Naveen ignored the way he said lawyer, like it was another word for cockroach. He’d heard all the jokes and now wasn’t the time to convince anyone he was one of the good guys. “Maybe I can help you.”
Burberry clicked his knife shut. Then open. Then shut again. Naveen tried not to be hypnotized by the intimidating gesture. “You in the business, lawyer?”
He had no idea what the business was, but it didn’t sound like one he wanted to be a part of. “I’m in the business of assisting people. Can I see the picture?”
Burberry hesitated for a beat, then showed it to him. He’d grown up with his aunts and mother showing off their jewels, so he understood that this was a pricey piece indeed. It dripped in diamonds, with one major perfectly cut teardrop pendant in the center, and light reflecting off the other six stones surrounding it. “Beautiful,” he said, and infused every soothing quality he could into the word. De-escalation might be his only superpower, so he’d use it.
The kidnapper’s eyes narrowed. “You know where it is?”
“No. But . . . maybe we could find it for you. If you let us go?” Naveen tried a smile. He had it on good authority that he had an excellent smile.
It didn’t seem to have any effect on the men. They turned their attention to Mira, but at the very least, they weren’t holding the knife to his throat any longer.
“We heard that you know where your dad hid his shit.”
“Where did you hear that from?”
“From your aunt, for one.” Burberry pulled a letter out from his pocket. It was the letter her aunt had left for her. “‘He wanted me to give you something. I didn’t want to bother you with it before, but I left it for you in the usual place,’” he read. “Where’s the usual place?”
Mira paused. Naveen was aware that he had a bad track record when it came to love interests lying to him, so he wasn’t the best at sussing falsehoods out, but he immediately knew that Mira was lying when she spoke. “I don’t know anything about where my father hid anything. I repeat, I have not spoken to him in years. My . . . lawyer also knows nothing. You have the wrong people. But if you let us go, I’ll make it worth your while.”
They glanced at each other. Burberry spoke. “Is that right?”
Naveen leaned forward. “She’s right. Whatever you’re getting paid, I’ll double it. You take Venmo? PayPal? Name it.”
Snakes sucked his teeth and readjusted his grip on his gun. “You think we accept Venmo?”
“I promise, I’d put the payment on private mode,” he tried.
“What my . . . friend . . . is saying is that we’re not without resources.” Mira paused. “Or people who would miss us.”
“Nobody would miss you, Mira,” Burberry said gently. “You don’t have anyone.”
Mira’s face went blank, so blank he felt a tug of sympathy for her, despite all her lies and the hot water that her father, her only recently dead father, had landed him in. “That’s not true.”
“Both of us will be missed,” Naveen interjected. “This is a waste of everyone’s time. We clearly don’t know what you’re looking for. Let us go, and we can forget this ever happened.”
The man turned back to him. “Our boss is real annoyed we brought you. We probably should have killed you there, made it look like a carjacking gone wrong. We didn’t see any cameras in that old garage. It would have worked.”
His blood ran cold. There weren’t any cameras in that garage.
“But we thought, eh. Family attorneys know more than anyone ever thinks. Once they get over that pesky privilege, they come in handy.”
Snakes ominously undid the safety on his gun. “We can kill you and dump you at any time though.”
“There’s no need for that.” Naveen tried to ignore the icy trail of sweat sliding down his back.
Mira shifted. “Look, he wasn’t really a family attorney.”
“He was your dad’s only sibling’s lawyer. You don’t think she’d tell him something?”
“He never even met her, he only came on—”
Oh no. “I may not have met her, but I am her attorney.” He gave Mira a look, which he hoped she could interpret. His grandfather was the attorney who had originally taken her aunt’s business. He’d rather die than point gunmen at his family.
The muscle in her jaw clenched. “You’re not. You barely knew my aunt. She told you nothing.”
“Uh, she definitely told me stuff,” he lied. “More than she told any other attorney, that’s for sure. Older women, they tend to love me,” he weakly finished.
“I don’t know why you’re lying,” Mira said through gritted teeth. “But you don’t have to justify your retainer. I’ve known you for like two minutes, and all you did for my aunt was print up a boilerplate will for her.”
“I—”
“Okay, enough.” The man came to his feet, his coat falling neatly. “This bickering is annoying. You may want to start racking your memory, the both of you. Our boss’ll be here soon.”
Shit. Naveen might not be in the business, but a boss wasn’t good news in video games and it definitely wasn’t good news in kidnappings.
The men left the room, and the door locked behind them, each of the four locks turning in succession.
Mira and he were still as their footsteps receded. Naveen caught Mira’s eye and tilted his head at the desk. As much as he wanted to grill her about what the fuck was going on, he could get answers later. Finding something to untie them was priority number one. “Could be scissors in there,” he mouthed.
She frowned. Her cheek was reddening.
He started with his undignified boot scoot again. The ties on his hands tightened with every movement, until they were cutting into his circulation, but he ignored them.
He had to pause for a second to catch his breath, and that was when he realized she’d twisted and squirmed to her knees, using the dirty wall for leverage.
Well, that was great, but there was the matter of her ties. Perhaps she could hop to the table and—
She leaned against the wall, cocked her butt out, and brought her tied hands down over it behind her. The tie snapped, the noise so loud in the silence that he flinched.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. That couldn’t possibly be all it took to remove zip ties?
Not now. Google that later.
With her hands free, she worked through her hair and came up with a bobby pin. She used her teeth to bite off the rounded tip and squirmed until her feet were in front of her.
It took her ten seconds to fiddle with the ties around her ankles, and then she was free of those. “Mira, I mean this with all due respect,” he hissed. “But what the fuck is going on?”
“Not now.” Her pupils were enlarged, her hair disheveled. Her previously pristine pink shirt was marred with streaks of dust. She crawled over to him. Every scrape and exhale of breath had his adrenaline pulsing.
She stuck the bobby pin in the latch of his ties and jimmied him free as well. His eyes kept straying to the door, on high alert for any noises.
The men had beat him and slapped her. They had weapons. Knives and guns. Naveen might be out of his element, but he definitely didn’t trust them to not use those weapons to terrorize them more if they found the two of them out of their bonds.