She’d never been claustrophobic. In fact, one of her favorite things as a teen had been to drag her best friend and boarding school roommate into the closet late at night so they could laugh and whisper and tell girlish secrets without the floor monitor knocking on their door and yelling at them to get to sleep so they’d be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for class the next day.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailedhad been Ms. Stapelton’s favorite phrase.
And when she was feeling particularly scared or overwhelmed by the danger her guys were in—that’s how she thought of the Knights, asher guys—sometimes she’d crawl into bed and pull her weighted blanket up to her chin. Something about being closed-in and weighed down kept her mind from flying apart.
But now? Ohnowshe understood why people loathed tight spaces. She seriously wanted whatever was on top of her toget the hell off!
No. On second thought, it wasn’t a want. It was aneed.
Her bones ached from the pressure. Her lungs labored with the effort to draw breath. And her cheekbone felt like it might shatter if it stayed smashed against the hard surface beneath her for one more second. Not to mention, the terrible ache behind her left temple had grown into a throb so hard and steady, she was sure no medication could touch it.
Gritting her teeth, she tried moving her elbow again, angling it up from its straight position into something closer to ninety degrees.
It wasn’t easy. But she was able to slowly, inch by inch, slip her left hand up until it was even with her shoulder. The liquid of life oozed hot against her palm, but she refused to think about the foulness of it. The absolutehorrorof it.
She completed the same maneuver with her right hand. Again, it took effort. And by the time she’d succeeded in getting her palm even with her shoulder, the urge to breathe deep was overwhelming.
But one, shecouldn’t.Not with her rib cage squeezed to the point of fracture. And two, breathing deeply would only pull the scent of blood farther into her lungs and…No thank you.
Panting like a dog instead, she willed the added oxygen to fuel her efforts. Then she pushed with all her might until her biceps burned, her shoulders strained, and the back of her head pressed hard against the thing pinning her down.
Her cheek inched away from the solid surface. Her neck and chest gained space too. But before she could scoot her knees up to aid in her endeavors, her muscles gave out on her and she lost all headway.
Her cheek smacked back into the pool of blood, sending pain radiating across her entire face. Blood filled her ear with a sickening squelching sound, filled her nose with its retched metallic scent.
The scream that tore from her throat then was one of frustration as much as it was one of pain or horror. It was forceful enough to flay her vocal cords raw and make her ears ring.
She was surprised to hear the sound echo out into a void.
A void?
She’d assumed she was walled in.Cavedin. But her cry drifted off into the air before quickly dying out.
If she wasn’t surrounded by whatever was holding her down, then if she could just get out from under the thing, she’d be free.
Free!
Desperation kicked in.
She wasn’t sure where it’d been before. When one woke up covered in blood, missing all memory, and pinned beneath something rib-crushingly heavy, desperation was surely thefirstresponse.
Of course, wherever her desperation had been before didn’t matter. Because it was with her now. Consumedher now. Flooded her bloodstream with that sweet, metabolic fuel known as adrenaline.
This time her cry was one of determination when she planted her hands on the flat surface and heaved upward. Her feet, which weren’t as encumbered as the rest of her, scrabbled for purchase.
Come on! Come on!She silently screamed as she felt her hands begin to slip again.
Why didn’t she use the gym in the outbuilding behind BKI? It was fully equipped with everything a person needed to getshredded—as Britt liked to call it. If she’d spent some of her downtown bench-pressing weights instead of baking cakes, maybe she’d be able to?—
Her thoughts screeched to a stop when the weight atop her shifted. Slowly at first. Then all at once.
Whatever had been holding her down rolled to the side with a soft-soundingshushfollowed by athudand?—
She was free!
Free to rake in a deep breath.
Free to push into a seated position so she could use the backs of her hands to rub her eyes.
