Page 79 of The Masked King

“The clothes?” I frown. “You mean the clothes I’ve been wearing?”

“Yes. Someone brings them. A woman. I don’t know her name, but they let her into the room while you are sleeping.”

Someone else knows I’m here. Malevsky will pay her to keep silent, but if I could stay awake and give her a message for DI Goss…

“Thank you, Zara.” I want to hug her, but that would end badly for both of us. “Please go before they get suspicious.”

She doesn’t look at me as she takes the plate, goes to the door, and knocks three times. It opens as if by magic. I don’t see anyone else outside the room, and she doesn’t look behind her as she leaves, but it doesn’t matter.

Hope is growing wings inside my chest even as my eyelids grow heavy.

I drag myself out of bed, cross the room, and go to the bathroom. I never paid much attention before but there’s a lock on the door, of course there is. I slide it shut and look around. There’s no lipstick for me to write on the mirror above the basin. There are no paper or pens, magazines or books in the room for me to tear out words and arrange into a message that I could leave where the woman would surely find it. I open the cabinet on the wall and the cupboard underneath the sink, and there are no scissors, nothing that could be used as a weapon.

Then I peer at the shower cubicle.

The walls are clean right now, but when the hot water is running, they get steamed up.

I don’t wait around. I turn the shower onto the hottest temperature and wait for the steam to work its magic. When the door is misted up, I step inside and use my fingertip to write a message in reverse so that it can be read from the other side.

HELP!

DI GOSS

NYPD.

I know Malevsky will see it too, but I only need the woman to read the words before they’re erased. She won’t forget them, even if she is a member of the Bratva; I only hope they eat away at her until she has to act on what she saw.

Then I leave the hot water running, sit down with my back against the door, and wait.

“Unlock the door now!” A fist thumps against the door, jolting me awake.

I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep, but the shower is still on, and my message is still there if a little distorted with dripping condensation. I drag myself onto my feet, legs shaking, and move away from the door.

“No. I want some clean clothes.”

I reverse to the window and turn around to peer through the beveled glass at the dark sky outside. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. The window is in two parts, one large pane, and a smaller one that opens. I’m desperate to open it and gulp fresh air, but it will allow the steam to escape, and I need my message to stick around a while longer.

“Come out and we’ll give you clothes.”

“And let you fuckers see me naked. Break down the door and I’ll open the window and scream for help.”

There’s a pause. I know they’ll call my bluff, but I get some small satisfaction from showing them that I’m not going down without a fight now that I know Zara and this other woman is out there.

“Fine. Stand back. We wouldn’t want to damage that pretty face.” It’s Malevsky.

I dash across the room and bang on the door. “I’m not going anywhere until you bring me some clothes.”

“I suggest that if you want to see Zara alive, you unlock the door now, Demi, and come out.”

“Please, Demi…” It’s Zara. “Do as they say…” Her pleas end with a small gasp.

Fuck! The psychos will kill anyone who stands in the way of them and their fucking power trip. I should never have made her talk. I can’t live with her death on my conscience too.

A sob builds inside my chest, making my throat ache. “If I come out, do you promise not to hurt her?”

“You have my word.” And I’m supposed to trust that? “Despite what you might think of me, I am a man of my word, Ms. Payne.”

The glimmer of hope inside my chest flickers and dies as I turn off the shower and erase the message with the palm of my hand.