The color drained from Köse’s face, and he shoved the box into my hands. “Run.”
Right. I’d take the box, which was apparently loaded with trackers, and make myself the target.
I shook my head, put the box on the table, and took a giant step backward.
Köse produced a gun. “Take the box and run.”
I stared at him—at the Glock he pointed at me. Would he really shoot me? His brown eyes were cold. Merciless. He’d definitely shoot me.
I didn’t have a choice. But I’d ditch the box as soon as I was out of his sight.
I did as he said. I took the box and ran, but my steps slowed as soon as I rounded a corner.
Another burst of gunfire had me hunching my shoulders. If only I had a weapon.
I did have a weapon. In the dratted box.
I sprinted to my room, where it took twenty seconds for my clumsy fingers to enter the code for the box’s lock.
I opened the lid.
The gun was gone.
My lungs deflated, my shoulders slumped, and I swallowed a curse. But even as I wished anatomically impossible things on Köse, I explored the box’s interior. I easily found my tracker and a second lump of equal size. Yurgi’s tracker?
Other than that, it was empty. I tossed the useless, gun-less box onto the bed. From there, it slid off the silk comforter and thudded to the floor.
I needed to escape, and for that I needed shoes. Why hadn’t Nehir given me shoes? Had she put mine beneath the bed? I knelt and pushed the box, which I wished I’d never picked up in the first place, out of the way.
The space under the bed was a shoe-free zone.
“Damn.” I sat back on my ankles, glanced to the left, and noticed that hitting the floor had caused the bottom of the box to shift, revealing a hidden drawer.
With my heart beating louder than a drummer at a metal concert, I reached into the tiny drawer and found a memory card.
All too aware that a gunman might burst into the room at any second, I took the card, hid it in my bra, and closed the drawer. Then I stood and sprinted to the door.
When I left Köse, I approached my room from the right. I ran left. The stone veranda wrapped around Köse’s house, and I prayed it would lead to stairs or a way out.
Premonition tickled the space between my shoulder blades, and I dashed through the nearest doorway into an interior hallway.
Men’s voices followed me.
Where could I hide?
I opened a door, slipped inside, and prayed the men would pass me. I crossed my fingers, held my breath, and said a thousand silent prayers.
Something worked. They passed without checking the door.
I waited a full two minutes before venturing into the hallway. That’s when I heard it—a whimper.
I stuck my head into the nearest room and barely contained a gasp. A man held Rose by her throat. His free hand groped under her dress.
Tears welled in her brown eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Stop.” Her voice was reedy with fear.
“Stop,” I echoed her plea. Except I wasn’t begging.
The man had a foot and a hundred pounds on me. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t let him hurt a child.
“Stop,” I repeated.
He glanced over his shoulder, saw me, and released his hold on Rose.
She slid to the floor.
“Get up,” I told her. “Run.”
She didn’t move.
“Run.”
The man took a step toward me. He was big. Big men were seldom fast. Big men always underestimated women. I hoped I was right, because he wasn’t just big. He was huge. I swallowed and retreated a step.
His eyes flared, as if my fear excited him.
“Rose. Run.”
She pulled herself off the floor, but she didn’t run. Instead, she wiped the tears from her eyes and fumbled in the drawer of a bedside table.
The man reached for me, and I ducked.
“Run!”
Rose ignored me. She was a frightened child.
And I was a frightened woman with no weapon, no sense of where I was, no shoes, and very little chance of prevailing against a man the size of an elephant.
“Please, Rose.” Nothing in that drawer was worth her life. “Run.”
She found whatever she was looking for and closed the drawer.
I slipped to the right as the man grabbed for my arm.
He growled when he missed, and the look in his eye said I’d pay for evading him.
He had to catch me first.
“Rose!”
She hid something behind her back and crept toward the door.
Splitting my focus cost me. The man caught my shoulder and pushed me against the wall. My head connected with the stone and stars danced at the edge of my vision.
Then his hand was at my throat. Squeezing.
His lips twisted into a cruel smile as I struggled for air.
I lowered my chin and jerked my knee toward his crotch. I connected.
His eyes narrowed, and his grip on my neck tightened.
The stars at the edge of my vision were replaced by black. I didn’t have much time. Adrenaline gave me strength. Using my grip on his wrists, I pulled him toward me and kneed him a second time.
The man grunted, and his grip loosened.
I took a deep gulp of air, pulled my arm back, and tightened my hand into a fist.
He stiffened, and his hands fell away from my throat.
Rose, her eyes wide as saucers, backed away from him.
The man turned toward her, and I saw a knife protruding from the back of his knee. He reached down, grabbed the handle, and pulled. He looked almost confused by the sudden spray of blood.
Had Rose known about the popliteal artery?
The man stumbled, then fell.
I stepped around him, grabbed her hand, and yanked her toward the door. “Were not safe here.”
She stared at my fingers as if they were a trap.
“More are coming,” I told her. “They’re searching.” Hopefully, finding the box would slow them down. “We need to run.”
She didn’t move, and I tamped down my impatience. She was still a frightened child. One who’d just killed a man.
“Please, Rose.”
An eternity passed, then she whispered, “Okay.”
Together, we opened the door, and I peeked into the hallway. “Empty.” For now. “How do we get out of the house?”
She took a shuddering breath. “This way.”
Rather than heading to the veranda, she led me deeper into the house. We passed three doors, then she took a left into a narrow corridor.
“We need to escape. We have to get out of here before they find us again.”
“This way.” She sounded certain.
I put aside my doubts and followed her.
She stopped at a door, and I tried the knob. It turned, but the door didn’t move.
“Locked,” I told her.
She pointed to the doorframe.
I lifted on my toes and fumbled till I found a key. My fingers were still clumsy, and the key fell to the floor.
Rose knelt, retrieved the barrel key, and turned the lock.
We passed through the door, and she locked it behind us.
A single naked bulb lit a tiny vestibule. Passing back through the locked door or descending a spiral staircase cut into the stone were the only ways out. Our only option was to descend. Into darkness.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“An entrance to a city.”
“A city?” Last time I checked, cities were outside with fresh air and sunshine and room to spread my arms.
“An underground city.” Hugging the wall, Rose started down the narrow stairs. “More like a village. Derinkuyu has a city. It is said 20,000 people lived there.”
“Why?”
She looked over her shoulder and gave me a why-aren’t-you-right-behind-me look. “When invaders came, the people hid here.”
“How long ago?” My fingers brushed the rough wall as I descended steps cut out of the stone.
“The tour guides say the cities are nearly three thousand years old.”
A soft light turned on, illuminating our way.
“The lights?” I asked.
“Will turn on as we pass. Don’t worry. I know the way. I played here when I was little.”
She was comforting me? She was a twelve-year-old girl who’d killed a man who’d choked her and forced his hand up her skirt. “Are you okay?”
She paused, and her thin shoulders tensed. “I’m fine.”
I didn’t argue. Instead, I followed her.
Ten-thousand steps later—a thousand steps later—maybe a hundred steps later, we reached the bottom.
I rolled my shoulders and tried not to think about the mountain on top of us.
“How do we get out?”
“This way.” She led me down a corridor the width of a coffin.
The ground beneath my bare feet was sandy and rough, and small pebbles cut into my soles.
I paused next to the entrance to a wider corridor. “What about this one?”
“No. I know my way out.”
I hoped she was right. As far as I could tell, the city was a warren of confusing corridors, dry air, and the smell of dust. A person (me) might easily wander the maze until they died of dehydration.
We stepped into a large room, and Rose gave a told-you-so look. “This used to be a church. In the larger cities, they had stables for livestock and presses for olive oil and wine.”
Which was fascinating. I might have enjoyed my stroll through history if I had shoes on my feet. “Can we rest for a minute?”
She crossed her arms over her thin chest and nodded.
“You saved me. Thank you.”
She shrugged. “You saved me first.”
“We saved each other. How did you know to stab the back of his knee?”
“Mr. Köse’s guards talk.”
And little pitchers had big ears.
“You are very brave.”
“As are you.”
“Anyone would have done the same.”
Her dark eyes searched my face. “You believe that?”
“I do. None of my friends would leave a girl with a man like that.”
“Then you are lucky in your friends.” She straightened her shoulders. “We should go.”
The next tunnel angled upward.
“Are we close?” I asked. The grown-up version of are-we-there-yet.
“Is the dust bothering you? There are ventilation shafts, but the city is not so good for people with asthma.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Soon.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her but turning back wasn’t an option. The lights, which turned on as we approached, turned off as we passed. There was nothing but darkness behind me. I’d be hopelessly lost in seconds.
When Rose reached a door and turned an actual lock, I crossed my fingers tightly. Please, let this be the exit.
When she opened the door, tears welled in my eyes, and not because of the sudden bright light. I exhaled. Loudly.
Rose glanced over her shoulder. “I guess you will not take the underground city tour at Derinkuyu.”
“You guessed right.” I stepped into an empty room. Its floor was littered with rubble. Its windows lacked glass. Graffiti marked its walls. It was the most beautiful room I’d seen in ages. “Where are we?”
“The village.”
Presumably the one I’d noticed from Köse’s veranda. “I need a phone.”
She nodded. “This way.”
I followed her through narrow, cobbled streets with my face tilted toward the sun. Until I stubbed my bare toe. I cursed, not softly, and hopped on my uninjured foot.
Rose giggled.
The part of me that wasn’t throbbing from an up-close and personal meeting with a rock was glad I’d made her smile.
After that, I paid attention to the warren of uneven streets and not the sky.
She stopped at a break between buildings and pointed. “That is where we were.”
Someone had carved a castle out of the rock. Then Köse had modernized it. “Wow.”
She nodded. “It was a good place to call home.”
We walked for five minutes more, then she stopped in front of a small grocery. “The owner, Hamza Kaplan, is a friend of my mother’s. He will let you use his phone.” She eyed my gold kaftan. “Do you have money?”
“Not on me.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I was kidnapped. My handbag is gone.” I pointed to my bare feet. “My shoes are gone. No money.”
She eyed the chain at my neck. It held a heart-shaped locket covered in diamonds.
My hand rose to my throat. “My father gave me this. If Kaplan needs payment, he can have my earrings.” They were simple, perfect diamond studs.
She rolled her eyes. “Why would a man need earrings?”
We entered a little shop that smelled of exotic spices. The shelves were lined with foods I didn’t recognize. In the back, there was a butcher’s counter. To the far left, flat breads covered a wooden table.
A man wearing a bloodied apron stepped forward and smiled warmly. “Little Rose, what brings you here on this fine afternoon?”
“My friend needs a phone.”
I stepped forward. “Mr. Kaplan?”
He nodded.
“There’s been an attack at Mr. Köse’s house. May I please—”
“An attack?” He ignored me and focused on Rose. “Your mother?”
Her eyes filled. “I don’t know.”
“Köse?”
“We ran,” I told him. “I’m not sure what happened to him.”
He reached for Rose, then wrapped her in an enormous hug. “I am glad you are safe, canim.” He barely glanced my way. “There is a phone behind the counter.”
Apparently, there was a time when people remembered phone numbers. Those days were long gone. If I ever lost my contacts, I’d have no way to call Chariss or my friends or my father. I’d memorized one number. One. I dialed it now.
“Hello.”
Relief flooded my body at the sound of Thor’s voice. “It’s me.”
“Poppy? Where are you? Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. How are you?” The memory of Thor spasming in the street would stay with me forever.
“Fine. I’m fine. Where are you?”
“A village.” I caught Rose’s eye. “Where are we?”
She gave me a name, which I gave to Thor.
“I figured. I’ll be there soon.”
“How?”
“Whoever took you left your phone. I tracked the box.”
“Köse. Köse took me. Right now, Rose and I are in a shop.”
“Who’s Rose?”
“I’ll explain when you get here. Mr. Kaplan, what’s the name of your shop?
“Kaplan Halal Market,” he replied.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes. Hold on.”
I waited.
“I’m twenty minutes away.”
“Consuela?”
“Is not speaking to me, but she’s riding shotgun. You’re certain you’re safe?”
I glanced at the man in the bloody apron and saw the soft expression in his eyes when he looked at Rose. “Yes.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
We hung up, and I turned to find Kaplan staring at me through narrowed eyes. “What happened?” he demanded.
“Men with guns. Rose led me through the underground city.”
“They were there for you?”
“No. For something that belongs to Mr. Köse.”
“Did they get it?”
“Yes and no. They probably found the box. They may not realize it’s empty.”
“Rose!” Nehir stood at the entrance to the shop. Her dress was ripped, a scratch marked her cheek, and she had eyes only for her daughter.
Rose ran to her, and Nehir wrapped her arms around her Rose’s body.
“I was so worried. You are unhurt?”
Rose answered in Arabic. Their exchange was rapid, and when it was done, Nehir looked at me with eyes filled with gratitude. “Thank you.”
An unexpected lump rose in my throat. “Your daughter is very brave. She saved me.”
“You saved her first. We are in your debt.”
What now? Did I nod? Did I shake my head? I needed a cultural cheat sheet. “And I am in yours. What happened to Mr. Köse?”
“Dead.” Her voice was flat.
“The men…”
“Took something from your room and left.”
“What they want is not in the box. They may come back.”
“You will stay with me.” Mr. Kaplan draped his arm around Nehir’s thin shoulders.
“The gossip…”
“We will marry.”
Nehir’s mouth opened, but no words came out.
I backed toward the door to the street. “I’ll leave you alone.”
“No,” said Nehir. “Stay.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
She smiled up at Kaplan. “We have the rest of our lives. For now, you must stay safe.”
“A friend is on his way. He’ll be here soon.”
She leaned against the nearest counter. “Then we wait together.”