“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just that…”
“You’re feeling guilty about your father?”
I nodded. “How did you know?”
“I used to feel that way after my mother died. How could I still laugh and enjoy myself after how she’d suffered when she was alive and in the way she died?”
“Yes.”
I sat back down at the table. Cymbeline’s chair was empty. Emma and Viktor had their heads together, chatting.
“Where’s Cym?” Theo asked.
Viktor shook his head. “I don’t know. She seemed in a foul mood and wandered off somewhere.” He pulled out a pocket watch from inside his suit pocket and looked at the time. His head jerked upward. “She left at exactly five minutes after nine. That’s been a while ago now.” He got to his feet, surveying the room with a penetrating gaze. I turned around in a circle, searching for her.
“I’m going to see if she’s outside,” Viktor said.
“I’ll go with you,” Theo said.
Without being invited, I followed the men across the room and out to the stairwell. Viktor led the way with Theo on his heels. Fats sat at a table reading a newspaper
by the door to the outside.
“Did you see Cymbeline come through here?” Theo asked him.
“Sure,” the guard said. “A few minutes ago. Said she needed something from the car.”
We all went outside. The air was brisk and fresh compared to the basement. I looked right, then left. What I saw chilled me to the bone. Cymbeline was pinned against the wall by two large, rough men dressed in work clothes. One was pressed against her while the other held her arms over her head.
In all my life, I’d never seen Cymbeline cry. In fact, I couldn’t remember her ever showing anything remotely close to fear. But now, with these large, obviously drunk men trapping her, tears fell down her cheeks. At the same time, she fought with all her might. Regardless of her strength, she was no match for two large men. Viktor let out a yell that was as close to a war cry as anything I’d ever heard. He and Theo charged toward them.
The men turned toward us more slowly than I would have expected. When they saw what was coming for them, they jumped away from Cymbeline. One reached under his jacket for what I could only assume was a pistol. But they were no match for the Viking-sized Viktor or my swift, strong Theo.
Viktor grabbed the larger of the two men by his thick neck and tossed him to the ground as if he were no heavier than a rag doll. Simultaneously, Theo punched the other one in the face and shoved him against the wall, then hit him again. Blood spurted from the man’s nose as he raised his arms in front of his face. Theo pushed his arms away and took him by the collar. “How do you like it?” Theo asked as he smacked the back of the man’s head against the side of the brick building.
I gathered Cymbeline in my arms and pulled her away from the four men. She collapsed to the ground, pulling me with her. Smoothing her hair, I cradled her head again my chest. She sobbed into my shoulder, dampening the front of my dress. “It’s all right now,” I whispered.
Viktor kicked the man on the ground in the gut and was about to do it again when I begged them both to stop. If it went further, who knew what Viktor and Theo would do? They didn’t want the death of someone on their hands, even men like this. “Please, stop.”
Theo turned to look at me. The rabid, wild look in his eyes scared me. However, he did as I asked and shoved the man away. “Get. Before the sheriff arrives,” Theo shouted at him.
We all knew full well that the sheriff wasn’t coming. Even if he did, the welfare of a young woman who’d put herself in harm’s way wouldn’t be his top priority. He’d see it as Cymbeline’s fault. I couldn’t help but wonder what she’d been doing in the parking lot by herself.
Regardless of our lack of law enforcement, both men ran around parked cars and headed toward the woods. Viktor, obviously still enraged, ran after them. He chased them out of the parking area and followed up by hurling several stones at the backs of their heads as they disappeared into the dark. When Viktor returned, his eyes glittered in the dim light from the bulb over the door. He knelt on the ground next to us. “Are you hurt?” he asked Cymbeline.
She buried her face in my shoulder and didn’t answer. She was ashamed. I knew how that felt. “She’s fine,” I said, answering for her. “Shaken up. But she’s tough, right, Cym?”
Cymbeline clung to me as she lifted her face to look at her brother and Viktor. “I’m sorry. I came out for air.” She shuddered as she drew in a deep breath. “They trapped me.”
“It’s not your fault.” Viktor’s expression remained dark and dangerous. “I should’ve killed them both.”
“What were you thinking?” Theo asked as he paced back and forth in front of us. “What were you doing out here? For God’s sake, Cymbeline, do you know what they would have done to you if we hadn’t found you when we did?”
Cymbeline started to cry all over again. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“It was very, very foolish,” Theo said. “It’s time to grow up and stop acting like a foolish child.”
“Theo,” I said quietly as Cymbeline returned her face to my shoulder. “Please.”