64
Callie strainedto make out what was going on upstairs. Her heart pumped so furiously that she could almost taste the blood in her mouth. Maybe that had more to do with her efforts to remove the tape from her mouth than any biological osmosis miracle.
Although the metal bed was unbreakable, it had a flaw. She couldn’t exploit it to free her wrists, but she had used the flaw—also known as headboard decoration—to get under one corner of the tape.
With slow, methodical movements, she ripped away the adhesive, centimeter by centimeter. Until she heard her sister’s voice.
She abandoned slow and methodical to frantically drag her face over the pointy bit, cutting her cheek on the metal and her teeth until she’d freed part of her mouth.
A small part.
Everything became a blur of movement after that. Swinging her body around, she’d kicked out, sending a bedside lamp to the floor along with everything else on the small square table.
When she could reach no more, she’d filled her lungs with air and engaged every one of her inner muscles to push out four little words.
Liv, I’m down here!
Because her mouth was still essentially closed, the words emerged in a drunken gargle. She’d kept the tears at bay until then. But the fear and frustration and humiliation all congealed together and twin tears trailed from the outer edges of her eyes and into her hair.
Rustling above pulled her out of the cauldron of emotions, boiling away her hope. Getting her mouth free was something she could do, something that might aid in her rescue.
She attacked the tape again and, by the time her sister called down, half her mouth was exposed.
“Callie?”
“I’m here!”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes, it’s clear.”
Just me and the pinup girls.
Her sister eased down the stairs, handgun at the ready, eyes searching, confirming for herself that no one held Callie at gunpoint or lurked in the shadows. Once she was satisfied, she holstered her weapon and looked at Callie.
At her bared legs and soiled underwear.
The overwhelming relief Callie felt at seeing her sister was quickly banished by humiliation. She clenched her legs tighter together, though she refused to look away, for fear of her sister disappearing.
It was an irrational worry. Liv would never leave her. She would always come for her, no matter how busy or bananas her own life was.
And she would never, ever judge her for doing whatever it took to protect herself.
“Liv,” Callie choked out.