Page 70 of Juniper Unraveling

He draws back for another punch.

“I’m pregnant!” The words come out on a sob, and he pauses, mid-swing.

“What did you say?”

“I’m … pregnant.”

The dark shadow behind his eyes terrifies me, and when his lips peel back, a twinge of panic climbs my spine.

He shakes his head and drags me off of the cart. Cold concrete hits my thighs as I tumble to the floor, and my shirt bunches up around my neck, my feet slipping along the cement, while he hauls me through the doors. Intense heat blasts across my skin, and I kick and scream, scratching at his arm.

“No! No!” Rough concrete scrapes my heels as I dig them into the floor, while the heat of the ovens flares hotter still. “Stop!”

The glow of the flame through a small box window on the door flickers a warning that urges me to fight. Fight him while I can.

I swing my arm out, hammering my fist as hard as I can into his calf, until he stops and jerks me violently, still clutching the back of my shirt.

The creak of the door opening sends out another wave of heat, and Ivan tugs me to my feet. “You won’t be the first burned alive.”

Hot pulses of heat singe my back, as he holds me in front of the ovens.

“I would have kept you alive, if only to stick my dick in you for a while. But I don’t fuck the diseased. They would’ve killed you, anyway.”

Shadows shift behind Ivan, and in the next breath, he releases me and his body falls to a slump. Behind him, Mike stands holding a shovel, his eyes wide and brimming with panic.

“I … I couldn’t let him hurt you. Go, Danny. Get out of here!”

Through a shield of tears, I nod, giving his hand a squeeze as I pass him. I race back through the basement, to the elevators, my pulse counting down the seconds as I wait for the doors to open, and when they finally do, I rush inside and back myself as far against the wall as I can. My whole body is shaking, a line of terror branching out like frost along my spine. The rush of adrenaline that slams through my veins stamps out the ache between my thighs.

When the doors finally open to the surgical suite, I dart across the open space to the doors of the anteroom, where I crash through and keep on to Doctor Falkenrath’s office.

He’s sitting at his desk, when I throw the door open and fall to my knees to catch my breath.

“Dani!”

Palms to the floor, I drag in as much air as my locked lungs will allow in all of my tight-ribbed panic.

“They’re … Ivan … he’s going to … kill me.”

“Slow down.” Falkenrath’s arms squeeze my shoulders, as he urges me to stand and helps me to a chair. “What’s going on?”

“Ivan … tried to. He … was going to … in the incinerator.”

His thumb brushes over a tender spot on my cheek, and I flinch at the pain. “Ivan did this.”

Shame gnaws at my stomach, and I can’t bring myself to meet his gaze, so I nod.

“Then, we’ve little time. Come with me.”

His hand slides into my periphery, and I reach out for it, allowing him to pull me up out of the seat. He leads me into the laboratory and points to the same stool I sat in for the pregnancy test.

Glass rattles as he throws back the door of the small refrigerator, where we store the vaccines, and lifts one of the mysterious objects shaped like a gun. For weeks, I’ve studied it, trying to decide its purpose, and here he was approaching me with it, as if to use it on me.

“It’s easier if you talk. Distract yourself while we do this.”

“Do what?”

His brows furrow as he tears away the plastic from the gun. “You must trust me, Dani. No matter what.”