Chapter 21 Lizzie
LIZZIE
My Liz.
My Liz.
My Liz.
It echoed in my head long after he left.
Long after the girls got up and started pacing.
Long after the girls got tired of bumping into one another, so they came up with a pacing schedule.
Long after the girls got tired of pressing buttons in the panic room, only to get a whole lotta nada.
The only one who didn’t pace was Smoke. Ranger’s dog had planted himself in the dead center of the room and hadn’t moved an inch.
Every once in a while, one of the girls would drift past him and drop a hand onto his back, and he’d let them.
No fuss. No wriggling around. Just that steady, solid presence, like he understood exactly what his job was and had no intention of clocking out.
At some point, Marla sat down cross-legged on the floor beside him and leaned her whole side against his ribs.
He dropped his chin onto her knee. I watched her exhale for the first time since we’d been locked in here.
It echoed like thunder in a canyon.
“You okay?”
I flinched at Marla’s voice before she sat down next to me.
My God, it felt like it was ages since her and I had last talked.
And we were under the same fucking roof
“Hey,” I said with a soft smile.
She nudged me softly. “Hey, yourself.”
“You okay?”
She giggled softly. “I just asked you that.”
“How can you giggle at a time like this?” Jasmine asked.
“Everyone has their ways of coping,” Anna said as she laid there on one of the beds and threw a ball up into the air.
“I hope it falls on your face,” Jasmine muttered.
Anna just smiled as she threw the ball at her. Not hard, but enough to make her jump.
“Hey!” Jasmine exclaimed. “What the fuck was—?”
“Sh, we need to be quiet,” Ariel said with a whisper.
“No one can hear us, I already told you,” Amanda said.
“She’s right, actually,” I said as I pointed to the walls. “You can tell by the way they are formed that they are soundproof. We can’t hear them, and they can’t hear us.”
A hushed quiet fell over all of us, and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand to see them so worked up and worried. Even Anna, with her cool nonchalance, had her eyes darting around a bit more than was usual.
The words came out of my mouth before I could catch them.
“Hey, I know we’re all worried, and I know we’re all worked up,” I said as I stood to my feet. “But not only are we in good hands, but this is Doc’s panic room, for crying out loud. Have you guys explored this place at all? Have you been out back to the pool and hot tub?”
“No,” Amanda said with a cheeky little grin, “because someone’s been hogging it all up with a certain someone else.”
I felt my cheeks grow a bit warm. “My point is, do you think Doc would spare no expense on his property, but then all-of-a-sudden start nickel-and-diming a panic room?”
Marla tilted her head. “She’s got a point.”
“Oh, you’re supposed to agree with her,” Jasmine said as she waved her hand dismissively at Marla.
I said, “She rarely ever agrees with me,” just as Em said, “I rarely ever agree with her.”
The girls laughed at that one while I just looked at my best friend and tossed her a playful wink.
“Miss you,” she mouthed at me.
“Miss you more,” I mouthed back like I always did when she did it to me.
“Does anyone know how long they’ve been gone?” Ariel asked as she fiddled with her wrist. “I don’t have my watch.”
“I didn’t know you wore a watch?” Amanda asked as she turned to her sister.
Ariel smiled at her. “Cap got it for me. Birthday gift.”
I gasped. “We missed your birthday!?”
Amanda furrowed her brow. “No? What do you mean, birthday present?”
It was Ariel’s turn to blush. “Cap’s been doing this thing, you know? He says that he missed so many birthdays where he could’ve spoiled me that he’s going to start making up for them.”
“Oh. My God. That’s adorable,” Jasmine said.
“Do you get to pick your presents?” Anna asked. “Or, are you at his mercy?”
“Why?” Ariel shot back with a smile. “Don’t like being at anyone’s mercy?”
“Not my kink, no,” she said.
Somehow we found a way to pass the time by talking.
The silence of the inside really helped to create an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ phenomena, and soon I found out all sorts of juicy things.
For instance, apparently Jasmine and Ghost were lovers of the hard and quick.
She told us about some of their sneaky escapades, or the moments where she’d wake up and he’s already going to town.
And Amanda? Apparently, her and her man, Wrecker, love adrenaline rushes.
They’re already planning their first cross-country trip together on the back of his bike.
Though, Ariel seemed a bit shocked at that.
Then, there was my best friend, and all I could do was smile while she gushed about Ranger.
I wanted to know more about how he helped her.
I had so many things to ask. So many things that I wanted to know.
But the more she talked about the plans she had with Ranger, like going out on more rides so that she wasn’t so fearful of being on the bike with him, made me so goddamn proud of her.
If I went through half of the shit that I could only imagine she went through, I would’ve never found my solace in the arms of another penis-wielder.
Em was always something else, though.
“What was that?” Anna asked.
“What was what?” I asked.
“Cap!”
“Oh my God, Wrecker.”
“Ghost! Ghost, where are you?!”
“Is Ranger out there!?”
I leapt to my feet when the door to the panic room disengaged, and the words to tell them to stand back got caught in my throat. Because when the door hissed open and I watched the familiar faces of those men pour into the room just to scoop their women up, I stumbled back with relief.
I collapsed back onto the edge of one of the beds.
“Where is she? Elizabeth! Marla, where is my Liz? Don’t tell me you guys let her out of this room, I would’ve—”
My Liz.
My Liz.
My Liz.
I was up on my feet the second I heard his voice, but it was the tears that sprang to my eyes that pushed me across the room. My ankle was still a bit tender and I limped more than I wanted to, but I didn’t let it stop me.
“Oh my God, Doc,” I blubbered out as my face collapsed.
“There’s my Liz,” he murmured as he scooped me up into those amazingly long arms of his.
“Oh, Doc,” I whispered as I collapsed against him.
I felt his free hand slide into my hair as he tugged my head back, bringing my gaze to his. “I missed you, My Elizabeth.”
My lower lip quivered. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“We’re okay,” he said as he brought my face closer to his. “We’re just fine.”
And just as his lips touched down against mine in a kiss that dissolved the world around me, one little sound pierced through the fold.
“Woooo hoo! That’s my girl!”
I’d recognize Marla’s voice anywhere.