Page 160 of Fought and Freed

Then, he turned his head, staring toward the right side of the building, and smiled.

Cody couldn’t hear anything, and he prayed to God it wasn’t Maddy.

Mike ran to the right of the building and disappeared.

Cody struggled to keep his eyes open. He heard a creaking sound from somewhere in the vicinity, followed by a gasp.

“Cody!” Maddy yelled as she ran toward him.

Inside his head, he screamed, “No! Run, Maddy!” but nothing came out of his mouth.

Her hands moved frantically in front of him. “Oh, God, what do I do?”

“Run,” he gasped out.

“Forget it. I won’t run without you.” She searched around. “Where’s Torr?”

Cody dampened his lips. “Got away.”

“Good.” She searched around for some way to free him. “She’ll get everyone here.”

“Aww, there’s the wench of the hour,” Mike said, clapping as he came up behind her.

Maddy spun around. “Mike. I’m who you want. Let Cody go.”

“Why would I do that when I promised that I’d kill everyone you love before I then kill you?” He pulled a gun out of the back of his pants. “Now, come here so I can make sure you didn’t bring anything with you.”

Raising her hands, she walked over to him.

He shoved the gun back into his pants and patted her down, taking extra time to grope her in a particular place, pissing Cody off.

“She’s got nice breasts, doesn’t she?” Mike smirked at Cody as he squeezed Maddy’s breast.

“Don’t touch her,” Cody growled out.

“I was the first to touch her, and I’m going to be the last.” He pulled the gun out again. “Head to the back like a good little girl. I have a room specially set up for you.”

She looked up at Cody, sadness in her green eyes. It felt like she was saying goodbye to him.

“Don’t try anything stupid,” Mike warned. “Or I’ll shoot the big boy here.”

He forced Maddy back to another room and was gone for minutes, or maybe hours—he had no idea—before Mike returned.

He stopped in front of Cody and studied him. “You don’t look so good. You need some color.”

Tearing off Torr’s sweater, he stuck his finger into the knife wound.

A scream to rival all screams ripped from Cody. He had never felt such pain before. Mike walked over to where Torr had been tied up and bent to grab the rope.

“Don’t want you to die before I’m ready.” He made a tourniquet on Cody’s leg, tightening it far more than Torr was able with her sweater. “I’ll be back. I need to collect some other players.”

After he left again, Cody tried to pull on the chains, but the beam they were looped around was too solid. Next, he tried to pull his wrist out of the cuffs, but that wouldn’t work either, unless he cut off his hand.

He was stuck and could only wait until someone got him out.

Cody had never been very good at leaving something important to other people, but he had no choice in this scenario. As he hung there, he thought about his life and how there was so much more he still wanted to do.

He looked down at his wounds. Even though the bleeding had stopped, he was afraid that when Mike cracked his ribs, it punctured his lung. He was having a really hard time breathing.

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