42. Garrett
CHAPTER 42
Garrett
Blinding anger seared through my veins, flooding me with fire. A voice in the back of my head told me to calm down and think. Losing myself to rage and panic wasn’t going to help. I needed to get out and get to Harper before he did.
As my mind snapped into focus, I noticed a humming sound and felt cold air blowing against my face. I wrenched myself to a sitting position and looked around, taking stock of my surroundings in the dim light. Where was I?
It looked like a walk-in freezer. And Phillip had turned it on.
Fuck.
He wanted to kill me himself, so he probably wouldn’t leave me to freeze to death. I didn’t know how long a big commercial freezer would take to get to temperature, but I would have guessed at least twelve hours, if not more. Apparently he intended to make me even more miserable while I waited. What a prick.
Still, I had a feeling the cold wasn’t my biggest problem. I didn’t know how long the oxygen would last. Worse than that, without a source of fresh air, I was at risk for carbon dioxide poisoning just from my own breathing.
If I’d been expecting a rescue, I’d have hunkered down, tried to stay warm, and moved as little as possible to keep my breathing slow and minimize exhalations.
But no one knew I was there. I had to get out. I had to save Harper.
Which meant I had to risk it.
But first, I had to get my arms and legs free. He’d used zip ties. Made sense. They were common and easy to obtain, and they wouldn’t be traceable back to him.
He had to know I’d be able to get out of them, so I wasn’t about to celebrate once I was unbound. Getting out of the freezer was going to be a much bigger challenge.
The fucker had taken my shoes. Probably making sure I didn’t have any weapons or tools hidden in them. Getting to my feet with my hands behind my back and a massive amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins proved to be awkward, but I managed. Positioning my feet in a V-shape, I dropped into a hard squat as fast as I could, snapping the zip tie around my ankles.
With my legs free, I could move my feet apart for balance. Lifting my arms as far back as I could, I thrust them down. The zip tie held, and although I could feel it chafe and dig into my skin, I ignored the pain.
One more try and that zip tie snapped too.
Urgency gripped me. I had to get out. Had to get to Harper. But I couldn’t barrel my way through the door.
I remembered seeing somewhere that commercial freezers had safety mechanisms to open the door in case someone accidentally locked themselves in. Phillip had probably broken it, but it would have been stupid not to try. There was a knob on the door, below the handle. I pushed it, but sure enough, it didn’t do anything.
No surprise there. He wouldn’t have made that mistake .
Frustrated, I grabbed the door handle and shook it. Barely even moved. He’d locked it tight.
I’d been unconscious when he’d dragged me in, so I hadn’t seen what the freezer was made of. I ran my hands along the cold interior walls. How thick were they? I tried to remember the freezer at Harper’s bakery. Sheet metal, maybe stainless steel or aluminum.
Where would it be the weakest?
Not the front. The door would be strong, designed to open and close thousands of times without the seals breaking.
That left the sides, back, or top.
Ceiling wasn’t an option. It might very well be the weakest point, but whatever type of shelving had been in there, it was gone. And Phillip had taken the folding chair. I was tall, but not tall enough to reach the top and get any kind of leverage to pop or pry it open.
The back was probably up against a wall. Which meant I needed to break out one of the sides.
Was I strong enough?
Phillip didn’t think so.
I was about to prove him wrong.
The temperature continued to drop as I tapped my knuckles along the wall, listening for any sign of a thinner or weaker area. It was hard to tell. I figured the walls had to be mostly insulation with a thin layer of metal on the outside.
One way to find out.
I kicked and my foot hit the wall, leaving nothing but a small dent.
Fuck.
I kicked it again, aiming for the same spot. Again. And again. The dent grew with each strike. My body screamed at me, my muscles still protesting from the effects of the taser. I ignored it.
Adrenaline and sheer will kept me going. Harper had no idea she was in danger. For all she knew, I was out following up on a lead, still unsure if everything was a big coincidence, or if someone meant her harm.
She had no idea Phillip was coming for her.
I wasn’t going to let that sick fuck touch her. I’d beat myself bloody to get out of the fucking freezer.
Anything to save her.
My vision hazed over with rage as I rammed the wall with my shoulder. I had to get out. That fucker was not going to touch my woman.
Finally, I broke through the insulation and could see the outer layer. Silver metal. My breathing was ragged, filling the freezer with carbon dioxide, and my body ached with every move I made.
A vision of Harper filled my mind. Her mesmerizing eyes. That smile that had almost knocked me on my ass.
And I attacked the outer wall.
I had no idea where my strength came from. I was a big guy, and kept myself strong, but I went supernova. I beat the aluminum sheeting with everything I had until I finally broke through.
The metal was jagged where I’d torn through it, so I peeled off my shirt and used it to grip. I wrenched it open, widening the gap.
Before I was even out, I could see I had another problem. There was shit stacked against the side of the freezer.
Didn’t matter. I’d get through somehow.
It was hard to tell in the dim light, but it looked like cardboard. Maybe a stack of boxes. I kicked through the hole I’d made. There was weight behind it, but it moved. That was all the encouragement I needed. I kicked again, shoving the box—or boxes, I couldn’t tell yet—out of the way.
Finally, there was room for me to squeeze through the hole. I wedged myself out, heedless of the way the metal scraped, tearing into my skin.
Ignoring the hot bloom of blood across my back, I got out and surveyed the space. It was surrounded by stacks of moving boxes, plastic storage totes, wooden crates, and other random shit I didn’t bother to identify. I shoved my way through, heedless of the danger of the entire stack falling on me. I was half out of my mind, fueled by relentless determination to save her.
Nothing fell, and when I finally emerged from the stacks of crap, I found myself in a metal sided pole barn.
Where the fuck was I?
I ran to the door. Of course it was locked, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Not even close.
Amped as I was, it only took a few tries to kick the door down.
The daylight was blinding, and I squinted against the brightness as I rushed outside and tried to orient myself.
There was shit everywhere out there, too.
Then it hit me. I’d been there before. It was Rich Pine’s property, where the pile of junk had fallen on me.
My detective brain tried to turn on, running through the possibilities. Was Rich Pine just out of town and his property was convenient? Or was there a connection between him and Phillip?
I had a feeling Phillip was using it without his knowledge, but I’d deal with that later. First, I had to find Harper.
Racing through the maze of junk, and ignoring the rocks and other shit digging into my feet, I made my way toward the front of the property. There were cars parked among the debris, but I doubted any of them ran. And hot wiring a car wasn’t in my skill set. Luke would probably know how, but—
Luke. I needed to call my brother.
Rich’s house looked empty. No lights inside, no cars parked in the driveway. And I was running out of time.
Could he have a landline?
There was one way to find out.
It had been years since I’d picked a lock, but I didn’t want to kick the guy’s door in. Plus, my body had already taken a beating. I gave myself sixty seconds to find something I could use to pick the lock. If I came up short, I was busting my way in.
Focusing on my breathing, I kept myself calm despite the rising panic. I hunted around, looking for something small. A paper clip had been my tool of choice when Reese and I had been up to no good as kids. But what were the chances—
In the trodden down grass, I found one. I actually found a fucking paper clip.
About time I got lucky.
I ran to the front door and it was just like riding a bike. In seconds, I was in.
“Hello? Tilikum sheriff’s department.”
No one answered, and no one would have believed I was a deputy, given my lack of uniform, badge, gun, and the fact that I was beat up, bleeding, shirtless, and barefoot.
The house wasn’t as cluttered as the yard, but close. Where would a guy like Rich keep a landline?
Kitchen.
Bingo. There was an old black phone, not even a cordless, on the kitchen counter, perched on a stack of old newspapers.
I picked it up and breathed out a sigh of relief. Dial tone. It was connected. I punched in Luke’s number and waited.
“Hello?”
“Luke, it’s Garrett.”
“Holy shit, where are you? I’ve been looking everywhere.”
“Don’t talk for a second. Just listen.”
“You said that last time.”
“Luke,” I barked at him. “Phillip Lancaster is on his way to abduct Harper. He ambushed me at the root cellar and locked me in a freezer in an outbuilding on Rich Pine’s property.”
“What?! ”
“I know, it all sounds crazy. But he’s planning on killing her and framing me, making it look like a murder suicide.”
“Where’s Harper?”
“I don’t know. Phillip has her phone. She was supposed to go to Mom and Dad’s after work.”
“Where are you? Rich Pine’s?”
“Yeah. Do you know where that is?”
“I’m like two minutes from there. On my way.”
Two minutes were going to feel like an eternity. How long had Phillip been gone? I had no way of knowing.
“Don’t hang up, though,” Luke said. “You’ve had me scared shitless. I went out to that barn and root cellar and there was nothing there. Less than nothing. The door was wide open, but there wasn’t shit inside. And you were nowhere.”
“Phillip fucking tased me, then clocked me in the head to knock me out.”
“Holy shit. Have you called this in or did you call me first?”
“I called you. I don’t know who I can trust. I just have to get to Harper.”
“Got it. Don’t worry, bro. We’ll get her.” His voice lowered, as if he were talking to himself. “And if I don’t get a ticket, it’s going to be a miracle.”
I stayed on the line, waiting for him to show up. As soon as I heard his car, I slammed the phone down and ran out.
“Call Theo,” I said as soon as I’d shut the car door. “He drove Owen up there and Mom never answers her phone.”
“True story.” He made the call and put it on speaker. “Theo, are you at Mom and Dad’s and is Harper there?”
“I’m here, but she left.”
“Where did she go?”
“The bakery. Something about an oven being on. She took Owen with her. Said they’d be back. Where are you? ”
My eyes widened with horror. Harper and Owen were together, and not in the safety of my parents’ house.
I didn’t have to say a word. Luke was already driving, pedal to the metal, heading for town.
“Harper’s in trouble,” Luke said. “I’ve got Garrett. We’re heading to the bakery.”
“In trouble how?”
“I’ll explain later. Just don’t tell Mom.”
Luke ended the call and put his phone in the center console. He glanced at me. “You look terrible. Why aren’t you wearing a shirt? Never mind, are you bleeding?’
“Probably.”
“Did he really lock you in a freezer?”
“Yeah.”
“Holy shit,” he muttered.
“Call Owen.”
He tried Owen’s number. No answer.
I was not going to think about what that meant. “Just drive.”
“On it.”
We raced toward the bakery and I was filled with single-minded determination.
Save them. They were all that mattered.