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IMARA FOUGHT TO REMEMBER THE CONVERSATION with Takara, but her consciousness seemed to be playing tricks on her. She felt a spasm in her side and curled into a ball to alleviate the pain. She should have known it was no use. Nothing made any difference for the burning in her ribs.
The room went dark, and for one terrifying moment, she couldn’t tell if she had blacked out or merely closed her eyes. While blinking her eyes into focus, Rajesh suddenly appeared in front of her.
His shoulders hunched forward, and his eyebrows furrowed. Still guilty. He crouched down in front of her holding a tiny cup of water filled only a quarter of the way with water. He also held a plate, but that must have been a joke because the only thing on it was a piece of moldy bread.
He cleared his throat as he set the plate down. It looked like he planned to say something, but he let out a sigh instead. With eyes drooping, he lifted the cup to her mouth.
“What’s in it?” she asked. Her anger at his betrayal still lingered within her, but not enough to mistrust him completely. Still, even if she trusted him, she didn’t trust Takara.
“It’s just water,” he said.
She cocked one eyebrow up even as her throat scratched for the taste of it. “How sure about that are you?”
In response, he raised the cup to his own lips and took a gulp. She would have appreciated the gesture more if the cup had been all the way full. He tucked his hand behind her head and raised the cup to her lips since her hands were still bound.
She gulped greedily, but the water disappeared all too soon. She ran her tongue along the inside of the cup to search for any stray drops. Rajesh watched in agony. He closed his eyes as he began to speak. “She said she’ll kill me if I try to help you. She wants you alive, so I’m supposed to give you water every couple hours to keep you barely hydrated.”
When she’d licked up every last water droplet, Imara rested her head on the wall behind her. She let out a sigh, which did nothing for the variety of pains shooting through her.
“Do you want the—” Rajesh indicated the moldy bread, but his face fell, and he turned away before he could finish the sentence.
Ignoring his question, she took a quick glance at the window and asked, “Do you know why I started working for Abe?”
“Why?” he asked as he rubbed a hand over his arm, eyes examining the knots in the hardwood floor.
“Because.” She waited until he made eye contact with her, and then she said, “It feels good to do the right thing.”
He seemed to hold his breath as he stared back.
She held his gaze for several seconds and then nodded toward the window. “Is there any way I can escape? How high up is that window? Could I jump out of it or would I have to climb?”
Rajesh opened his mouth. Before any words escaped, a look of horror overcame him. He jumped to his feet and stepped away from her. “I’m not helping you,” he said. “I have the life I want now. It’s not my fault this happened.”
She tried to coax him back, but he sprinted out the door before she could utter another word. She looked down, giving in to the frown that pulled her mouth down. Things were pretty bad. The tight cords binding her hands and feet seemed impervious to her attempts at loosening them. Her body needed food and especially water. She had at least one broken rib, maybe two. Even if she did somehow break free of her cords, her muscles would be too sore to move right away.
She licked her lips trying to savor the last of the water still lingering there.
Her head hung as she thought back to the catacombs. When Naki had been kidnapped, Imara had been so worried about how she’d be treated. But then, Naki was given plenty of food and water and she wasn’t even bound. The worst problem she faced was boredom.
If only Professor Santini were the one holding Imara hostage now.
But even that thought gave her pause. With Professor Santini, the line between good and evil had been nearly impossible to decipher. Imara had trusted her teacher’s advice implicitly even when the advice was twisted. At least with Takara the line was clearly drawn. Even the taggers seemed to question some of her murders.
Imara took a deep breath and let the air fill her lungs. She released the breath slowly as she considered her situation again. If escape was out of the question, then she’d just have to do things the hard way. She’d have to trick Takara into letting her go.
