My heart stopped. “Who is they?”
Garrett wasn’t working alone. He had help, and that did not bode well for us getting out of here on our own.
“Some guys. Young. I think they live downstairs. The music is always really loud, and they all have shirts with two B’s as the logo on the chest.”
College kids?
Two B’s.
God, no.
The Beta Beta frat house?
This was bad.
Well, I already thought it was bad—this though, much worse.
There was a question instantly floating on the tip of my tongue. One I just had to know the answer to so I could prepare myself. “Did they…” I swallowed the bad taste in my mouth, sucking in a deep breath through my nose. “Thayleah, did they touch you.”
“No.” Her answer sounded confused, but it was like music to my ears. If she was confused by what I was asking, it meant she hadn’t been abused. “I’ve uh… I’ve actually had the same clothes on the whole time. It’s really gross. I just want to get out of here. But if I do get out, where am I going to go? Emma’s gone. He made me listen as he killed her. My mom is still living out of the trunk of her car. I have no one left.”
She was crying now, shaking and panicking.
“Listen,” I whispered, knowing my tone was a little harsh but wanting to make sure she knew I was serious. “Just listen to me. We are going to get you out of here. And we are going to keep you safe. I promise I will not let you end up with no one.”
Her soft sobs broke my heart.
This poor girl has been in and out of hell, and when she finally felt like she had that safe space with her sister, that was ripped from her by Garrett. Just like it was ripped from Gage. And that man was going to pay for it.
Shotgun would have noticed me gone by now.
He would find me.
Find us.
But we had to stay alive for him to get to us, which meant we needed a better plan than just laying here.
I was a fighter.
Not a damsel.
I twisted my wrists, trying to feel exactly what was bound around them. The plastic zip ties were sharp and cutting into my skin, one wrapped around each wrist and threaded together while another was threaded through both and was looped around the squeaky metal bedframe, tying me to it.
“When you said you still have all your clothes on, do you have shoes?” I asked, my brain skipping through all the ways I’d learned how to break zip ties courtesy of self-defense classes Myth had started teaching at his gym at Laken’s request.
I knew I would have to work around things, given my body was still not as strong as it should have been. I could feel the drugs making me dopey and slow, and my bruised ribs meant any kind of movement in my stomach made me want to vomit.
“Yeah,” she whispered, and I heard her quietly tap them together.
“Do your shoes have laces?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The shot of adrenaline I got in that second was like nothing I’d ever felt before. I could feel it pulsing through my veins, my heart rate accelerating. It was telling me that there was a way out of this mess, but speed was key. Who knew when Garrett would come back or his obvious minions that Thayleah said he was using to do his dirty work?
I could feel my feet bound, but they weren’t tied down like my hands were. “Is there any way you can lift your feet to your hands and undo your laces?” The sheets shuffled, a soft whimper leaving her lips. “Thayleah?”
She cleared her throat. “I got them. Sorry. My zip ties cut through my wrists, and they hurt so bad.” Her voice broke, the pain obviously getting to the point where it was too much. This was a young girl, barely seventeen, and who knows what the hell she’s seen and heard and felt over the past couple of weeks.
Who knows what kind of damage that’s done?
I knew I had to keep my head straight. I couldn’t break down right now. I couldn’t stop fighting because I needed to get the both of us out of here.
“I got it,” she murmured.
“Good girl. This is going to be hard, and it might hurt a little, but if you focus, we can do it.”
She was silent for a few moments, no doubt fear absolutely destroying her from the inside out. Her mental thoughts probably debating whether she could trust me. Whether she should do what she’s been told because up until this point, Garrett had mentally abused her, but the physical—not so much. Maybe going against him would push him over that edge.
“Okay, what should I do?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Thank God.
“Okay, I want you to try and thread your shoelace underneath one of the zip ties around your hands.” I explained slowly, trying to keep calm, make it feel like the pressure wasn’t there despite every time I breathed, thinking that it was another second Garrett could be taking stepping up the stairs.
Her soft whimpers were like claws at my heart.
“Thayleah…”
“I’ll get it. I can do it.” Her voice shook, but there was also a new determination in her tone. “I got it!”
“Amazing,” I praised, wishing I could hug her, pat her on the back, or something to support her. “You’ve got this. I just need you to now try and tie the end around the bar you’re tied to.”
A light tinkling sound alerted me to her movements. Maybe it was the zip ties or maybe her nails against the cold metal bed frame.
“Make sure it’s tight. It needs to be.”
Her breathing was growing heavier, I knew the maneuver was probably extremely awkward, not only with your hands bound, but with the angle of how she was having to work. And to top it off, this beautiful young girl had barely moved off this bed for nearly two weeks. If her muscles weren’t ready to pack it in and give up, they would be soon.
Thud.
The floor shook.
Voices came from below.
Laughter.
We needed to hurry.
“I tied it!”
“Okay, pull it so it’s tight between the bar and your feet. Tight and straight. And what you need to do is pull against it and move your hands up and down the shoelace. The friction will cut through the plastic ties. But pull hard.” I sucked in a deep breath, hearing another bang from downstairs and more voices. “And be quick.”
I swear, those moments as I heard her sawing away at her restraints, I imagined every damn scenario. It felt like forever as I processed what we would do next.
How I could hurt someone if they came in.
What the hell I would be willing to do to get us out of here alive.
Though, I already knew the answer.
Kill.
And if we were going to make it out of here alive, I knew I was going to have to be okay with that, because if it came to it, and I hesitated…
No. I refused to let another asshole get away. I wouldn’t let him use me to hurt Shotgun again. I wouldn’t let him use me to hurt Gage. He wasn’t going to win.
Micah, please.
If you’re up there.
Snap.
“I did it.” The sheets on Thayleah’s bed rustled, and there was a light tap as she placed her feet on the floor. “Hold on.” More rubbing, sawing back and forth while my body was beginning to jump at every damn sound.
Snap.
“Here,” she whispered, a soft shuffling sound moving toward me until I felt hands on my wrists, working quickly.