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The main entrance of the warehouse is mostly closed, but I hear movement in the back. Doing the best I can to stay quiet, I slip under the door, trying to stay unnoticed yet move as quickly as I can.
I crawl through filth from the concrete floor, focusing on the dim light from a room ahead. My heart beats harder as the sounds filter in. Crying. She’s crying.
Heat floods through me as I move faster.She’s alive. My Kiersten is alive.The back hangar doors are raised, letting in the harsh, bitter air and the smell of open water.
Suddenly, I hear a choked gasp. “Hold—” It’s then that the room comes into focus. A large space with nothing but freight boxes and them right in the center of a scene stolen from my nightmares. They’re all the way toward the back, the furthest from me as they could possibly be. She struggles in his grasp.
On the other edge of the room, he has her, his arm around her neck and his grip tightening. “You were honest,” he says as he lifts Kiersten off her feet.
Every muscle coils as I run ahead at full speed and without any care of being caught. “Holden!” I scream out, doing everything I can to make him look up. They’re in the back and I’m too far away. “Holden!” My throat scorches as his name tears up it.
He doesn’t. She struggles under him, and as she does, her eyes reach mine, bloodshot as she struggles to breathe.
My Kiersten. My love.
Every ounce of sense shatters. The world slows, and I know right then and there, she’s going to die before I can get to her.
I don’t think, I don’t question myself. Instead, I come to a halt, lifting the pistol in my hand. My heart thumps. It’s a clear shot as he leans back with her in a chokehold.
I aim for his head as her eyes roll back, and my hand trembles, but I squeeze.
One shot.Bang. I miss, and it’s then that he sees me. Second shot.
He jolts back, her limp in his arms. The man staggers, a perfectly round hole in his jaw spilling blood down his throat. His eyes are vacant, and I fire another shot as he stumbles, still barely holding onto her. All the while, I keep moving, knowing full well that the door is wide open and the tide is right there.
As I race toward them, their bodies fall, both of them silent.Thump, thump.
It’s all in slow motion as he and Kiersten go tumbling into the water. Dropping my gun, I sprint over, screaming, “Kiersten!”
Reaching the edge of the water, I see her slip under, a bubble rising to mark where she fell. Ignoring everything else, I dive into the freezing cold water.
The freezing temperature is shocking, and I have no idea if she’s even alive.
It’s too dark to see. Too cold to feel. Terror strikes me to my core.Thump, thump.
His body is found first, his clothing floating in the water ahead of me. I shove past his lifeless corpse to find Kiersten in the murky depths. Seeing a flash of white, I grab and kick for the surface, bringing her with me.
Thump, thump.
I gasp for air and struggle to grip the edge of the dock and pull her up, soaking wet and barely cognizant.
Water drips down from the dock, and under the moonlight, I do everything I can to help her, all the while screaming for Joshua, screaming for help.
Surfacing, I can see the problem. He wrapped a rope around her neck as well. It looks like a bondage device, and something’s still pulled tight. Reaching behind her neck, I grab the rope and pull up, giving her a little bit of slack.
“Gabriel.” Joshua’s voice slices through the fear as I attempt to give Kiersten CPR. Hands on her chest, I breathe into her mouth. Her face is blue, her body still.
“Gabriel!” he screams, grabbing me, and in the dead of night, the sounds of tires and men yelling rings through. He has to rip me away and step in.
“She’s not breathing,” I barely get out.Thump,thump.
The fear of being too late is all that I can focus on as Joshua gives her CPR and then men hustle through the rundown warehouse.
We were too late. We were only a moment too late.
KIERSTEN
“How is she, Doctor?”
