Page 207 of Stay Scared

I pull it.

The cable strains. The chest restraint stays shut.

Rook jerks against it, his exposed eye wide.

Ash comes close enough that his shoulder touches mine, blood warm where it smears against my sleeve. Cade takes position on my other side, crowding close enough that I can feel the heat coming off him.

Three of us stand just beyond Rook’s reach.

He sees us and fights harder.

The platform reaches the end of its movement with a heavy mechanical slam. Rook’s body jerks and remains pinned as the motor finally winds down.

Ash grabs the emergency handle from my hand and pulls it himself.

Nothing changes.

He drops it. Steel hits the floor.

Cade starts toward the chair.

I grab the back of his shirt. He keeps straining forward against my grip.

“Stay back.”

“He is still breathing.”

“That’s exactly why you’re staying back.”

“He put a knife on you.”

“And I’m still standing.”

Cade turns toward me, his face inches from mine. “You keep answering like that helps.”

“It keeps you from doing something stupid for another ten seconds.”

His nostrils flare. “Ten is generous.”

Ash moves to my other side and lands one hand hard at my waist, almost painful.

I look at him.

He leaves it there.

“You scared the hell out of me.”

The words are so raw they barely sound like Ash.

I touch the blood near his shoulder. “You look worse.”

“That is irrelevant.”

“It is on my hand.”

“Still irrelevant.”

Cade makes an angry sound. “You two can flirt over the corpse later.”