Page 93 of Liberate Us (Next Generation 8)

“Sammy,” came her muffled response.

“Oh thank fuck.” Relief rushed through me that she was alive but even though I could hear her voice, I needed her in my arms to prove that she was in fact fine. I needed to touch her, hold her, and kiss her. “Baby, are you okay?”

“I hit my head and I’m bleeding but that’s it.”

“We need to get in there,” I told Cyrus as both he and Jaron came toward me from down the hall.

“There’s something blocking the door,” Amber said. “I can’t move it.”

I tried the door, opening it slightly, but she was right. There looked to be a beam from the ceiling that had barricaded her into the small room. “Come to the door, pet. I need to see you.”

When she came into view, all my breath I didn’t realize I had been holding left me on a whoosh.

“Hi,” she whispered, reaching her fingers through the small space.

“Hi.” I hooked my fingers around hers and kissed them, my gaze moving over every inch of her that I could see. I frowned when I noticed the gash on her head. “We need to get that cut taken care of.” I knew that head wounds bled quite a bit, but it didn’t make me feel better. Not where she was concerned. “Move out of the way as best you can.”

She nodded, moving out of my line of sight.

“Sam, police, ambulance, and fire are here,” Cyrus told me.

“I got this,” I said. “Go help the others.”

“Sammy.” Jaron looked between me and my brother. “This isn’t good. None of this shit is.”

“Get Amber out of there and then we’ll have a meeting once the police let us leave.” Cyrus ran a hand through his hair. “We need…fuck, I don’t know what we need.”

“You guys okay?” Corbin Wane stomped toward us, a deep scowl set on his face. “This is a shit show. Whoever set off these bombs, only wanted to do enough damage to make a point. Fucking fuckers. I don’t know much about explosives, but these were tiny apparently.” He scowled. “It’s like they were messing with us.”

“Amber’s stuck in the storage room,” I told him, interrupting his rant.

“I’ll help you.” Corbin nodded toward Jaron. “Call your people. Candace and Ronny are outside and about to burn the fucking world down to try and figure out what the hell happened.”

“Let’s go. I’ll call my dad.” Jaron clapped Cyrus’s shoulder. “Sam, you need us, you fucking yell.”

“Sammy.”

Amber’s voice pulled my attention back to her. I needed to get this shit taken care of. I needed her in my arms and to take her out of here. If Will set this up, there was more to this than Amber and I understood. It just proved that he was willing to do anything and everything to get to her.

I just didn’t know why.

Amber

I moved out ofthe way so I wouldn’t get hit by the door if Sammy was able to break it down like I assumed he was going to try and do. My head hurt; a pounding sounded in my ears from whatever it was that had hit me. I needed out of that room, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. But most of all, I needed Sammy’s arms around me.

“Alright, baby,” he said, his voice giving me hope that he would help me out of this room. “We’re going to try and break down the door.”

Sammy stepped out of the way.

“We’ll get you out of there,” a new voice told me.

“Corbin?” My voice shook, my head continuing to throb.

“Yeah, sweetheart. Let’s get you free before Sammy tears the walls down.” As soon as those words left Corbin’s mouth, a bang sounded against the door. It continued, the door opening a little more each time. It slowly pushed the beam out of the way, but it seemed to take forever.

As the guys tried with everything they had to get me out of that room, I prayed that whatever happened hadn’t take any lives.

When they were finally able to get the door open and the beam pushed back enough that I could get out, I took a step forward as Sammy slipped into the room with me.

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