“Walk, King,” he said when he thought he’d jump out of his own skin. “Let’s go for a walk.”
King finally left the flowers alone, the promise of going to the park overruling whatever issue he had with them. Liam picked up his harness and leash, buckling him up while blowing his hair out of his face over and over and over again.
He hoped it was windy outside.
He turned the key and pushed the door, but nothing happened. He tried again but nothing changed.
He pulled, and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge. King was barking like mad next to him, scratching at the door. And that finally made the panic flare.
He was trapped.
He couldn’t get out.
Then the lights started flickering again.
His hair was in his face and he was itchy and he wanted to run but he was stuck.
The walls around him started spinning. He was losing a battle with reality and he didn’t know what else to do but scramble for his phone and the card in his pocket, dialing a number he shouldn’t even have.
He listened to it ring once and the sound snapped him out of it almost enough to hang up, but he wasn’t fast enough.
“Hello?” a deep, gentle voice answered.
“Fix,” he gasped.
“Liam?” Fix said, worried and warm and safe, and Liam held the phone to his ear with both hands, sliding down against the wall. “Liam, are you okay?”
“Need you…” he whispered.
Chapter 6
Fix
If Slatehollow had had any strict traffic rules other than ‘don’t kill someone,’ Fix would have broken them all.
His truck screeched along the streets as he rushed to Liam’s apartment, his mind overflowing with worst-case scenarios having no information to go off except the sound of Liam’s fearful voice telling him he needed him.
Fix tried forcing himself to believe Liam had gotten home and rethought their conversation. That he’d realized Fix would never, ever use Liam’s body as a bargaining chip. As payment. That Liam would always be the most precious thing to Fix and he’d never do him wrong.
He knew it was too soon after Liam had turned him down and that he couldn’t have changed his mind in that short span of time, but it was better to delude himself than to be sick with worry until he got there.
He bumped the curb as he raced to a stop, barely putting the handbrake on before he was tumbling from the car and bursting through the building’s broken doors.
He didn’t wait for the elevator, instead thumping up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. When he reached the right floor he raced down the hallway to Liam’s door.
He knocked frantically, sweating through his shirt and panting hard. “Liam? Liam, are you there?”
The sound of barking stayed his hand before a shaky voice called out, “Fix?”
Fix let out a relieved breath, pressing a palm to the door. He wanted to break it down and be next to Liam that very second, but Fix was nothing if not a man who learned from his mistakes. He’d invaded Liam’s space already and caused Liam distress, and despite feeling justified in the moment, he wouldn’t repeat it.
“It’s me,” he said instead, trying to keep his voice steady and sure. “Can you let me in?”
“No,” Liam said. “I…I’m locked in.”
“Did the door get stuck?” Fix asked, the panic subsiding slightly now that he could hear Liam on the other side. He sounded okay enough, if a little shaken and scared.
“Curse,” Liam said. “They’re back.”
