Chapter Twenty
Maddy
I shouldn’t have closed my eyes. Knox said to keep our eyes closed for five minutes but I’m about to fall asleep. Or, I guess, pass out since I apparently have a pretty bad concussion.
“You get the fat one,” someone says.
Some man curses up a storm and inside I’m jumping for joy. That’s what you get, asshole.
“I only want this one,” a deep voice says. “Put the rest in the walk-in.”
Walk-in? As in, the freezer?
“You’re mine now, sweet one. We’re going to have so much fun together.”
I desperately want to open my eyes to see which of my friends that man seems to be obsessed over but I try and stay focused on what Knox said.
I’m being dragged across the floor for several minutes before we come to a stop.
“Get the door,” the man closest to me says. “Don’t put them in the middle of the floor. Over in the corner is fine. With any luck, the cold will kill them before they regain consciousness. I may not care about their lives but I’m not a dick. Suffering isn’t fun.”
Oh, how nice of him.
Once again, I’m dragged but the floor becomes cold. They really are putting us in a freezer.
“Let’s go. It’s fucking cold in here.”
Even after the voices fade, I don’t move. Not for a long time.
“Maddy, wake up.”
What?
“Damnit, why isn’t she waking up?”
Pain slams across my face and I jolt my eyes open.
“I’m ssso sorry,” Sophia chatters. “I thought you were dddead.”
“Cccold,” I respond.
“Yeah. I ccan’t feel my bbroken leg. So, that’s good, right?”
“They took, Knox,” Bitsy says from beside me. “We have to fffind a way to get out of hhhere.”
“Ssleepy.”
“I know,” Bitsy chatters. “Phone, Mmmaddy.”
My arms feel sluggish as I reach inside my bra and pull the phone out from where I had it tucked away close to my arm.
“Damnit,” Bitsy groans. “The cccall dropped. No sssignal.”
“Doors locked,” Sophie tells us. “Dddon’t they have ssafety measures for things like this?”
“Sleep.”
Bitsy and Sophie are yelling at me but it doesn’t matter how hard I try, I can’t respond. I can’t stay awake. Darkness drags me under kicking and screaming for a control I no longer have.
***Bitsy***
“She can’t fall asleep,” Sophie exclaims.
“I ddon’t think she did,” I admit. “I think she ppassed out.”
“Oh, nno.”
I’ve checked this freezer from top to bottom for an emergency latch or button that will open the freezer door. There isn’t a single thing.
The only thing in this freezer are the chunks of meat hanging above us. Sophie had a mini panic attack when we were first shoved inside thinking that it was human meat. But some of the packaged meats have names like horse, dog, shark, and tiger.
I know without a single doubt that Viper and the guys are out there looking for us, but I honestly don’t think they’re going to make it. Theoretically speaking, we might have enough oxygen in here to last a day, but we’ll fall into a hypothermic coma long before we run out of oxygen. Already we’re starting to show signs of hypothermia.
With Maddy’s concussion, I’m not surprised that she succumbed before we did. I can only pray that we’re found in time to save her. Between a concussion and hypothermia, her mind is in for the fight of its life.
We haven’t seen Knox and we were all pretending to be passed out when he was separated so I have no idea what the person looks like that took him. I heard them say to throw us in the freezer and walk away while he takes his new pet home.
I’m terrified for my friend. He’s so sensitive and not made for this type of shit.
I try to ignore the fear coursing through my body and focus on surviving. Sophie can’t move around to keep her body active so she’s cuddled against an unconscious Maddy. I’m walking back and forth, doing jumping jacks and whatever else it takes to keep my mind focused.
With a fortified breath, I start looking around again. I know they’ve most likely locked the door from the outside, but I won’t stop trying to find a way out until I can no longer stand.
“Keep mmoveing, Sophie,” I say. “Dddo some sit-ups if you can. Is Mmaddy still breathing?”
“Yyeah,” she answers. “Shallow, but sstill breathing.”
I’m moving packs of frozen sausages to look behind the shelves when noise from outside of the door causes me to freeze.
I don’t have time to run back and pretend to be passed out before the door swings open wide. The freezer isn’t exactly dark, there are small lights along the top, but the light from the opened door blinds me and at first, all I see are two dark and imposing figures standing there.
“Fuck,” one of the angels says. “Get them out of there.”
It takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust and that’s when I see them. Ghost and Venom barge forward, quickly followed but Viper, Steel, Blaze, King, and Jax.
“Mmaddy,” I stutter. “Fffirst.”
“Baby,” King yells, rushing forward. “Fuck. She’s breathing. I fucking hate what I’m about to say. Venom and Viper, get our girls out of here. Get them to the hospital. Watch out for my woman.”
“With our lives,” Viper tells him.
“Baby,” King whispers as Viper guides me from the freezer. “I’m so sorry that I have to leave you. I need to go find Knox. Please, be okay. I love you so much, my sweet baby. I’ll be with you soon.”
“The ambulance is here,” Ghost says. “This way. They’re in here.”
“Fuck, I have to go,” King says. I can hear the agony in his voice of leaving Maddy. But he also knows that he’s Knox’s best chance. I respect the hell out of this man.
“She’ll bbe fine,” I tell him as he steps aside for the EMTs. “She’s strong.”
“She is,” he says, kissing my head.
“Go save Knox.”
With a nod, he walks over to a stretcher and kisses Sophie’s forehead before stopping at Maddy’s. Her body is as still as death itself and it has my heart skipping a beat. King leans in and whispers something in her ear before softly kissing her lips and walking away.
“Come on, baby,” Viper says, lifting me and placing me on a third stretcher. “You’re such a fighter, Bitsy. You never cease to amaze me with how strong you are.”
He doesn’t know the half of it. I fought like hell to keep my body as warm as possible. I place my hands on my stomach and look up at Viper, tears flowing down the side of my face.
I wait for him to catch on to my silent clue. When his eyes widen, I smile and nod. But, instead of happiness he looks at me with absolute fear.
“My wife is pregnant,” he yells at the EMTs. “Hurry the fuck up. She needs scans. They all do. Stop checking their fucking temperatures and get them to the hospital.”
I can’t help but laugh in the middle of this scary storm. I know with everything I have that our baby is fine.
With the amount of radiation that was shoved into my body, getting pregnant wasn’t something I thought was even possible. I’m beyond blessed. However, my happiness fades when I see my new friend being rushed out of wherever the hell we are and into a waiting ambulance.
Maddy may survive all of this. The concussion. The hyperthermia. But I’m not sure her mind will. That’s a lot of damage at once.