I held Kazmir as close to me as I could while our captor checked his phone.
“It won’t be long now,” he said, smiling down at us. “Everything is going as planned.”
The only way I knew to keep Kazmir quiet was to nurse him. I shifted him to my breast, covered myself, and said a silent prayer that he’d drift to sleep.
My eyes met Darrow’s. Shiver’s sister was holding it together well, but how much longer would she be able to?
“What will you do to us?” Darrow asked.
“It’s quite simple, really. They’re aware you’re here and still alive. They’ll come, thinking they can save you, but what they don’t know is that I’ve been planning this since I was a lad.”
I gave a slight head nod to Darrow. The more she could get him to tell us, the better we’d be able to act when given the opportunity.
“What will happen when they come for us?”
“Kaboom!” shouted Matthew, jarring Kazmir awake.
I eased him back on the breast before he could fuss.
“What’s the point, then?” Darrow asked.
“Come again.”
“Seems obvious to me, Matthew. ‘Kaboom,’ as you said, means we all blow up. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just introduce yourself to my brother than kill yourself?”
“No, no, no,” he laughed. “I will be long gone by the time they’ve crossed the threshold. And then, without a living heir, I will simply submit my DNA and, as I’ve said, everything that rightfully belongs to me shall be mine.”
Darrow shook her head and laughed. “I guess you haven’t been read in on my brother’s meetings with the solicitor.”
I watched the man turn his back on Darrow, at first, seeming as though he was disinterested in what she was saying.
“About what?”
“The trust, of course. Thornton has no interest in Whittaker Abbey. He never has. Neither Sutton nor I have either. Upon the duke’s death, Thornton had his trust rewritten, giving the estate in its entirety back to the crown, as it were, as so many in our position have been forced to do. The income will never be what it once was, and the taxes, well, they could bankrupt us inside of the first year.”
“You’re lying.”
Darrow shrugged. “All of this for nothing,” she said. “Such a shame.”
“Silence!” he shouted again as he paced in front of the window.
He wasn’t afraid of being seen. In fact, he wanted to be. He must have some kind of trigger set to alert him when someone crossed the outer parameter, at which point, he’d leave through the only safe passage out of the house. Once whoever was coming in after us crossed the second parameter, whatever explosives he’d put into place, would detonate, killing us all.
Anyone analyzing the situation would assume it was a simple hostage negotiation. They would have no idea that, instead, the man who held us captive had been planning something this elaborate for years.
I’d said few prayers in my lifetime, and those I had were always for the safety of my precious Kazmir.
Tonight I prayed not only for him, but for myself and his father, Darrow, Wilder, Pinch, and even Wellie. God save our souls if not our lives.