“I’m not going out there,” he cried. Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes from thepain.
“You’ll go wherever I tell you to.” I considered my options. I needed a room that would lock from the outside. “Let’sgo.”
I pushed him toward my bedroom. “I won’t be letting my gun go, asshole. So don’t even think it. You won’t get a hold of it again. Put your hands on the wall and spread them.” I threw the frying pan on the floor and quickly frisked him. I found another gun and two knives. “Get in the closet. Get over your big revenge plan, it’s donenow.”
He sat in the closet, moaning. My stomach clenched, knowing the amount of pain he must bein.
“I won’t hesitate to shoot you if you leave thiscloset.”
I shut the door and then dragged the heavy wooden armoire in front of it. Then I pushed the bed beside it and the dresser beside the bed. The line of furniture was wedged against the wall so that it couldn’t be pushedforward.
Then I ran. I took off for the garage. Grabbing a random men’s coat from a hook by the door, I found the rope that would lead to the sheds and went as fast as I possibly could with snow and wind buffering me from all sides. The wind was even colder than when I'd arrived, ifpossible.
An eternity later, I reached the shed. My hands burned from clutching the rope, but I opened the half door and stuck my head in. “Stop!” I screamed at the top of mylungs.
Chandler jumped at seeing my head come through the door and nearly fell off his chair when I screamed. “What the hell is going on? Why are you outhere?”
“Hunter’s in the house. He’s hurt. But you can’t keep trying to fix that generator.” I looked around in the shed and found the ladder that led from the odd door to the ground belowme.
I continued explaining as I descended the ladder. “He showed up in the house. Dude is a nut job.” I made it to the ground and realized I hadn’t thought twice about the height of the ladder. I’d climbed down about sevenfeet.
“Why are you grinning?” Ellion gave me a weirdlook.
“Sorry, I realized I overcame an anxiety without thinking about it. Anyway, he’s seriously crazy. He’s from Grenève. And he was head over heels in love withAmanda.”
Griffin strode forward. “There’s no way he was from Grenève. We met him incollege.”
“None of that matters right at this moment. All that matters is that you can’t keep trying to fix that generator. He said he didn’t just cut the wires, he said once you fix the wires there’d be a major shock. I think he was trying to be funny, but he’s sabotaged it in some other way. I got out here as soon as I could warnyou.”
Chandler grabbed me and hugged me tight, pressing the guns in my waistband against myabdomen.
I shifted my hips. “Easy there, I’marmed.”
He pulled back to arm’s length and looked at me. “How’d you overpowerhim?”
“I don’t wanna talk about that right now. We need to get back. He’s locked in my closet. I don’t think he can get out, but I don’t want to riskit.”
Griffin strode forward. “You shouldn’t’ve left him alone.” He pushed past me and climbed the ladder to go back to thehouse.
“You’re welcome,” I muttered. “Follow him,” I said to Chandler and Ellion. “If Hunter got out of that closet, he’s going to be more dangerous than ever since I hurthim.”
Chandler ran afterGriffin.
Ellion took my hand. “We assumed he messed with the generator to get us out here. We never should’ve left you alone.” He hugged me and walked me over to the ladder. “I reviewed the tape of the time you were in the barn. I know you’re afraid of heights, and I realize that’s the anxiety you overcame, but if you would like for me to follow you closely up the ladder, I’m happyto.”
The heat of the moment had enabled me to descend the ladder so easily, but he was right. Going back up was going to be more difficult. “Will you stayclose?”
He nodded and enveloped me from behind. “It’ll feel like a hug,” hesaid.
I grasped the rungs and went up two. Immediately, he followed. He wrapped his body around mine, so that falling would be difficult for me to do. I knew how strong he was and I felt secure. As I moved up, he went with me, and in the midst of the terror and the horror of that evening, I got turnedon.
I ignored my libido and climbed out into the hard-packed snow. It was falling so fast and the wind was so furious that I couldn’t see Chandler or Griffin ahead of us. I grasped the rope and walked as quickly as I could back to the house, looking back repeatedly to make sure Ellionfollowed.
When we reached the door to the garage, I grabbed one of the guns under my belt and handed it to Ellion. I entered the garage carefully, Ellion blocking me as soon as he could get in. He was a protectiveone.
“Where'd you get this?” he asked, inspecting thegun.
“It’sHunter’s.”
