Page 118 of Mask and the Magnolia

I nod as I writhe around in the blankets, tears still streaming down my cheeks. “I know.” I’m fighting to breathe, the pain is that bad, and when I roll to my side and dry heave, it goes from bad to worse. “Isaak, please!”

”I will be right back, Magnolia. I promise.”

Then he’s gone and while I know my omega will keep that promise, I’m not sure I’m going to live long enough to see it happen.

KORVIN

The door to my cell opens with a loud screech, the old rusted iron scraping along the track as it slowly begins to let in more and more light with each horrible sound.

I blink a bunch of times then squint, shielding my eyes from the fluorescent fixtures in the hall with my hand. I can’t see shit, not until a giant black mass steps into my cell and even then, it just looks like a fucking black lump.

“We have to go,” a voice whispers as it gets closer. “Now.”

I recognize that voice but I can’t quite place it. Not without hearing it again anyway. They’ve got my fucking nostrils caked in some sort of scent blocking salve so identifying him that way is out. All I’ve got is my hearing in this shit hole, and it does squat if he doesn’t say more than a few words at such a low fucking volume.

“Can you stand?”

I frown as a second familiar voice enters the room, the beam from a flashlight landing on my shackled ankles before it lights a path over the chain connected to a second around my waist. There’s a third that’s attached to the back of my goddamn straight jacket, looped through it somehow as well as an old as fuck pulley system that is basically a goddamn leash.

Thank god he stops before he can shine that shit in my face.

I’m muzzled, too, just like the good old days, and if he put the high beam on my mug to get a look, I’m not sure what I’d do.

It’s hard to say since I’ve been locked up in a dog kennel from the mideaval times, and if I wasn’t so fucking mad about it, I might be inclined to inquire about the sordid history of Blackhurst Ridge’s basement torture chamber.

That’s not gonna happen, though.

I’m so pissed off I probably won’t even remember being here once I get out.IfI get out.

“Severe, can you hear me?”

I cannot place that fucking voice but I know it, I’m sure of that.

”You don’t think they boxed his ears real bad or something?” The other asks with an edge to his tone. “They wouldn’t go that far, right?”

The flashlight moves over me again, following the chain at my waist toward my left arm and up my shoulder. “No, they’d just muzzle him so fucking tight he can’t answer us.”

Bingo, we have a winner.

“We gotta get you out of here, man,” the dude with the flashlight comes all the way into the cell, crouching to my left before I hear what has to be a set of keys jingle. “Then we gotta be fucking fast when we do.”

A few minutes and a bunch of cussing later, I’m free from all my restraints and I finally know who the fuck is busting me out.

”You two need better manners,” I say with a grin as I stretch and pop various parts of my body. “You know I’m not supposed to talk to strangers. How am I supposed to get into your windowless van full of puppies without knowing who’s trying to kidnap me.”

O’Brien smirks as we step into the hallway and he holds out a pair of handcuffs. “You spend way too much time with Hawthorne. His bullshit is starting to rub off on you.” Then his expression changes right before my eyes, turning to something a little too serious for my liking.

“What’s going on?” I ask as I move my wrists behind my back so he can put on my shiny new bracelets. “Why are you two taking me out of here?”

“Got a problem upstairs,” Stevenson says as he motions for us to start hustling toward the elevator. “Would have got you sooner but we needed to figure out how to pull it off.”

My heart starts hammering away behind my ribs, banging out an uneven rhythm as Calix flashes through my mind.

That was the last time I handled a problem upstairs, and I swear to Christ if something has happened to one of my mates there will be no stopping me this time. Not without putting a bullet between my eyes in order to do it.

“When we get to the lobby, we have to switch elevators.” O’Brien pushes the corresponding button. “That means we have to produce paperwork for reception and a security check.”

“Dudes on shift are pretty mellow but they do their job,” Stevenson says as he takes hold of my bicep.

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