is she?"

I placed the bag over my shoulder, ready to rush her and escape. "I don't know," I said.

"Not you," she said. "Him. Where's Petra?"

"Here," he said, throwing the earpiece over to her.

As she stepped back to catch the small object, we raced past her out of the office.

"You know the way out now?" Danya asked as we continued running.

"I—" I knew. It was in my memory somewhere.

"This way," a voice called out. It was Lazer.

We followed him to the doors and out into the parking lot.

I figured it would be daylight, but it was dark, except for the orange, fluorescent lights on the parking lot ceiling.

"I'm sorry for what I did," Lazer said, "I had no choice." He didn't have his wristband on anymore. There was a red ring around his wrist, almost bruised from where his had been. "If I could've kept your name out of it, I would, but she told us that you were stealing from us, and this was to teach you a lesson."

Danya took my hand and squeezed it. I stared him in the eye and smiled.

"I forgive you," I whispered, aimed at both of them.

The sound of sirens echoed through the storied parking lot.

"We should go," Danya said.

"Come with us," I told Lazer.

He shook his head. "I'll do my own thing," he said. "Maybe we'll see each other another day. I hope."

Danya tugged on my arm. "I said, we should go." His voice becoming gruff. "Now."

In one of the SUVs I swore had been the one I'd been kidnapped in, we set off out of the structured parking lot, passing the police cars completely. There was no checkpoint of the police checking IDs as we left, thankfully. Although I caught a glimpse of Santiago sitting in a car. I realized that since Maura was my aunt, that made us cousins, and perhaps I should've felt some type of sympathy for him for what was about to happen, but I couldn't.

"Ok," I said, finally feeling some sort of relief now that we were away from it all. "What happened?"

Danya took his eyes off the road briefly to look at me. "I thought I had to go through with it, and I almost did," he said. "And then Mikhail told me he'd planned on forcing the family's hand into making me marry his sister. He hired your friend, he planted my name as the one taking the money, and for whatever reason, your name was the recipient."

I knew why my name was there. My name had been there to bring my mother out of hiding. I had so many questions for her now, more than I had growing up. Less painful ones, or the pain had become numb now. I still had questions about why she could give me up, but I knew the answers weren't going to sting quite as much as they would if I'd asked them years ago.

"And because of that, you almost killed me," I said. "Don't think I haven't forgotten about your trigger-happy finger. You could've shot me."

"I—" he sighed. "I thought I was doing what was right. I'm sorry."

"Ew," I laughed, pretending to vomit. "Are you ok?" I asked. "I didn't think you were someone who said sorry. Can I take your temperature? I think I have one of those rectal thermometers."

"Rectal?" he scoffed, swerving the SUV to jostle me around in the passenger seat. "I'll give you one."

"Also, do you think coming in and rescuing me like I'm a damsel in distress saves you from actually doing something nice for me?"

"I don't understand," he grumbled.

"Well, since you know now that everything was a set up, I expect you to do something nice for me," I told him. "I'm not saying it has to be sex, but I wouldn't be opposed to getting some of this adrenaline out on your dick."

He tssked, pressing his tongue at the roof of his mouth. He glanced at me; his wicked smile gave me butterflies. "What did I tell you when we first hooked up?"

"Something angry and Russian?" I asked. "Maybe it was about how thick you were, or the size, but like, you've seen my toy collection, you know that wasn't a problem for me."

He chuckled. "I told you not to fall in love."

Another round of fake vomiting came out of me, followed by an uncontrolled giggle. I didn't know what he was trying to say with that. "And I haven't," I said, playfully whacking his arm. "I think you're a warm body with a big dick, and I am in need—no, scratch that, I am requiring sex."

Danya's face eased. He was sweet. It was a sickly type of sweet, the type that turned my stomach for a moment and I wondered if I would vomit. "Well, I like you," he said. "I would not have done this for anyone. Well, I might have been told to do this for people in the past, but that was an order, this was a choice."

"You're being weird," I told him. "All I'm asking from you right now is dick, I don't need emotions. I have far too many of them that I'm suppressing already. So, if you wanna park in an alley, I can slip out of these and slip myself on something a little firm." My hand on his thigh.

Maybe it was the near-death experience, or something else entirely inside me, but the hornies were coming out to play right now.

"You're avoiding going back to the apartment," he said. "I'm not letting you use sex to get your way."

I slapped a hand at his inner thigh, feeling the tip of his bulge and getting giddy. "Please," I moaned in a sexually aggressive tone. "I'm not asking again."

Danya laughed. "Good. We can do that later. We'll need to celebrate. And we can't celebrate too early."

"Too early?" I asked. "This is the perfect time. Maura is being arrested, I'm alive, you're alive, and unmarried."

"But we still need to get back, before she leaves."

I slinked in my seat as far as the seatbelt allowed me. "You're actually super boring," I told him, teasing to get my way.

"Boring," he scoffed. "I'm not falling for your mind games, baby."

"Baby?" I snickered.

"Yes, baby," he said. We were in traffic, and now we had time to stare into each other's eyes. "I left my family, not for you, but for me, to do whatever I want, and express myself how I please. And—and—"

"I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to turn down this proposal," I sassed, turning to the door. "It's all too soon, and you told me not to fall in love, so I didn't."

"Pssh." He yanked at my arm. "I'm not asking for anything from you. I'm just expressing myself. I have affection for you. Don't you dare say anything snarky to that."

I turned to him, pressing my lips together to suppress my smile. "You have affection for me," I said. "Well, I suppose I have affection for you as well, or at least those inches of you. Several inches of you."

He cupped his hand over his crotch. "Well, you're never gonna get this again unless we get back to my apartment."

Great. Now he was withholding dick.

I didn't know what I did to deserve dick-withholding, but I best get the best dick of my life once the ban was lifted. "You owe me," I said.

"I do owe you," he agreed. "I owe you a lot, actually."

Why was he being sweet? I needed someone to sass back with me. I liked his nicer side, but sometimes a little more aggression was warranted, and maybe he wasn't letting it out because of how I'd latch to it like I would someone who was dickpraved.