Page 114 of Life To My Flight

He’d given Vanessa a withering look as he’d left, saying with his eyes that he didn’t trust her.

Then she’d slunk away from him like a beaten kitten as he’d walked by, causing Loki’s glare to soften; only minutely, though.

“You think her father beats her?” Torren asked as he puttered underneath the hood of Vanessa’s car.

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but by the way she cowered from Loki as he passed her, I would say probably so. She looked like she was pretty sick, too. Do you think I should’ve woken Rue up before I sent Vanessa in there?”

Torren shrugged and started twisting something. “Maybe if she were naked, then yes.”

I didn’t look at what he was doing, however.

It was too dark to see, and my head was already killing me from being on the edge of my seat all day, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I’ll go get the truck and we’ll pull it to the garage…there’s a spark plug missing,” Torren said suddenly.

I blinked. “How the fuck…”

Then a sudden, sick realization hit me. A spark plug didn’t just fall out on its own. Sure, it’d loosen, but it wouldn’t just be gone unless somebody wanted it gone.

That girl.

Vanessa.

I’d fallen for her poor, pitiful me act; hook, line, and sinker.

I looked at Torren, and Torren looked at me, before we both started sprinting back to the apartment.

We’d left Tunnel there, seeing as he was waiting for his sister to come over.

However, he’d be more vulnerable than most to her act because of his own sister having the same thing done to her only a few short months ago.

My legs ate up the ground for a half mile before we turned the bend and saw smoke billowing out of Rue’s apartment.

Fire poured out of the window in the front, so we bypassed it and ran straight through the narrow path between the Rue’s apartment and the one directly next to hers.

Smoke poured out of the seams of the paneling as we rounded the back, thanking God that the back door and window were free of smoke and fire.

“Follow me,” Torren instructed. “Walk where I walk, and don’t deviate.”

Knowing when I wasn’t in my element, I did as instructed, staying on his ass the entire way.

We both saw the lump in the living room at the same time.

Both of us cursed and went straight to Tunnel, Torren dropping down to one knee as I dropped down to both.

Smoke billowed thick and black around us, causing Torren and me to cough.

Tunnel, on the other hand, wasn’t coughing.

He was staring straight at the ceiling, not moving even the slightest inch.

He was breathing, thank God.

Slow, and very labored, but he was breathing.

He wouldn’t be for long if we didn’t get him out of the smoke.

I looked at Torren, knowing without a doubt that it’d be easier for me to get Tunnel out.

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