AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The jagged edges of the rungs looked like weapons. Still, I didn’t know if it was really Colt up there. What if it was someone else? What if it was…
Cat.
That guttural sound still gripped me, along with the desolate look in his eyes. It had to be Colt. It just had to be. I inhaled deep, trying to still the damn shake in my body, and stepped up, grabbing the sides of the ladder and clenching the small flashlight in my mouth, until a sound stopped me. One so terrifying it made me flinch.
Guttural. Savage. Warning me.
Don’t. Come. Closer.
I lifted my gaze to that sound. This was Colt. This was just Colt.
My boots slipped, but I found purchase where I could and pushed toward the opening in the attic. My hand slipped and pain flared across my palm. I hissed with the sting as I twisted my head to shine the light against my hand.
A sharp sliver of wood stuck out of my palm, allowing blood to well and spill down my wrist. I lifted my head and kept going, using my other hand to grip tighter until, with one more heave up a missing rung on the ladder, my head was inside the attic.
I slammed my lips closed, desperate not to suck in the inch-thick filth, and caught the outline of a hunched figure in the middle of the attic. Fear punched through me, making me freeze.
Someone was there.
Someone was right…there.
My heart hammered. I didn’t dare move. Seconds felt like hours. Inch by inch, I lifted my hand, took the flashlight from my mouth, and aimed the beam against the side of the attic. The place was beyond filthy. Cobwebs clung to the roof, cascading like a spindled blanket. Something scurried in the corner of my eye. I bit the insides of my cheeks to stop from crying out.
Still a sound escaped, low, terrified.
“Don’t,” Colt’s low, throaty warning came. “Don’t come closer. I’m not…me. I’m not me right now.”
He shook his head, fighting his own personal demons.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I whispered, both terrified to have found him and relieved.
“It’s not you I’m worried about.”
That sounded like Colt. Like the one I knew, at least. My thighs burned, my knees trembled, still perched on the ladder which could crumble any moment underneath me. I was trapped, unable to stand here, and yet... I lifted my gaze to the shrouded figure. I didn’t want to frighten him.
“I’m going to step up, okay?” I murmured.
I had to take the chance. I had to…risk everything.
Because that’s just what he would do.
I rose carefully, then stepped out of that hole in the ceiling and onto the thick wooden beam.
Chains rattled. I jerked my gaze toward the sound. Light from the torch spilled over him. There was a shackle in his hand, red and rusted. What the hell…
I aimed the light lower, finding a bolt in the middle of the floor. A heavy chain was piled around it. I followed the links to the shackle in his hand. One too small to be around his neck…one almost big enough to fit around a—
My stomach clenched.
My breath stilled.
Ice plunged all the way into the center of me.
“C-Colt.” My voice trembled as I glanced at the shackle, then at the bolt once more.
“They used to keep me up here.”
My eyes widened. I couldn’t even speak.
