“Maaaaaaaax!”
I whipped my head up and saw my father looking off into the distance. With his hands balled up at his sides, I watched him turn around. And when my eyes gravitated beyond him, something struck me I’d never felt before.
Hopelessness.
“DANI!”
A man crammed his shoulder into my side and took me down. The sound of her hitting the water started the clock ticking down in my head. A minute. I had a minute to get to her. Sixty seconds. And these five assholes wouldn't even let me breathe. No matter what punches I threw, no matter what bones I crunched, they kept coming. Kept doling shit out.
And my father watched it all with a smile on his face.
I threw my elbow back as time counted down in my head. If Dani was the amazing swimmer I thought she was, I had maybe a minute and a half. The compromise of seventy-five seconds started ticking down in my head.
Seventy four. Seventy three. Seventy two.
If I wanted to save Dani, I had to barrel through these men. I’d have to tear through my father. But it took me damn near ten minutes just to get them unloaded of all their weapons. Guns without magazines littered the ground. Knives I’d smashed into the concrete, rendering them useless, took so much fucking energy out of my bones. But with the splashing of water as the pool buried her beneath its crystal cave, a third round of anger fueled my strength.
Causing me to charge through the men.
Sixty-five. Sixty-four. Sixty-three.
I started for my father before someone wrapped their arm clear around my neck. I coughed and sputtered, and I heard my father’s laughter fall heavily against my ears. I brought my hands up to the guy’s forearm and dug my jagged nails in. I raked down, feeling his skin give way. Feeling it gather beneath my fingers. He howled in pain as I bit down, ripping a chunk of muscle clear away from his bone.
Like I had done with Benji’s cheek.
Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight. Fifty-seven.
“All right. You guys want pain? You’ve got it.”
I cracked my knuckles and spun around. The only thing I knew was hurt. The only thing I smelled was death. Blood spattered against me as I sank my knuckles into the first face I found. Ribs broke against my toes as my boots went flying into their stomachs. Arms flew about. Legs caved in on one another. I rushed back into the mass of men trying to take me down. Determined to be the only one standing by the end of it. I counted down the numbers in my head. I felt Dani’s life slipping through my fingers. And as one of the men charged me with a knife I hadn’t found, I reached for his forearm.
I spun around, tucking his arm underneath my armpit.
And I broke that son of a bitch’s wrist as the knife fell from his hand.
“Fuck!” he roared.
Forty-three. Forty-two. Forty-one.
I was running out of time. I still had four men coming at me as well as my father to contend with. I fought without mercy. I crushed everything in my path. My sole purpose was pain. My final destination was death. Even if I had to drown my father with my own hands, so long as it got me in that pool with Dani, I didn’t give a shit about it. I throttled my hand into some man’s windpipe. His head wrenched back as I threw my elbow behind me. Another man grunted in pain as someone else came at me, and I wrapped my arm around his neck.
Before snapping it.
Thirty-two. Thirty-one. Thirty.
“She’s running out of time, you know!”
My father’s taunting voice rattled around in my head. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked up to see him jerking off to all this fucking chaos. That man would get the worst of me. That much was for certain. And as my eyes whipped up, I saw yet another man coming at me, his fists at the ready. I stuck both of my hands out and curled my fingers against my palm, except for my thumbs. And when the man was within arm’s reach, I sank my thumbs into his eyes until blood seeped down his face.
Twenty-seven. Twenty-six. Twenty-five.
Every time I put a man on the ground, I thought about her. About how scared she must feel. About the pain she must be in. I pushed through my own to get to her. Because I had to. There was no other choice. I promised her I would protect her. I promised her I’d take care of her. I loved her. I was head over heels in love with Dani. She was my everything, and I was nothing without her.
Twenty-one. Twenty. Nineteen.
The rational part of me chastised me the entire time. With every drop of blood I drew, I knew I wouldn't have been in this situation had I kept a lid on things. I disconnected myself from my emotions for a reason. I didn’t care about shit for a reaso
n. I never let people into my life for a reason. But Dani had been relentless. Always running into me, as if she thought she was being cute. As if I didn’t know she was actively seeking me out. I knew it from the second time I’d ever laid eyes on her. She looked for any reason to be around me. Any reason to look out for me. She kept her head on a swivel for me. And it was that determination that wore me down.