My breathing grows heavy, erratic.
Shit, not now.
“Did you hear that?” Sheriff Daniel asks.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Hear what?”
I smack my palm flat against my mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to muffle my panic. It’s not changing squat—on the contrary, it’s making breathing an even more difficult task.
I can feel Xavier’s eyes on me.
I expect him to be annoyed.
Angry, even.
After all, this will be the second time I’ve lost my shit around him now, but to my disbelief… there isn’t so much as an ounce of resentment in his gaze. Only worry. The same worry he displayed the night he held my hand in his car.
“Breathe,” Xavier mouths in the dark, and I’m faced with the cold hard truth.
No one’s going to save me this time.
No one’s going to hold my hand, walk me through breathing exercises. It’s up to me to kill this anxiety attack before it kills me. I close my eyes, focus every bit of my energy into filling my lungs to the brim with air.
Nothing else.
I just breathe.
Slower and slower each time, until I’m in control again, until Idon’t feel like I’m dying.
A few seconds elapse.
“What, Joe?” the second officer snaps.
“Forget it. Just thought I heard something.”
“So, we going in or not?”
“Yeah, let’s check this one, then we’re out.”
The knob begins to turn, and I clutch my phone so tightly against my chest my knuckles burn.
This is it.
Game over.
The door starts to ope—
“I need backup on the second floor, room B-2506. Got over a dozen kids up in the library,” calls a masculine voice over the radio, and my joints relax, restoring blood flow to my limbs.
“On it,” Sheriff Daniel replies and shuts the door.
The two men charge down the hall the next second. The moment their footsteps fade out of range, Xavier, Theo, and I let out the longest, deepest sigh of relief I’ve ever heard.
“Holy fuck, that was close.” Theo speaks my mind.
The three of us rise to our feet.