Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“It’s okay.” I intake pained breaths. “You’re okay.”
He touches my hand that curves around his chest. “Phoebe.” He sounds like a child. Like he’s stretching toward comfort, and I wish it were more than just me. I wish he had her.
“Where’s my phone?” Rocky asks me in a ragged pant. Sweat glistens on his bare abs and drips down his forehead. “We need to call Nova.”
“I already texted him and Trevor.” I unpocket the burner phone and see a new message. “Nova is on his way. No response from Trevor yet.”
“We have to get something to break the door down,” Jake says. “There’s a shed another half mile south with tools. I can get there and back in under ten minutes—”
“Go,” Rocky says, and Jake is off. He takes the flashlight with him. Setting us in darkness.
Then Rocky yells over the growling wind, “Hailey! Listen to me! You need to open the door!”
“No, no, no!” she cries. “STOP! STOP!”
I can’t catch my breath.
Jake, hurry.
“HAILEY, FOCUS!” Rocky shouts from the depths of his lungs.
“I can’t! Stop! Please stop.” Her panicky voice is a jackhammer to my skull. I imagine someone holding her down. Caging her. Threatening her. Worse…worse.
Oliver picks himself to his feet, and I follow suit. He goes to Rocky angrily. “What are you doing? I told you, someone is in there with her.”
“Have you heard another voice?” Rocky interrupts.
“What?” Oliver’s frown turns into a scowl.
“Did you hear someone else with her, Oliver?” Rocky asks hurriedly. “Did you ever actually see someone else?”
Oliver runs a hand through his thick hair. “No but—”
Rocky rotates back to the storm shelter. “HAILEY! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!”
My eyes are flaming, burning suns.
“Rocky, she’s crying and terrified!” Oliver screams. “She said someone is locked in there with her! She told me that!!” He grabs Rocky’s shoulder to pull him away from the shelter.
Rocky shakes off my brother.
My stomach is a knotted mess. We shouldn’t be fighting each other. “Rocky.” I catch his attention. “Hailey would’ve already opened the door if she were alone.”
“Would she?” Rocky looks between us in disbelief. “She’s losing her fucking mind!”
Eerie silence grows on the other side.
I step closer to the door. “Hailey,” I say, pressing my hand to the steel. “Are you okay in there? Hailey?”
“He’s here. He’s here,” Hailey chokes out, fear lancing her voice. “Olly.”
I whip my head to the guys. “She says he’s here. Someone is with her.”
Rocky is disbelieving. “No one has said a thing but her, Phebs.”
“He’s being quiet. He’s playing with us! And what does it even matter, Rocky?!”
“She can open the door.” He presses a hand to my cheek. “She can open the door.”
Belief.
I’ve questioned what I believe more these past months than I have my whole life, and it comes down to this.
I believe in our love. I believe in the love that’s high voltage, the love that raises dead towns. The love that keeps you running when you’re on empty. The love that falls down with you—just so it can be there to drag you back up. I believe in love that has no room for failure because all it knows how to do is survive.
I believe in our love—the love of six people who only had each other to trust and lean on.
All I know is our love.
Oliver’s bloodied hands fly to the top of his head, then he waves heatedly at the shelter. “Rocky, I’m telling you, she’d open the door for me.” His eyes glass as he touches his chest. “She’d open it for me.” His voice cracks on the last word.
Rocky approaches him and puts a hand to his cheek now. “She might not know it’s you.”
That pummels Oliver. Almost breaks him. He staggers back as if oxygen was stolen right out of his lungs.
Nova comes sprinting out of the darkness. A black utility backpack strapped to his strict shoulders. He has a shotgun in his hand. Jake is running from the other side with welding equipment. A plasma cutter, I think.
We all take a collective breath as they converge, reaching us at the same time.
“Jake’s going to cut through the door,” I tell Nova, filling him in quickly as he drops his backpack and unzips it.
Jake places the welding equipment beside the storm shelter door.
Nova hands me a Glock, and I check the chamber. Then he gives a similar gun to Rocky. “Ol?” Nova tries to capture Oliver’s attention, but he’s out of it.
“She’s been calling his name,” I tell Nova, and pain bleeds through his eyes as he studies Oliver again. It hurts—seeing our brother in this state. Hearing Hailey being…
I swallow nausea. It’s all just anguish and fury.
Jake’s gaze stays on Oliver in concern for a long beat before he throws the flashlight to Rocky. “Has she said anything else?”
I answer, “He’s here. She said someone is with her.”