MAX HAD MET HER PROPOSITION with a long silence. So long in fact that she’d begun to think he’d passed out or left. But finally there was movement. Nita stood behind the bear and watched the door handle turn, listened to him try to shove the door open. The chair held.
“Open the door, Nita!”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and lifted the board she’d wedged under the platform, bracing it against her thigh. “All right.”
Nita yanked hard on the string she’d tied to the chair leg and it gave way, slamming onto its back on the tile floor. She quickly pulled it clear of the door and dropped the string.
With one hand on the chair in front of the bear, Nita bit her lip. Timing was everything. The door swung slowly open. She heard a shuffling sound and Max’s dark head appeared around th
