Page 127 of Yours to Keep
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When the door finally opens, heavy boots echo down concrete steps. I jerk instinctively, my heart slamming against my ribs as rough hands grab the hood and rip it from my head.
Light burns my eyes. I blink rapidly until the room comes into focus.
Concrete walls. Concrete floor. Damp stains spreading through the corners beneath a single naked light bulb.
A prison.
My eyes immediately find Finn.
He’s slumped beside me, unconscious.
Relief crashes through me so hard I almost choke.
He’s alive.
Then one of the men grabs him.
“No!”
Finn’s body scrapes across the concrete as if he weighs nothing.
“Leave him alone!”
I scramble after him on my knees. My bound hands throw me off balance, and I hit the floor before forcing myself up again. The man drags Finn across the room and dumps him against the wall. His head rolls limply to one side, dried blood streaking the skin behind his ear.
My stomach drops.
“Finn!”
Nothing.
The man grabs his chin and slaps him once.
Then again.
Still nothing.
Before I can move, he slams Finn’s head back against the wall.
The crack echoes around the room.
“Leave him alone!”
The scream tears out of me before I even know I’m making it.
The man turns slowly, smiling like he’s enjoying every second of it.
“You’re one lucky little shit,” he says. “We’ve been told we can’t touch you.”
His gaze drifts over me, slow enough to make my skin crawl.
“If we were allowed…” A cruel smile spreads across his face. “You wouldn’t be looking nearly this pretty.”
Every instinct I have screams at me to launch myself at him, to claw at his face until he can’t smile anymore. Instead, I kneel there, helpless, forced to watch.
He starts toward the stairs before stopping. He turns back, walks straight to me, and drives his fist into my stomach.
