The loud ‘ziiiip’ of it closing had my eyes widening and my struggling picked up.
I realized just how useless it was to struggle only after you were tied to the chair when the chair tipped over and the man that’d been holding me laughed.
There was another sound of struggling coming from the door, and they brought my father in.
Drunk or not, he put up a good fight, and he had three people helping hold him still.
He wasn’t making it easy for them like I had.
I’d never seen it coming.
Even with all the training that I’d received over the years after Cannel’s abduction, I hadn’t put up even a single ounce of fight. Didn’t react. Pretty much, I’d let one single man take me exactly where he wanted to take me.
And I was scared.
So freakin’ scared.
Because nobody knew where I was.
I’d stupidly left my phone on the bed in my haste to get out.
And I hadn’t told Haggard or his son where I was going.
Yeah, winner of the smart award here.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” My dad struggled harder upon seeing me.
But it was no use.
With one hard shove, my dad hit the floor, and then we were in the room alone.
My dad picked himself up off the floor and tried to hit the door before it closed, but it was useless.
The room was stupidly insulated, hidden away from view, and built to sustain a hurricane thanks to my dad thinking we needed a freakin’ tornado shelter, seeing as we were in Tornado Alley.
We’d used it once, and now look at where we were.
Dad used every ounce of his energy to beat down the door, but like everyone knew, it wasn’t going to budge.
And eventually, my dad hit the ground in a boneless heap.
I wanted to go to him, wanted to wrap him up in my arms, but I was still strapped to my seat.
My dad sat there for a few short seconds and then dropped his head into his hands.
“Dad,” I whispered. “Come untie me.”
He looked over at me with such a look of defeat on his face that I started crying harder.
He got up and came to me, pulling the pocketknife out of his pants that was always there, no matter what.
It was something that a man named Michael had given him, the brother of the man that helped ‘raise’ him for a few years.
He quickly took care of the zip tie, and I had to admit, I was sort of worried his drunk ass would bungle it up.
But he didn’t.
When I was free, I tried to stand, but found that I couldn’t.
Every time that my body went vertical, it wanted to go unvertical, in a very flamboyant kind of way.
“You okay?” he asked.
That’s when I started to see the smoke.
The smoke was filtering in through the door crack.
Not much…but enough that it was obvious that something was on fire—likely the building—and we wouldn’t have much longer if it continued to be on fire.
“Dad,” I breathed, looking at the door. “Look.”
He followed my finger to the door, and he stiffened.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
“Do you have your phone?” I asked, hoping beyond hope that he would.
He shook his head. “No. It was at the house. I haven’t been charging it…”
I closed my eyes as the tears continued to fall.
“We’re going to die,” I told him.
He walked to the door and tried the handle again. It wouldn’t budge.
I licked my lips as my life flashed before my eyes.
My brother was gone. My dad and I were about to be gone.
Haggard would be a mess.
Clem would be inconsolable.
Our gym was about to go up in flames.
“Dad,” I said softly. “I love Haggard.”
I didn’t really know why the hell I said it.
I just felt like he needed to know.
“I know,” he said. “I figured it out after the divorce was final, and the way he looked at you.”
His voice sounded off.
Ravaged.
“We’re going to die in here,” I told him.
He swallowed hard. “There’s a feature on the lock. It unlocks when it hits a certain temperature. Safety feature they said when I bought it.” He looked at the door. “But I have a feeling, when it gets that hot, everything will be engulfed.”
“The fire…” I hesitated. “It’ll draw the firefighters, right?”
“Normally.” He paused. “But I was supposed to be in Tyler today. You weren’t supposed to be here. And Taos is getting training at the local Y. That means…”
“Nobody knows we’re here,” I finished for him. “They sent me a text to get me here. They were prepared for more people but only ended up getting us two.”
“Not much of a fight on their hands with just me,” he whispered, voice strangled. “I’ve been really bad lately, baby.”
I looked at him, trying to ignore how the smoke was pouring in faster. “You were trying to heal, and then something bad happened to me. I know that you’re not going to be fixed after only a short time of recovery.” I swallowed hard. “I was giving you time.”