“Something happened,” Nico said, running his hand through his dark hair. “I bet it was that prick, Justin. He’s done something.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Miguel advised. “We don’t know that.”
Nico scoffed. “Yes, we do. We’ve all seen the way that he’s looked at her. The only way Emery didn’t make it here was if something or someone stopped her.” He didn’t vocalize the other reason she might not have made it: death. We weren’t going there unless we saw her dead body with our own eyes.
“We’re going to have to figure something out,” I said. “We can’t stay in the park after dark, and we can’t move on without her. I’m going to find somewhere close for us to bed down for the night.”
I left them in the park and headed toward the buildings that overlooked it. We couldn’t stay in the park, but I didn’t want to be too far from it, either. Emery’s absence was concerning, and I was worried that Nico might be right about Justin’s involvement. I spotted a Chinese restaurant across from the park and eyed the metal grate side door beside it. Likely, there were apartments above the restaurant. This close to the pier, there was a good chance that most of the buildings in the area were empty, having been evacuated first.
I opened the door, pushed the solid wood door behind it open, and looked up the stairwell into the dark. I didn’t hear anyone or anything moving around, so I cautiously went upstairs. I went into the first apartment I came to and found it empty. I wentto the living room windows and looked out. This place would be perfect. I couldn’t see the memorial from here, but we would have eyes on the park’s main entrance. The chances weren’t great that Emery would go through the front entrance, but we’d leave her a note at the memorial. Plus, the idea that we could see her from here would give us some peace tonight.
After clearing the rest of the building, I returned to the memorial to find Mr. Higgins had arrived. I looked around, but didn’t see Emery or Justin with him. As I approached, my hopes that she might be nearby died. Felix was comforting Camila, who was crying. Miguel looked pale, almost as if he were sick. Nico was pacing and looked murderous.
“What happened?”
When nobody answered me, Mr. Higgins stepped forward, and when I got a better look at him, I saw he had dried blood on his face from a gnarly-looking head wound the size of a duck egg.
“He took her.”
The edges of my vision blurred as everything became red-tinted. Justin was a dead man walking.
Chapter twelve
Emery
My head was pounding the worst I’d ever felt it in my life. My eyes fluttered open in confusion as I tried to remember what I’d done the night before to be gifted with the hangover from hell. As I looked around the unfamiliar room, I tried to sit up and found myself restrained. That’s when everything came flooding back to me. The zombies, the apocalypse, Justin, the guys, my parents. My parents! I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but by now they had to be worried that I hadn’t met them at the war memorial. My feet were bound together, and my hands were tied behind my back. I struggled against the bindings, but they were too tight to slip out of.
The bedroom door opened, and I turned my head to see Justin enter.
“You son of a bitch! Let me go!” When I got free I was going to tear this man limb from limb for what he’d done.
“Shhh. Relax, Emmy, or you’ll hurt yourself,” Justin said, sitting beside me on the bed. He reached down to tuck my hair behind my ear, and I jerked my head away. “I promise you areperfectly safe here. I’m sorry that I had to get rough with you, but I swear, I won’t hurt you anymore.”
“Bullshit!”
“I understand that you’re angry, but this is for your own good. For now, the ropes have to stay in place. I can’t risk you escaping and running back to those criminals. Once you see things my way, I will take them off. I wouldn’t bother trying to get out of them, though. I was a Boy Scout and aced my Pioneering Merit Badge. A Navy SEAL couldn’t slip those knots.”
I rolled my eyes at his hubris. One way or another, I was getting out of there. Whether Justin was still breathing when I did was still to be determined. “Justin, this is ridiculous. I need to get back to my parents.” Appealing to his more sentimental side could help me get out of this.
Justin scoffed. “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I’m a good guy and you saw how easy it was for me to sacrifice those old bitches. I promise you, it was even easier for those criminals to sacrifice your parents. Give it up, they’re already dead. It’s best to focus on our future.”
“You’re wrong,” I argued. “They would protect my parents with their lives and have more honor and decency in their little fingers than you possess in your entire body.” His eyes darkened and his fists clenched, but I didn’t heed the warning. Instead, I pushed on with my scathing remarks, too angry to realize I was in no position to poke an angry bear. “You’re not a good man. You’re a psychopath who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’. You’ve built something between us that was never fucking there. I barely even like you, let alone desire you.”
With a roar, Justin backhanded me across the face and then rolled me to my stomach. He straddled my legs, pressing his hard on against my ass. True terror filled me as I bucked my body in an attempt to get him off of me. I would not let this piece of shit rape me. My efforts were futile as he easily pinned me tothe bed. His lips trailed kisses across my neck as he shushed me gently. “Don’t worry, Emmy, I won’t force myself on you. I told you, I’m the good guy. But keep teasing me like that, and I might tire of you playing hard to get and give you what you really want but won’t let yourself have. Why don’t you think about that while I get us something to eat? Maybe some time alone will straighten out that attitude of yours and make you more agreeable.”
He left me shaking in fear and fury, his light chuckle as the door closed echoing ominously behind him. I had to get the fuck out of here, and this might be my only chance. I didn’t make my first move until I was sure he had left. From my struggles, I could tell that the ropes around my ankles weren’t as tight as the ones around my wrists, so I decided to free myself from those first. I shifted on the bed until my feet hung off the end and used the edge to get my boots off. The struggle was real, but I didn’t have any other options. I had to accomplish this step, or I would be stuck here.
Justin might have earned a Boy Scout merit badge, but he was an idiot in every other aspect of life, including remembering to remove my boots before tying me up. Once the boots were off, I had plenty of room to wiggle out of the ropes. Once my feet were free, I stood and stepped through my arms to move them to my front. Now to find something sharp. The bedroom I was in appeared to belong to an elderly woman, which gave me hope. I spotted a basket near a rocking chair by the window and sifted through it. Near the bottom of the basket, I hit the jackpot and found a pair of pink-and-gold scissors.
I sat in the chair and used the scissors to cut through the ropes around my wrists. Once I was free, I put my boots back on and slipped the scissors into my back pocket. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the dresser mirror and grimaced. I was looking rough. I had a busted lip, and half my face was swollen. It could always be worse, and probably would be over the next coupleof days as the bruises continued to develop—nothing I could do about that now. I was alive, and soon, I’d be free.
I cracked open the bedroom door and peeked out. All seemed quiet in the apartment, so I left the bedroom and spotted my bat and bag on the couch. I opened the bag to make sure everything was still there and didn’t find anything missing. I swung my bag onto my back, grabbed my bat, and went to the front door. I didn’t have time to waste. I needed to get out of here as quickly as possible. Justin was a coward, so I assumed he didn’t venture out of the building to look for food. Not when there were other apartments available to him.
After making sure the hallway was empty, I left the apartment and dashed toward the stairwell. The stairwell door screeched loudly as I opened it. Hopefully, the noise didn’t attract any attention, but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out. I rushed down the stairs as quickly as I could and out onto the street. I took several deep breaths to try and steady my breathing as I looked around quickly to make sure I wasn’t about to be zombie chow and to figure out where the hell I was.
Justin had taken me further than I expected. I was at least five blocks from the park he had knocked me out in. Still, it could be worse. That was quickly turning into my personal mantra. It wouldn’t take me long to get back to where I needed to be. I stepped off the sidewalk, and muscle memory had me glancing to my left for traffic. I didn’t find any, but I did catch the moment Justin rounded the corner, his arms full with what I assumed was an assortment of food. He was half a block away, and I saw the shock on his face as he registered my presence on the street. I didn’t wait to see what he did next. I turned and took off running down the street as fast as I could.
“Emery!” Justin screamed.
