Page 203 of Stay Scared

The broken restraint comes up beside my face, close enough that I feel the air move.

Cade sees it.

He abandons the window frame and drives his shoulder into it. The remaining glass explodes as metal bends beneath him.

“Cade!”

He hits it again. The frame buckles inward.

Rook looks toward the sound.

I drive my heel down onto his foot. He jerks, and I wrench myself sideways, but his hand catches the back of my jacket. Fabric tightens across my throat.

Ash leaves the controls. He is coming.

Rook swings the steel arm at him. Ash ducks, but the torn metal catches his injured shoulder anyway and sends him into the wall.

At the same time, Cade rips himself through the observation opening.

Blood runs from both palms. His shirt catches on the broken frame and tears before he lands inside the room like he has been fired through it.

Rook turns.

Cade hits him before either of them can speak.

The impact takes both men into the bolted chair. Steel rattles against the floor mounts as Rook swings the broken restraint.

Cade catches it across his forearm. Blood opens immediately, but Cade keeps his hold on Rook.

Ash comes from the other side. Rook kicks him in the ribs hard enough to fold him over the chair, but Ash catches the frame instead of the floor and drives himself upright again.

I have never seen either man this angry. No masks or performances remain to make the violence part of an attraction.

Rook gets Cade by the throat. Cade punches him across the cracked beak while Ash grabs Rook’s weapon arm.

Rook twists, and the jagged end tears across Ash’s sleeve.

Ash slams his wrist into the chair once, then again. The steel arm falls.

Cade kicks it away.

Rook reaches inside his coat.

A knife flashes.

I see it first. “Ash!”

Ash turns as Rook slashes. He jerks back, but the blade still catches him across the chest.

Cade drives Rook sideways. All three men hit the chair.

The old platform shifts beneath them. Something catches.

The chair jerks.

Nobody expects it.

One restraint arm whips outward and catches Rook hard around the middle. Another steel section snaps across his upper body before he can pull away, dragging him sideways against the chair instead of into the seat.