CHAPTER 20: ASH
Snow’s face looked like hell.
A hot knot twisted in my gut every time I looked at her. I wanted to beat the shit out of the guy who did it. One punch just wasn’t enough. I needed some alone time with the masked SOB, couple hours at least.
“Ash, are you listening?”
I shifted my focus from her busted up cheek to her eyes. She looked as tired as I felt. “Yeah, I’m listening.”
Snow nodded, and we got down to business. Sitting in the farthest corner of the room, we talked in whispers. The discussion was necessary. I knew we needed a plan. But what I really wanted to do was quit talking about it and charge through the door.
“Then what?” Snow said, eyebrows raised. “What happens once we get outside, assuming we are actually able to break down the locked metal door?”
I shrugged. “We make a break for it.”
She stared at me like I was missing the obvious. “And when the men, who outnumber us five to two, attack?”
“We kick ass.”
“And when the one guy pulls his gun…we just dodge the bullets?”
She had a point. “Didn’t think of that,” I mumbled.
“Okay, then, let’s keep thinking.”
In the end, our escape plan was simple: Lure the kidnappers inside, incapacitate and be ready to run. We figured the best time to do that would be when (if) they brought us any food. They had to feed us, right? Plus, we didn’t have much else to work with. The room was bare, the plan full of holes. It was dangerous, maybe even a little stupid. Okay, it was a lot stupid.
But we had to try.
Our main problems were the gun—that was the biggest threat—and not knowing the layout of the building. We also needed some way to ID the kidnappers once we’d escaped. That’d been Snow’s idea, but I was all for it. With me back in commission, I had no doubt we could fight our way out of here. From what she told me, Snow’d already bested the men once out in the woods. We could do it again.
It came down to either we wait, let my dad pay the jerks, and see if they release us—or we take matters into our own hands.
Easy choice.
“Alright,” I said once we’d talked it out. Anything could still go wrong, but at least we had a plan. “I think we should sleep now.”
Snow blinked. “Why?”
“Because you look like you’re about to pass out,” I said, settling onto one of the blankets.
“But we don’t have much time,” she said. “You told your dad midnight, and—”
“We have a ton of time,” I cut in. “When I made that call, the screen read 3:55 a.m.”
“But—”
“No.”
She gasped as I pulled her down next to me—which proved how tired she really was. Snow could overpower me with her pinky finger. The fact that I’d taken her by surprise was a clear sign she was exhausted.
“The plan depends on both of us being fully coherent. We need rest.”
“We need to get out of here,” she countered.
“Sleep first,” I mumbled, pulling another blanket over us.
“Ash.”
“Hmm?”
She took a deep breath. I felt the movement through the arm I had draped across her stomach. “Don’t worry okay, Ash? I’ll get us out of here.”
“I know you will,” I said.
“I won’t let them blackmail your family. And I won’t let them hurt you.”
“I know.”
What I didn’t say was that I wouldn’t let them hurt her either. Screw this whole bodyguard thing. I was going to protect Snow whether she liked it or not.
“They’re going down,” she said. “They can’t just do something like this and get away with it. I won’t let them.”
“I believe you.” I wrapped my arm tighter around her waist. “Go to sleep.”
Snow stiffened, let out a tiny cough. “You know, I’m not going anywhere. You can let go.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Really?” she said a hitch in her throat. “Why?”
Despite everything, despite being in this shady little room, lying on the freezing floor, I smiled. “Go to sleep, ninja girl.”
Her body relaxed, eyes closed, but I couldn’t tell if she was really asleep. Didn’t matter though. My eyes were too heavy. A second later, they fell shut, and I was gone.
* * *
I tried not to move.
Tried not to breathe too hard, afraid I’d wake Snow.
She was so warm, so soft. Waking up had never been better than this. I was almost convinced it was all just a dream, but it couldn’t be. Snow was too real in my arms.
When I first opened my eyes, it’d taken me a second to remember everything. Where I was, why I was there, and more importantly, who I was with. But like I said it only took a second. And once I realized the warm body in front of me was Snow, my brain had refused to let me go back to sleep. Not that I tried very hard. I wanted to memorize everything about this moment.
Somehow, we’d ended up switching positions. Probably Snow’s doing, since she was now closest to the door, shielding me like always. But she was also pressed against me, her back to my front. I had to give myself credit for that one.
She was so close. Her small frame fit against my larger one perfectly. There was no space between us. My arm was still across her waist, but now hers rested on top of mine. Even though I was trying to control my breathing, a few strands of Snow’s hair tickled my nose, soft like silk. She was right there, within kissing distance. Before I realized what I was doing, I’d buried my nose in her hair, nuzzling her neck.
Snow went completely still.
“Ash?” she said.
I froze, tried to sound innocent. “Yeah?”
“What are you doing?” A pause. “Are you…kissing my hair?”
“Possibly.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I was trying to let you sleep a little longer. I didn’t—”
“Damn,” she exclaimed, pushing away from me.
“What?” I said. If this was her reaction, I was losing my touch. “What’s wrong?”
Snow pointed to a plastic tray, and I paled. There was food on top, two pieces of burnt toast, a lump of what looked to be mashed potatoes, a square of American cheese. I should’ve noticed, should’ve spotted it before her. But I’d been distracted.
“They’ve already been here.” She stepped closer, picked up a piece of toast and cursed. “The food’s cold. We slept right through it.”
I cleared my throat, upset about the food but also praying she’d forget about the hair incident. “Well, they’ve got to come back sometime…right?”
“I don’t know.” She paced the length of the room. “Who’s to say this isn’t the only time they’ll feed us? They’re not exactly attentive.”
“You’re right,” I said.
This was not good. Our plan relied on two things. Taking the men by surprise was number one. Number two was getting that gun. The kidnappers had to be in the room for both. Shit, we’d missed our best window of opportunity.
“It’s okay,” Snow said. It sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as me. “It’s fine.”
“It is?”
She pulled me back into our little corner, speaking low. “We just have to make sure they do come back. That shouldn’t be too hard. We just need to give them a reason…”
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
We ate first since Snow and I were both starving. I let her have the cheese—the only decent thing on the tray. What I’d thought was mashed potatoes? Yeah, it actually tuned out to be cold grits. After choking down our nasty food, we did everything we could think of to get the kidnappers’ attention.
Snow and I took turns taunting the camera.
Once I’d exhausted my English arsenal of profanity, I busted out my lengthy repertoire of German curse words. Snow swore at them in English and Korean. That had lasted a good fifteen minutes.
But nothing happened.
Snow covered up the lens with one of the blankets—which kept falling off.
I pretended to have a heart attack.
Snow tried to kick the door down.
We screamed at the top of our lungs.
I even tried mooning the camera, not my finest hour. Thankfully, Snow had turned her back on that one.
But no one came running.
Time was ticking away. There was no way to know how long we’d slept. It could’ve been noon or closer to twilight. Regardless, hours had passed. Midnight felt like it was right around the corner. Snow and I knew that we had to keep trying, but we were out of ideas. Our one source of light, that damn light bulb, flickered every now and then. The walls shook whenever it happened, which made me think the room we were in was by some train tracks or possibly an airport.
“It’s almost like they’re not even there,” Snow said, taking a sip of water from one of the jugs.
“Maybe they have day jobs,” I said, but the joke fell flat.
“I can’t believe they didn’t bring us another meal.” She handed me the jug, and I took a long pull. “I mean, I know I said they might not—but I really thought they would.”
Shaking my head, I got to my feet. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“I know. I don’t want your dad to lose all that money.”
“It’s not that,” I said. “Snow, even if he pays up, there’s no guarantee that they’ll let us out.”
She jumped to her feet. “Why would you say that?”
“I don’t think it’ll matter. Something was off about that phone call.” I’d been thinking but hadn’t realized what it was until seconds ago. “They told my dad he had until midnight to transfer the money. But they never said when they’d release us.”
The bulb flickered, but I still saw Snow’s eyes widen.
“Even if they get the money,” I said, “I don’t think that’ll be the end of it.”
“You really think they’d keep us here?” Snow asked.
I glanced at the milk jugs, and her eyes followed mine. No one could drink that much water in 24 hours. Not even two people.
As if she’d come to the same conclusion, she said, “My God, they would.”
The room stopped shaking a moment later, but we were silent.
It was like hearing her agree made the situation more real. As much as I liked being alone with Snow, we were trapped. I might never see Mom and Dad again. Snow might never see her Omma. We had to escape.
“I think I’ve got it,” Snow said suddenly.
“Got what?” I asked.
“Our way out.”
When I looked over, she was staring at the light bulb like it would solve all of our problems. The confidence in her eyes gave me hope. If Snow believed we could get out of this, then I knew we could. I might’ve doubted myself, but I could never doubt her.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” I said—and watched as she walked forward, reached up and put her fingers around the bulb.
Talking to the camera, she said, “Sorry boys, but we need a little privacy.”
A twist of her wrist…then complete darkness.
I heard a crack like glass breaking. “Snow?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said softly. “Be ready.”
Backing against the wall beside the door, I waited. I couldn’t tell where exactly her voice had come from, but her plan was genius. It’d been right there in front of our faces the whole time. What was the best way to freak them out? What would force them to check on us? If they couldn’t see inside the room, how would they know what was going on? That light bulb was the solution to everything. It had to work.
A few seconds later, I heard the locks clicking.
“I move first,” she whispered, barely a sound, but I heard it. She must’ve been standing on the other side of the door.
As the door creaked open, I held my breath. A fluorescent shaft of light illuminated the room from the outside. The gun was the first thing I saw followed by the arm holding it. The man had both hands on the gun, sharp and steady, as he inched his way forward.
“Now kids,” he said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Yeah, right, I thought. Then what’s the gun for?
“But I will,” he went on. “So, why don’t you just—”
Snow moved like a flash. One second she was behind the door, the next she was in motion. He tried to turn the gun on her, but the room was too small. Snow caught his arm and made a slashing motion. With a grunt, the man dropped the gun, a small pool of blood spattering the floor.
That was when I noticed the shard of glass in her hand.
Must’ve come from the light bulb, I realized as she kicked the man hard, once in the kneecap, once in the balls. He fell to the ground with a groan, and Snow pocketed the gun. We rushed outside, only to be greeted by two other assholes wearing the same head-to-toe black. There were cars everywhere. Apparently, they’d been keeping us in the janitor’s closet of some kind of parking garage. The floor rumbled again as cars passed by overhead.
The first guy tried to punch me, but I ducked, nailing him the stomach. I came up swinging and used one of the flips Snow’d taught me. It worked like a charm. The guy was on the ground in seconds, rolling around, not knowing what hit him. I was actually pretty proud of myself, and I noticed Snow’s guy was down, too.
“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing her hand.
We ran up a flight of stairs, but it was like a freaking maze. Row after row of cars. If we’d had more time, we could’ve probably found the way out. But we hadn’t been running long before we heard footsteps.
“There were two more,” Snow said, “at the drive-in.”
A shout went up behind us, and even as we spotted the exit up ahead, I knew it would be too far. Besides, what if they had another gun? I scanned the lot quickly.
“In here,” I said, and ducked down one of the rows, hopping into the back of an old pickup. Snow followed though she looked unsure. I got the black tarp pulled over us just as the footsteps grew louder. They paused at the end of our row, and I’d never been more terrified.
“Thought I heard something,” a voice said.
The idea that they’d catch us again, put us back in that room, it was paralyzing. Snow’s fingers were wrapped around mine in a death grip. Neither one of us breathed until we heard the footsteps move on, rushing past our hiding place. I didn’t realize it until several minutes later, but her other hand was holding the gun.
“Hey,” I whispered, and she let out a shaky breath. I waited until she looked up. “Let’s go home.”
She nodded.
And we ran.