Page 53 of Love Fire

We start driving and I begin plotting my escape. This car isn’t that big, I could shift and probably be fine. How many guns could they possibly have pointed at me right now? But maybe it’s better to wait.

They might be taking me exactly where I want to go. One of their iridescent warehouses. This could be perfect for me. Yes, I’ll bide my time. Sooner or later these assholes will screw up and I’ll be free to do as I please in their base.

We drive for about thirty minutes. Judging by how bumpy the road got, we’re deeper into the mountains than I expected. The car rolls to a stop and I’m quickly ripped out of the door.

The two big burly men hold me still as the bag is ripped off my head. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust but when they do, I’m confused. They have taken me to a small clearing in the middle of nowhere. If they wanted to kill me, why drag me here first?

Hank walks past me and opens a hidden door. I’m pushed towards the opening and can see a ladder leading down into the darkness of a bunker. A few of the men climb down ahead of us.

Meanwhile, a gun is pressed against my head while Hank unlocks my handcuffs. He then re-handcuffs me so my hands are in front.

“Climb down,” Hank orders. "No funny business.”

I get on the ladder and make my way down. When I make it to the bottom, I realize there are even more armed men already waiting for me. I’m immediately grabbed and thrown into a chair and chained down. Fuck, I might have underestimated them.

This is not where I was hoping to end up. I thought I’d be in one of their production warehouses and I could burn the whole thing down. But judging by the blood-stained concrete floor, I’m somewhere much worse.

I’m in a single room bunker with just the one door in and out, in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by angry men with guns and vengeance on their minds. Fuck. I tug on the chains. They are reinforced with dragons in mind and won’t break if I shift. Again, fuck.

The interrogation begins, led by some nameless asshole. That Hank guy never even climbed down here. How the fuck is there something more important than this?

“What do you know?” The interrogator asks, followed by a swift punch to my face. “What do you know about iridescent?”

I don’t answer and receive another punch. I still stay silent, not even giving them the satisfaction of a grunt or hearing me say a simple ‘ow.’ Instead, I just spit the blood from my mouth at them.

“Who is leaking your information?” My silence is met with a punch to my jaw. My head rings for a moment but I shake it off.

I look around the room. All the men watching are smiling. These sick fucks are enjoying this. Let’s see who’s smiling when I get out. Let’s see who's enjoying it then.

This is how it goes for a while. They ask me questions, I refuse to answer, they hit, rinse, and repeat. I just have to last until the integrator is tired of hitting me, no problem. Soon, my path to freedom will be clear.

I won’t tell them anything, ever. I can’t put Erin in danger like that. She means too much. She’s the reason I can survive this interrogation, I let my mind wander to Erin to help ignore any pain. I think of her touch, her scent, her taste, and everything else that sets her apart from the other humans I’ve met.

But the more I think of her, the more worried I get. The last I saw she was sprinting away into the woods as I was getting caught. Did she manage to escape? What about Nate?

Does Erin even know I got caught? I hope not. I’m strong enough to survive this but she might try to rescue me anyway. That’ll just put her in more danger. I can’t have that. I already plan to kill everyone here, but if they hurt Erin, I’ll make it even more painful.

44

ERIN

“Don’t sneak up on me,” I say to Nate as loud as I dare. He almost gave me a heart attack doing that. I slam my fists into Nate’s chest to hammer home my point.

“I think father’s men are gone, listen.” We both hold still. The only sound is the wind and occasional bird chirp.

We’re lucky. Father’s men came out of nowhere. We all could have easily been caught, and who knows what would happen next. Then the realization washes over me. There are only two of us.

“BRENT!” My voice echoes around but I get no response. This can’t be happening.

Nate comes to the same realization, “BRENT!” Still no response.

The two of us search the woods and yell for Brent for what feels like an eternity. We find no trace of him. We don’t even find any of my father’s men lingering around to grab us. They just wanted Brent and they got exactly that.

I fall to my knees. The emotions overwhelm me. I can’t lose him, not now. All I can do is scream. “Damn it! They fucking got him!”

Nate gets down on his knees and hugs me. The tears start flowing and I can’t stop them. Brent is gone and we have no idea where they took him. If we don’t get to him soon, he’s dead. I just don’t know what to do.

“Erin, I need you to focus, I need you to calm down.”

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