Olivia
“Is it in yet?”I ask, peering down at Rhys with a frown.
His face scrunches up in concentration. “No… not yet,” he says in a tight voice.
I sigh heavily. This is taking far too long, especially since we could be caught at any moment. Something neither of us wants. “Can’t you just shove it in?”
Rhys flicks his gaze up at me, annoyance flashing in his amber eyes. “No, I can’t justshove it in. This takes finesse and a practised hand. Now shut up so I can do this properly.”
Even though he’s the expert in this, I can’t help but glance at the broken garage door windows as impatience eats away at me. While Luke and his goons have left us alone for the entire day, the sun is setting, meaning sooner or later, they’re going to come backto exact revenge. Revenge that I’m sure is going to be even more painful and humiliating than the last interrogation session.
Rhys grunts as he shifts his weight, his shoulders tensing and his eyes narrowing. There’s a smallclickfollowed by a slew of curses from his lips that have my eyebrows shooting upward. With a huff, he withdraws and sits back on his heels.
“So much for that practised hand,” I mutter under my breath, unable to help myself.
He snaps his narrowed gaze at me. “As soon as we’re out of here and have talked about boundaries, you’re going over my knee and I’ll show you what this practised hand can do.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time, is what I want to say, but I have enough survival instinctsnotto say that to his face this time. At least, not until I know how bad the punishment will be.
If we ever get out of here.
Shaking his head, Rhys turns his attention back to the door and removes the Swiss Army knife. He’s been using the smaller knife alongside one of the flimsy bucket handles to pick the lock on the door. Unfortunately, judging from the glare he’s levelling at the doorknob, it hasn’t gone well.Again.
The elation from grabbing the knife from the gang member is long gone since I’ve lost count of how many attempts we’ve made to pick the lock on this door. Hell, evenIgave it a go although I failed miserably because I’ve never picked a lock in my life.
Our options are quickly disappearing, leaving us with little choice but to take risks.
I turn away from the door, unable to stand staring at it any longer, otherwise I might just fall into a pit of despair. But it’s hard. I’m desperate to see Theo and Alex again, to feel their arms around me and their lips against mine. I’m terrified that Andy will have turned while we’ve been held captive and I miss Tobias and Rachel and the other people I’ve come to know at Haven.
“If we’re not getting through that door, we’ll need to think about trying the garage door,” I say, shoving aside my thoughts before I can spiral and turn my attention to the door in question.
Lucky for us, it’s an older style door, with the lock and handle stationed in the middle of it. It’s rusted and obviously at least three decades old, if not older, but I’m hoping that’ll be to our advantage and the lock will be easier to force.
Rhys turns to stare at the door and shakes his head. “You know as well as I do, the moment they hear us attempting to break that lock, they’ll be on us in less than a minute.”
“Unless there’s a louder noise to cover it up,” I say, still clinging to the idea because the alternative is to take them by surprise when they come back for us. Something that could easily lead to our deaths.
“Which hasn’t happened since they left us.” He sighs. “Face it, Ollie, either way we’re gearing up for a fight.”
Well, isn’t that reassuring?
I hug my piece of the blanket closer around my body—we used the knife to slice it into two pieces—and pace around the room, looking foranythingthat could get us out of here. Nervous energy rides me hard, making it impossible for me to stay still even though I know I should conserve myself for the fight to come.
Rhys watches me with a mixture of exasperation and understanding before he turns to the door and tries picking it again.
I’m not sure how much time passes when we hear the first bang. I jump, my gaze snapping to the door that Rhys is kneeling in front of as another bang echoes from behind it.
Rhys pauses and frowns. “What the—”
“You stupid bitch! I told you to keep your cover and you’ve completely blown it!” Luke roars from somewhere in the house.
There are several more bangs, one even sounding like flesh hitting flesh, followed by a feminine scream. Rhys and I exchange wide-eyed looks.
What the hell is happening?
“They figured me out! It’s not my fault you fucked up and didn’t get rid of the others like I told you to,” a vaguely familiar voice shouts back, although I can’t place them. “If you’d followed the plan, I’d still be there and you’d have all the info you needed!”
Rhys stiffens, shock and horror on his face as he slowly turns back to the door. That quickly morphs into anger as his expression turns thunderous. “That traitorous harpy,” he growls under his breath.
