“Theo?!” I called, a deep sense of dread crashing through my instinct to stay quiet.
“I love you, Vivian.”
“Theo, what the fuck is this?!” I could barely recognize my own voice as it grew hoarse and shrill, my throat closing with panic.
“You gave me my humanity back. I can never repay you for that gift.”
“Theo, open this door right the fuck now!” My lips began to tremble as I realized what he was doing. Tears clouded my eyes.
Theo was trapping me here. He was about to leave me to go die alone, defending our home.
“You’re the life to my death, and I need you to keep living, my Little Goddess.”
“Don’t do this,” I whimpered. Pounding my fist on the door. “Let me be with you.”
“Please. Hide.I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too,” I choked, thudding my head against the door and shoving with all my might. “Don’t leave me.” My cheeks became wet quickly without him there to catch my tears.
Silence.
“Theo?”
Silence.
Fear and fury fought for dominance within me. This wasn’t happening. That wasn’t his pathetic attempt at goodbye. This was somesickfucked up joke we would laugh at together over dinner because everything would befine! Theo hadnotjust left me to face all those bullets by himself. I wasn’t helplessly trapped in a cabin waiting for everything to come crashing down around me. There wasn’t an entire organization dead set on ripping us away from each other.
I pushed harder on the door. When that didn’t work, I kicked. Still nothing. I backed up and then charged the stubbornobstacle, my shoulder throbbing with pain when I slammed it into the wood.
I bit my lips to quiet my screams of agony as I continued my effort. What the fuck did he block me in with? How could there be anything in this universe heavy enough to keep me away from Theo in this moment? My love for him was stronger than whatever damned object was on the other side of this door. It had to be!
But it wasn’t. Every collision just guaranteed another bruise.
Stumbling to the kitchen window, I looked between the boards of wood just in time to see my love, my husband, my mate, disappearing through the wheat across the field.
I coughed out a sob and tried to crane my neck to see what was blocking me inside. A wooden corner was visible. My heart sank. He’d put a raised garden bed against the door. There was no way I would be able to move several hundreds of pounds of dirt. I needed another escape option.
I began yanking on the planks fixed across the window.
Theo had secured everything in this cabin too fucking well. My fingertips quickly became raw and bloody as I clawed at the metal nails in the boards.
I wasn’t making any progress. I needed a tool.
Frantically searching through our utensil box, I grabbed a fork. Maybe that would work? I shoved its prongs under the head of a nail, pushing and pulling, until the metal handle bent to a ninety-degree angle.
Okay. Fine.Maybe a knife.
The knife failed me, too. Its blade clumsily slipped around the round peg and threatened to stab me whenever I tried prying it back.
Fuuuuuccccckkkkkkk!
I needed to get out of here! I needed to catch up! Do something!
Running out of options and increasingly panicked, I slammed my fist into the wooden boards. Then my elbow. The planks didn’t budge, but that didn’t stop me from releasing an onslaught of attacks—fists, elbows, my fuckinghead—trying to create any type of a break. How could it be so hard?! Didn’t people do this in martial arts?!
The axe would work.
Chilling realization poured over me. The axe wasn’t in here. It never was. Not since that winter. Theo had just needed to get me inside long enough for him to trap me. I wasn’t meant to have a weapon to help him fight, I was meant to hide. Stay safe.
