Page 75 of Keeping Penny

Amazingly, on his second step, he could feel Bowie doing her best to brace him. She was a tiny thing, had been fucking kidnapped, yet she was doing what she could to help him walk.

Pyro was humbled, and his determination to get them out of this tripled.

It was slow going, and Pyro continued to scope out the area as they made their way toward the house. The men behind him talked in low voices, but Pyro’s ears were ringing and pain was making it hard to hear anything other than the pounding of his own heart.

They finally made it into the house, and the man with the bat pushed past him toward a door in the wall. He pushed a button, and the familiar ding of an elevator sounded almost loud in the empty foyer.

“Only the best for the two of you,” the man joked, then shoved Pyro again, making him and Bowie stumble and practically fall into the elevator.

“Fancy rental houses with elevators are all the rage,” he snorted, as he hit the B button on the console.

Pyro didn’t speak. He was actually more than grateful for the fucking elevator, because there was no way he could’ve gone up or down even one damn step.

The door opened to a completely different space than they’d just left. It was definitely a stereotypical basement—dark, damp, and complete with the smell of mold. The concrete floor was cracked in places and there were a few boxes here and there, but it was otherwise empty.

Bat Guy grabbed hold of Pyro’s upper arm and marched him to a chair that sat near the back of the room. He threw him into it, making Pyro’s vision go dark for a moment.

That was long enough for the man to pull out a pair of handcuffs. He wrenched Pyro’s hands behind his back, shoved them between different slats in the chair, and shackled them together. Then he tied his legs to the chair as well, pulling the rope tight. The rope digging into his broken shin made Pyro gasp with pain, but he fought against passing out, just barely succeeding.

Bowie was still clinging to Pyro’s side as best she could as he was restrained.

When the man’s gaze swung to her, Pyro channeled the pain coursing through his body and let a few tears flow. “Please, there’s no need to tie me up. I need a doctor! Don’t leave me here!”

As he suspected, his kidnappers enjoyed seeing him so broken.

They merely laughed, told him to behave, then said they’d see him in the morning before heading back to the elevator. The relief he felt that they hadn’t also tied up Bowie was immense.

“Don’t even think about trying to use the elevator to get out of here,” the car driver warned. “Even if you could get out of that chair, it wouldn’t do you any good. We’re gonna shut off the power to the elevator as soon as we’re back upstairs. You and Helen Keller can stay down here and be glad we didn’t leave you to sleep in the trunk.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Pyro immediately said, pretending to be grateful to the assholes.

“Sleep well. Tomorrow’s a new day!” Bat Guy crowed.

“Yup. The day we get rich,” his buddy muttered with a laugh.

Then they were gone.

Pyro immediately stopped crying and his shoulders relaxed a fraction. He and Bowie were still in deep shit, but he’d much prefer being alone to having to fend off whatever their kidnappers might do.

“Kylo-Pyro? Are you okay?” Bowie whispered. Her hand came up to his face, and she tried to wipe away his tears.

“I’m good, Bowie-Bear. You did great.”

“I did what you said. Pretended I wasn’t scared. But I really am. It’s cold and it smells down here.”

“I know. But we’re together, and we’re going to be okay.”

He had no idea if what he was saying was true, but he’d be damned if he said anything to scare Bowie more than she was already.

“Who’s Helen Keller?”

Pyro blinked, completely surprised by the question. He searched his mind for what he knew about the woman. “She was a deaf and blind woman, the first person with her disabilities to earn a bachelor’s degree in the United States. She wrote a lot of books, and she worked really hard to make life better for people who were deaf and blind, and had other disabilities.”

“Oh. Why did the man call me that? I’m blind, not deaf.”

Pyro took a deep breath. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, all derogatory about the fucker who’d just left, but he did his best to stay calm. “He was trying to be mean. He obviously doesn’t have a lot of respect for the woman who managed to do such great things while not being able to see or hear.”

He could see Bowie thinking about that. Then she said, “I can’t imagine how hard that would be. My hearing really helps me.”