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It did not open.
I gave it a good shove with my shoulder, using momentum that would usually send it hurling, knocking over the wall. It didn’t budge.
Potent, hot panic sliced into me.
The human body wasn’t designed to endure this temperature for longer than nine—maybe ten—minutes.
I’d already reached four.
I walked backwards, gaining momentum, ran toward the door, and delivered a roundhouse kick. Still nothing.
Terror and alarm swirled inside me.
You are going to die without ever seeing Octi again. Good going, doofus.
“Think.” I paced, trying to gather heat. “Think, think, think.”
The door had no locks on it—purposefully so. To ensure no accidents happened.
That meant…
I banged my fist on the door. “Who’s out there?”
Whomever it was, they knew my lair by heart. Had open access to my home.
I pounded my fist, trying to thrash my way through it. “Let me out.”
I would kill whatever sturdy psychopath stood on the other side of this thing. In fact, I racked my brain for any suspects, hoping to at least witness his death in my head before I croaked.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to shortlist the top twenty.
My desperation grew, clawing at my chest.
Five minutes and counting.
I punched the door. “Let.”Kick. “Me.”Shove. “Out!”
Ice crusted my entire body. White-gray fuzz clouded my eyesight. I began to lose clarity when the door finally whined open.
Two fiery hands grabbed me with force, dragging me out of the chamber. My eyes rolled in their sockets. Darkness blanketed my vision as the hands tugged me onto the horizontal shower in my home gym.
Warm water sloshed over my skin as he turned on all six shower heads, shooting water at my back at full blast. I spasmed, my body trying to acclimate to normal temperature again.
Piece by piece, my sight returned, like a camera adjusting into focus.
Oliver sat on the heated lounger, wearing a bright burgundy-and-gold satin robe paired with a shit-eating grin. I launched myself at him at a sluggish pace, but he merely yawned, hopped off the spa chair, and pushed me back with a careless shove.
I couldn’t fight back, my body too weak from being locked in sub-Antarctic temperatures. He wagged his fingers at me.
I punched the marble tile, regretting the idiotic decision immediately. “You psycho.” Little by little, my nerves began to defrost.Just in time for pain to shoot through my knuckles. “I could’ve died.”
“You could’ve.” Oliver leaned in to check the water temp. “And judging by the last three weeks, you wanted to, too. You’ve completely lost your desire to live, Zachary boy. I had to remind you that life is a precious gift. It’s my moral duty as your friend.”
“I’m going to kill you,” I spat out, my body still thawing under a torrent of water, slowly coming alive.
I didn’t remember him undressing me before he threw me under the spray, and yet I was completely naked.
Oliver yawned, visibly unimpressed with my threat. “I hear this on an hourly basis. You love me, and you know it.”
