Page 41 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

“Eli? Can you hear me? I need you to listen to me. You’re not allowed to give up. I’ll try my best to get to you. But you can’t give up.” My voice was shaky. “Do you hear me? I love you. And I need you to keep breathing. I don’t know how to keep going without you.” I took a deep breath. “I thought I lost you. But you held on. And I can’t. I just can’t lose you, so don’t you dare make me right.”

“I have to go,” Liza sounded alarmed. “They want to question me.” The line went dead.

I took a deep breath. Eli was alive. That was all that mattered. And I was going to get to his side no matter what. Not that I wanted to believe he was running out of time. He was a fighter. I pushed myself to my feet.

Liza was with Eli. V was who knew where. Probably masquerading as a shrink all over the city. And Athena wasn’t speaking to me. Hopefully she wasn’t watching me either.

I was all alone. I needed to break out. There had to be a toolkit here somewhere. Or an Athena manual.

***

I threw the hammer at the target. The side of it hit the bulls-eye and then fell to the ground. “Athena, let me out!”

I had tried everything I could think of. All I had managed to do was accidentally scratch myself with a screwdriver.

“When was the last time you got a tetanus shot?”

I turned around and glared at V. “I don’t know.”

“You need to clean that.” He gestured to my hand.

I looked down at the dried blood on the side of my hand and wrist. “I don’t need you to take care of me, V.”

“You could get tetanus and die. Just…stay right there.”

I watched him disappear into the bathroom. Freaking lunatic. I wasn’t the one whose life what in jeopardy. And where the hell else would I go? He had locked me in this apartment like an animal. Ass hat.

I sat down, rummaged through the toolkit again, and bit back a scream when my cut rubbed against something sharp.

V lifted up the bottle of peroxide as he walked back over to me.

I didn’t want tetanus. And I had no idea when my last shot was. Probably sometime when my parents were alive. Certainly I was due for one. I put out my hand for him.

He sat down beside me and poured some peroxide on a cotton ball.

“I really need to see him, V.”

“Eli will live or die regardless of whether you give yourself over to the cops.”

“I’ll wear a disguise.”

“Sadie, dying your hair doesn’t change your appearance at all. I knew who you were the first moment I saw you.” He dabbed the cotton ball against my skin.

Ow. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to ignore the pain.

“They knew he was in New York to watch you. They’re probably waiting for you to show up outside his hospital door.”

“I don’t think so.” I inhaled sharply when he applied more peroxide. “Liza said he was mumbling my name. She’s pretending her name is Summer and she hasn’t been arrested yet.” I left off the fact that she was being questioned. I hadn’t heard back from her since she had hung up on me. All my calls to her had gone straight to voicemail.

“Then they’re idiots.”

I laughed.

He smiled as he put some Neosporin on my cut and then placed a Band-Aid on top of it. “You’re all set. Now are you done trying to break all my tools?”

I sighed. “Please just let me go to him.”

“I just opened a bottle of wine. It’ll help numb the pain.” He stood up and put his hand out for me.

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