Page 17 of In the Midst of Chaos

Right now, looking at the lake, I thought about the time my father was giving me a lesson, and Nash freaked out. I think that was the first time my heart beat at a different tune for him. I was young—way too young to know about lust, but loyalty, that was something I knew well.

Since I was a kid, I knew I was loyal to the family—to my father, and then at ten, I became loyal to Nash.

* * *

“Focus, Finley!”my father’s agitated voice rang through the warehouse.

At his tone, I knew I needed to get out of this bind as quickly as possible. Most ten-year-old girls had their father take them to ballet classes, but not my dad. He said he loved me too much for the time he spent with me to end up being useless.

I didn’t know what that meant, but usually, our days together were fun—scary but fun. Except for today. I was more on the scary part.

“D-daddy,” I yelled because I wanted to hear his voice so I could pinpoint where he was coming from.

He had me blindfolded, my legs tied to a chair and my arms bound behind my back with zip ties.

“Four minutes.” That was all he said.

He gave me five minutes before he would let the dogs loose. I knew I didn’t want the dogs near me. There were two of them, and let’s just say they were vicious. We had five Cane Corsos in total that were lethal. The only interaction those dogs had was with their master, and that was my father.

The dogs were trained to incapacitate.

“Three minutes!” My dad was now pissed.

My bladder was full, and thus, I couldn’t concentrate on escaping.

The doors opened, and I could hear the dogs growling.

I winced, knowing that what I would do was going to hurt, but that was okay. Huxley and I got hurt way worse during baseball season.

I rocked my body to the left and then swung to the right with all my force, and with the impact, the chair cracked, but it didn’t break.

“Finley!” my dad yelled again, and I knew I was cutting it close.

My heart started to beat a little faster, scared more than anything to disappoint my father.

Now that I was on the floor, I wiggled my feet and caught a lucky break when I noticed the part that cracked was one of the chair’s legs. I swung my body to the opposite side, with force, and the leg broke off, allowing me to let my legs loose.

“Shit!” I heard the scream, but I knew I was down to seconds, so I ignored that for now.

“Go!” I heard my father’s command.

At this point, I was standing with my hands tied behind my back and the blindfold on my face.

My body was pressed up against someone, and I knew immediately it was Nash because Huxley wasn’t as tall.

I could hear how fast his heart was beating, and he was scared. This, I found surprising, because nothing scared Nash. Not heights, not the dark, not even when they taught us all how to handle firearms. He took it all in stride. Except for now, the way his heart was strumming, I knew he was feeling it.

Nash hissed in pain as he curled one of his arms around my waist and held me in a viselike grip. As this happened, I heard my dad whistle a command for the dogs to stand down.

I rubbed my head against Nash’s chest, pulling my blindfold down in order to see. When I looked up at him, I saw relief in his mismatched eyes, followed by pain.

“You okay, Finnie?” he asked through gritted teeth.

I managed to nod. I took a step back from him, and I saw blood. There was a lot, and it was dripping from Nash’s arm.

My gaze went back behind him, and I saw my dad’s dog growling at us. My father walked toward us calmly, but I knew he was pissed because I had not passed his test.

“What. The. Hell. Were. You. Thinking?” he spat at Nash.

---