Page 87 of Deadly Charade

Fire continued to burn its path through both shoulders, and her arms trembled from hanging over the abyss. The ropes dug tighter around her arms but held.

Kira swung her leg up. Tremors raced up and down her arms, and the rope bit into her palms, but she held on for dear life.

Her foot connected with the step. Metal clanked from the impact. She pulled the step closer with her heel and managed to get her other leg up. Then she rewrapped her arms in the ropes so she could shimmy until she was seated on the next plank as if it were a swing.

The board was solid, reinforced with a steel plate under the wood.

She sat for a minute to catch her breath and give her arms and legs a chance to stop shaking.

And she figured it out. This was how the Youngs walked across. There was a pattern, with reinforced steps. These men loved their codes and patterns.

She stood. A crack sounded and a bullet whizzed by her head. Kira ducked. “What are you doing? Stop!”

Over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Sophia lunging for Victor’s gun. She must have knocked his arm for the shot to go wild. A sharp cry tore from Sophia’s throat in Russian as she drove punches and kicks at the man. She’d exchanged her rich trophy wife image for that of a battle-weary warrior taking her last stand. She obviously had some training when it came to fighting and had no doubt taken the big man by surprise. He threw up his arms to block, but Sophia’s heel connected hard, knocking the weapon free from Victor’s grasp.

“Sophia! No!” Kira didn’t know whether to go backward or forward, so she leaned forward and rewrapped her arms, taking every other step until she was standing in the middle of the bridge.

Sophia had managed to get the gun and now turned it on Victor, who stood with wide eyes and hands up. “Where’s my son!”

Victor growled and made a quick move to take the gun back.

The shot echoed off the rock walls. Victor stumbled backward, hand to his chest, with blood seeping through his fingers. His foot hit the edge of the ledge and he stumbled into the pit.

“No!” Sophia’s cries mingled with Victor’s. And then Victor’s ended. Abruptly. Sophia’s continued.

“Sophia! Stop! Please! It’s going to be okay!”

Kira huffed out a breath. At least now she didn’t have to worry about Victor shooting her in the back. But that wasn’t the outcome she’d wanted. Death was never the goal, no matter how much evil she faced.

Sophia wept. “Now I won’t know where he was keeping my son. I didn’t mean to shoot him.” She wailed and covered her face.

“It was self-defense, Sophia. He was coming after the gun and probably would have killed you if you hadn’t fired. We’ll find your son. Please.”

Sophia’s sobs turned to sniffles. “How?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t think about it here. Go get some help. Please. It’s just you and me back here now, and we need to find Bryce.”

Kira made the choice to keep going. She was inching closer to the other side anyway. She took every other plank again, searching for the reinforced ones. It was still a big leap between rungs, and she continually had to rewrap her arms in the ropes, but every second board held with the metal plate underneath, and she made it to the other side.

She fell onto the stone ledge with tears in her eyes. She looked back over the chasm at Sophia, who still stood with the gun at her side.

“Sophia, go get help.”

The woman glared at Kira. “No. I’m coming with you. I want to see this treasure that people are dying for—the reason they took my son.”

Kira weighed her options. Victor’s reinforcements may have already worked their way into the tunnel, so sending Sophia for help might get her into more trouble. It made sense to keep the woman with her. Strength in numbers and all that. “Okay. Just take every other wooden step, starting with the first one. They alternate with reinforced metal, so they’ll hold.”

Sophia tucked the gun and flashlight into her waistband, then started across the bridge, taking tentative steps and clinging to the ropes. Once Sophia reached solid ground, they both breathed a little easier, and Kira was finally able to survey their surroundings, thankful for the flashlight Sophia had brought. Hers had fallen out of her pocket and into the abyss when she stepped on the loose plank.

The rock wall loomed ahead of them, but they found the tunnel similar to the one they’d used to enter the cavern. They walked for a few minutes, following the stone-walled hallway, and approached another room. Smaller this time and they had to stoop as the ceiling dropped to five feet in height. They searched the face of the rocks for any kind of keypad or entryway.

“What do we do?” Sophia whispered. “This can’t be it.”

“Let me see your flashlight. I think I see something.”

Sophia handed it over, and Kira aimed the beam into a hole in the side of the rock. “It’s too dark to really see anything, but . . .” She took a deep breath. “Please don’t let there be creepies or crawlies in there,” she whispered. “Or bats. Or anything else.” Then she slid her hand into the hole. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt around until her hand touched something solid. And metal. “I think I found it.”

“What?”