Page 67 of Pushed
Chapter Seventeen
Imperial
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Ah. . . Shit.
Pinching the tip of my finger, I plucked out a thick splinter that had planted itself deep into my skin. I was trying to feel for any weakness in the board that was secured over the window. Sliding my hands around the edges, I pushed them in and swept them around, but it wasn't loose, it didn't wiggle or budge an inch.
I thought I had finally felt a tiny fracture in the wood, something I might have been able to get a decent hold on so I could break it apart.
Tugging hard, I placed one foot on the wall and started to pull and used all my weight as leverage. But all I ended up doing was falling on my ass and getting stabbed by an angry thorn in the process.
Lifting my head, I glanced over my shoulder, waiting to hear the handle jiggle or the locks spring free. There was still just silence.
Machi hadn't come yet today, he hadn't come the day before either. No one had come at all. Which was odd, he was normally at my bedside before I even had time to pick my head up off the pillow.
Where the hell is he?
Not seeing him made me uneasy, it sent my nerves into a torrent of worry and fear. But I waited patiently, sitting on the edge of the bed with my hands in my lap.
He's fine, I'm sure he's fine.I tried to convince myself that he had probably gotten tied up in this place, that maybe he had gone out to collect the women he had talked about during breakfast with those men.
But when I got up this morning and he still wasn't here, it made me question how safe I actually was. Machi had been clear about one thing, with him I was protected. Without him I was a meager crumb, a lone woman among the wolves.
I refused to let my mind get the best of me, twisting images of torture into vast expanses of fears I couldn't control. So I tucked it inside, forcing all those ideas into a small ball and locking them away.
And I waited, wishing for that handle to turn. He never came.
The birds had come and gone, the sounds of high and low tide had made their mark on the rocks outside the hotel walls. But there was no Machi.
Shaking my hand, I could feel my pulse beat against the pad of my finger as a bubble of blood seeped to the surface. Placing it in my mouth, I sucked it clean, allowing the taste of iron to slip over the back of my throat.
Where the hell is he?
What if. . . What if something happened to him?
The idea made my stomach churn, it forced my muscles to tremble and come undone, as if the earth had somehow opened up and swallowed me, gifting me to the clutches of hell.
He was my way out, he had promised me. ..
Promises he might not be able to give anymore. So what are you going to do?
If he was gone, if this world had taken him from me, then all I had left was one person. . . Me.
I felt heavy and fragile as the walls closed in, threatening to smother me where I sat, burying me head deep in sand and leaving me there to suffocate until the lights went out forever.
It doesn't matter, none of it matters. I'm getting out, even if I have to claw my way to the surface.
Taking in a deep breath, I tore a small piece of lace off the trim of my panties and wrapped it around my finger. Pushing off the floor, I stood up, resting my hands on my hips and angling my head to stare at the giant bar holding me prisoner.
Screw after screw after screw was all I could see. The small metal pins were tightly locked in place, smiling down on me with an evil smirk.
Gripping the side of the wood, I dug my fingertips in, barely holding on. Resting my palms flat, I pulled. Throwing my body back, I bent my knees and yanked as hard as I could.
The tip of one nail broke, splintering down the center and sending a sharp pain through my hand. Huffing loudly, I threw my hands in the air and glared at the window.
They might as well have used cement to lock me inside, because there was no way I was strong enough to pull it free.
