Page 113 of Playing With Love

The chair didn’t budge.

I moved to Tucker’s front and gagged.

“Are you okay?” Allyson shouted as she ran down the stairs.

“Stay…there,” I choked out. My nostrils clogged with unshed tears. “Slide the knife over here.”

“Liza—”

“Quick, Ally, he’s hurt.”

Allyson tossed the knife across the room like she was skipping a rock.

“Do you have your phone on you?”

“Yeah,” she answered.

“Take a video or pictures of the printers and stuff. Doesn’t matter which.”

Allyson pulled her phone out as I went for the knife.

“What is all this?”

“Meth lab.”

I cut the rope around Tucker’s hands. His arms fell to his sides.

He made no sound.

No movement.

“What’s that on the floor?”

Allyson didn’t wait for my answer before she started toward the burning printers.

“Don’t get close.”

“It’s a thumb drive,” she said, using her toe to slide it closer to her.

I knew the moment she got a good look at Tucker. I heard her suck in a breath then choke and cough until she was spitting out bile.

“Is he…is he alive?” she stammered.

Tears and smoke stung my eyes. The heat from the fire was getting hotter. But that wasn’t what blistered my heart.

Tucker was…a mess.

Blood covered his face, his neck. His shirt was soaked with it.

So much blood.

Too much.

“Liza! Is he alive?” she screamed.

“I don’t know.”

“Shouldn’t you check?”