I yanked, and the paneling cracked.Hope filled my chest.
I pulled harder, revealing wiring.
“Stop,” Kyla snapped, stepping forward.
I didn’t stop.I grabbed the wires.I knew enough about home renovations and electrical that tugging on these wouldn’t electrocute me.I pulled as hard as I could, causing the plastic coating on the wires to stretch and snap.
The sauna died in a violent blink.
The roar of heat cut out like a severed scream.
For half a second, there was nothing.
Then: silence.
Then: distant shouting.
Kyla froze.Her eyes flicked past me—toward the roadway we’d cleared.Tire tracks in the dirt and flattened grass.To the place where Lennox and I parked to stargaze and make love.
Someone was there.Someone was coming.
I started to scream and bang on the side of the sauna.“Help!Help me!Kyla has me locked in the sauna!”Even though I’d cut the power, it was still deadly hot inside, and every gulp of air, every syllable hollered was like fresh embers down my throat and through my lungs.“Lennox!I’m over here!Help!”
For privacy purposes, they had positioned the saunas to face the trees rather than the rest of the property, so all I could see was Kyla’s expression.
The roar of a vehicle engine echoed through the thin cedar walls, and Kyla’s face turned ashen.At the same time, Jagger, Clint, and Raina emerged through the trees since the McEvoys’ property was on the other side of the woods.
For the first time since I’d woken up—
Kyla looked afraid.
“Kyla!”Raina shouted, which just prompted my captor to take off running in the direction of the beach.“Stop!”
Clint and Raina chased after her.
Jagger limped toward me.“Hang on, Nay.I’ll get you out.It’s going to be okay.”
Lennox appeared, terror carved into every line of his face.His eyes found me—locked on—and everything else fell away.
Alive.
He saw it.
I was alive.
Relief shattered something in his expression—and then it hardened into pure, lethal focus.
He didn’t hesitate.
Didn’t slow.
He reached the door and drove his foot into it.
Once.
Twice—
The latch gave with a crack.
