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Make that onetrapped in a small space

I hear Samantha’s footsteps move across the floor above and then the sound of the bedroo closed once sheis eerily silent: the heaviness of h h I know both should be raucous in the s, so I reach s I painfully count three walls to ht and in front of me, but am relieved that behind me there is no fourth wall to keep me confined It’s a narrow hallway

I don’t have tiunshot, although suppressed like Victor’s always sounds, but I know that this ti anymore

I hear a voice It sounds far off but it echoes from somewhere above me That’s when I feel a small draft onThere’s a vent, though far too sh much less the rest of my body, but it’s a vent and I kno that’s how I heard the echo of the voice

There’s another suppressed shot and this time when I hear the voice that succeeds it, I know that it belongs to Javier

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"I have four bullets left in this gun," Javier says to Sa to put one in you every two "

My hand comes up involuntarily and clutches atback," Samantha says in a weak, strained voice

It fills me with dread to think of where Javier has already shot her

"You lie, puta! You stink of lies Now tell me where Sarai is Because I know she’s here"

How did he knoas here?

Then in Spanish Javier shouts, "Search the house! Every room Turn it upside-down and find her!"

Two seconds later the sound of furniture being overturned, glass shattering and feet stoh the walls

"She’s not here," Sah her teeth "Victor was here earlier With a girl A little black-haired girl he called Izabel But he took her with him when he left"

Thwap!

Another shot sounds and Samantha screams out in pain, but then her screaine that it’s by Javier’s hand Or maybe someone else within the room Tears strea so close to the cold ground outside, but h from the incredible amount of stress on my nerves that it feels like my head is on fire

"I know she’s here," Javier says coldly "I know she didn’t leave with hi Now you have six more minutes The last bullet I’ll put in your brain"

Then Javier’s voice rises:

"You hear that, Sarai?" he calls out to me "In six more minutes you’ll kill her Just like you killed Lydia All I want is to take you hos are shaking

After the ransacking noises finally stop, the extra sets of footsteps, two judging by the pattern, o outside," Javier dehborhood but don’t draw attention Go!"

I can’t leave Samantha up there with him to die

"I told you there’s no one here!" she shouts

The noise I hear this time I know is Javier’s hand across her face and then her body hitting the floor The floor beams shake above me with the force of her fall

I turn behindthat it leads me out Because I won’t leave her like this Javier can take me back He can kill me if he wants to, but I won’t hide under here like a coward and let her die for me

Thwap!

My breath hitches andforward and finally co but h I reach up abovefor another h, there is one And just when I think there’s no way I can lift that lid all the way and clih noise to tell Javier exactly where I am, I stub my toe on a four-step set of moveable stairs shoved into the corner

I pick the steps up instead of pushing the any unnecessary noise and I set the to the third one, I have to bend over forward to keep fro I reach up with both hands, pressingthat it’s not blocked by anything and that wherever it leads it’s not anywhere Javier can seeonce whichit partially open above ain and walk up to the fourth step and es inside a closet I see that a foam mattress pad had been folded over and placed on top of the hatch door to conceal it and there is carpet on top of the hatch that ertips as I raise the hatch the rest of the way and leave it to lean against the back of the closet wall

I cli from the bar above

Thwap!

"Tworoom

I open the closet door and h Sa roo on