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And just like that, my brother was gone, also looking for her.
I hit the next floor, meticulously searching. And then next, which was our records floor, which just made me think of her. I checked every closet, every open panel. Anywhere that had space Gwen could squeeze into, I searched. Someone had grabbed her.
She couldn’t have been taken out of the building. Rowan had already checked the exits. She was still on the premises, which meant someone was holding her somewhere.
As I searched, trying not to alarm my employees, my stomach churned. I had fucking lost her. I did not deserve her. It wasn't until I had searched my ten floors that Pierce's voice came over the walkie-talkie. "So far, we haven't found her. I searched through all the footage from the last hour, and she didn't leave the building. We need to put the building on lockdown."
My response was swift. "Lock it all down. No one gets out of this building. If someone has her, we're going to rip him to shreds. I'm getting my wife back today."
28
Gwen
My wrists were raw. How the hell was I going to get out of here?
Who the hell took me?
I tried to focus on anything that I remembered about the idiot who'd taken me as I tried to push myself to my feet. But all I’d heard were steps behind me. No voice, no nothing. My saving grace was that I was still in the Pendragon building. No one had come to take me out of the building, and we hadn't gone all the way downstairs. The bag over my head had served as more of a surprise tactic than a transportation tactic. So all I needed to do was get out of this damn utility closet before they came back for me.
I wasn't getting much sensory input in the dark, but I needed to figure out an escape plan.
Think Gwen, think.
I knew my restraints weren't cuffs because there was no clanging, and plastic cuffs would have broken a lot easier by now with all my shifting, so it was definitely zip ties. But I had been left a little room to wiggle my wrists around.
What if they weren't trying to kill me, but scare me instead? It was a big mistake, because all they'd managed to do was piss me the fuck off.
On your feet.
I kicked off my boots, trying not to think about whatever the hell I was going to contract from the floor of whatever the hell closet I was in, and the cold concrete on my feet made me shiver. But slowly, I pushed to my feet, trying not to hyperextend my shoulders too much. I would need them in functioning order in just a second.
I managed to bend one knee and get it under the other and then pushed my weight forward as I shoved to my feet. Okay, I was standing. That was a success. My head still swam from whatever the hell I'd been given. Was that chloroform? Had I been injected? I was fighting for moments of awareness. I had to get clearheaded. I was in the building. Atticus would find me.
Atticus, God. He would be so terrified. And completely impossible to live with, because he would no longer let me out of his sight.
Which is fair.
I tested the pole I was against. It was a skinny pole. Probably some kind of water line?
Unfortunately, my hands had been secured behind my back, so no relatively easy zip tie escape. Morgan and I were into true crime and spent many hours watching videos on how to escape zip ties even though we would likely never be in that situation.
Never say never.
I had a little room, but not much. My brain tried to work out all the ways I knew of getting zip ties off. I tried raising my hands behind me, and bringing the force down behind the pole. I tried and tried, but my shoulders started to scream.
Come on, Atticus. Come for me.
And God, I hoped he'd fucking come for me before whoever had shoved me in here came back. What was the plan though? How did they plan to get me out of here? They were probably going to wait until the whole building was empty and then take me out through the service elevator or something. Somewhere there was a blind spot.
I winced again as I attempted to break myself lose, my shoulders screeching in pain. Fucking hell, this was going to require physical therapy again. I just knew it was. but I needed to free myself, regardless of the physical damage it might cause.
Something clanged behind me, and I frowned and then remembered they'd tied something around my mouth after they reapplied the duct tape. What was that? I just needed to get it off my damn mouth.
I tried to twerk my body to reach the knot at my neck. With a series of pulls and tugs, I was able to unravel the knot.
Breathing heavily, I worked one end of the tie around the zip tie at my wrist. I wrapped it around, shoving my fingers, pulling and tugging, until I had it done once. And then I prayed to God I remembered how to do this correctly after only watching the YouTube video once.
I worked the other end of the tie and looped it around my other hand. With both hands together, I looped it back around. The next part would be the impossible part. On my tippy-toes, I raised my heels against the back of the pole and then pulled the tie and zip tie as taught as possible against my back. Dragging in several deep breaths, I tried to visualize myself, full weight forward. Visualize my hand coming loose. I bent all the way forward, bringing the zip tie taught against the pole as I tried to bring my face all the way down to my toes.
