Page 87 of Pageant

The women gather in a semicircle facing me, shivering and afraid, but hopeful for the very first time. They know what’s up there. Guards. Dogs. Machine guns. We’re going to face them all before dawn comes.

Tears are pouring down Alejandra’s face. “I said horrible things about you. I thought—”

“Lilia, how did you get that key?” Nicoletta asks.

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now and there isn’t time to explain. I need all of you to get ready. Wait here.”

I motion for the women to press themselves against the far wall so that anyone peering down the stairs will see only a row of cells. It’s dark enough that you can’t tell they’re empty.

Carefully, I creep to the top of the stairs and look around. There’s just one bored-looking guard in the corridor, humming to himself. As I watch, he reaches behind himself and scratches his ass.

Back at the bottom of the stairs, I conceal myself against the wall by the doorway and whisper, “Someone call out for help.”

Deja cups her hands around her mouth and screams, “Hedda! Something’s wrong with Number Sixteen. I think she’s dying. Someone help!”

“What are you going to do?” Olivia whispers at my shoulder.

“Tackle him,” I breathe, pressing my back against the wall and listening to the guard coming down the stairs.

The moment he appears, I lunge for him. To my amazement, two more women jump on him as well, and we all fall into a heap. He manages one shout and nearly throws us off, but Olivia and I hold him down and strip him of his weapons while Daiyu uses the belt from her dress to gag him. Upstairs and far away in the garden, a German Shepherd heard the man’s shout and starts barking.

Shit.

I hand Elyah’s key to Olivia and pick up the assault rifle. “Drag him into a cell, quickly. Everyone else, get back against the wall out of sight.”

Olivia and Daiyu lock him in, and Olivia picks up the guard’s handgun with a look in her eyes like she means to use it.

I clutch her wrist. “Are you sure?”

She nods, taking up position by the door. There isn’t time to argue with her as I can hear the dogs getting closer.

I make my way back up the stairs and listen. The guards are in the garden and they’re going to come through the side door. I crouch behind it, both hands gripping the weapon. My upper lip is slick with nervous sweat, and I swipe it away with my tongue.

I don’t have to wait long for the sound of footsteps on gravel. The door opens and the guards step inside, one with a German Shepherd on a leash that’s barking hysterically.

“Andrei?” a guard calls.

I step out of the shadows and shove the point of my weapon into the man’s neck. “Don’t move. Drop your weapons.”

Over their shoulder, Olivia has appeared at the bottom of the steps, pointing her gun at the men like a goddamn badass. I don’t know if the men understand me or can even hear me over the dog, but I make my meaning clear by grabbing the strap of his assault rifle and tugging on it. Both men hesitate, look from me to the other woman, and then do as I say, laying their guns on the ground.

“Do you speak English?”

The guard’s eyes widen but he doesn’t reply, and I have to jab him viciously with the gun. “I will fucking shoot you. I said, do you understand me?”

He nods quickly.

“Good. Shut that dog up, now. You have two seconds.”

He makes placating gestures and utters a few words to the dog, and it calms down.

“Walk. Down the steps.”

“You’re a dead woman,” he seethes.

So I’ve heard. But I’m still breathing, and now I have a machine gun.

The women tie gags around the men’s mouths and force them into separate cells, one with the dog.

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