Page 49 of Friend
Chapter Eleven
Exposed
My legs ached, and it felt like I was running through sand. Kiania appeared at my side just as I was about to touch the doors.
I didn’t even have to instruct her to go ahead. She vanished as I pulled them open.
They were there, impossible to miss, even in the dark.
Burning fury choked me, exploding from my chest in a shout. “Collins!”
The wolf was holding her over the edge of the deeper end of the pool, and I didn’t have to be close to see that she was terrified.
I was going to kill him.
Adrian’s already clammy skin grew paler, and as he jumped at the sound of my voice, his precarious hold on Bianca slipped only one second before Kiania was on him. I watched, heart in my throat, as she fell backward into the water.
I ran forward, noting that she never even briefly surfaced, and once I reached the edge of the pool, I could make out her hazy, struggling form sinking further into the depths.
Biancacouldswim—albeit badly—so why wasn’t she?
There was a commotion to my right, but I ignored it, diving into the water without hesitation. Kiania was more than capable of handling a wolf.
She was floating above the concrete bottom, her toes brushing against the white floor and her hair a cloud around her. I reached for her, and as my hand closed around her arm, I noticed her wrists were tied.
Which was probably why she hadn’t been able to even try to swim.
He’dtiedher up.
Rage electrified my nerves—what the hell was he thinking?
I pulled her to me, wrapping my arm around her back, and kicked from the bottom. She was already unconscious, and even my lungs were burning. I had to get us out of the deep waters as quickly as possible.
What if I hadn’t made it in time? What if it was already too late?
I didn’t want to think about it.
Then we broke the surface, and I sucked in a breath, before turning to the side ladder. It was incredibly difficult to swim when someone’s unconscious form weighed against you, but I had no choice. She hadn’t woken up, and was, presumably, not breathing. Her face rested against my shoulder, and it was close enough to notice the lack of any breath against my neck.
Not breathing.
Memories of another time I’d caught her, unconscious and seemingly dead, caused the fear racing through me to grow to an almost unspeakable level.
‘Finn!’ Kiania’s voice was a warning in the back of my thoughts, and I shook off my panic.
I could only focus on one thing at a time.
Bianca was a dead weight against me as I pulled us over the ladder. Once on solid ground, I crawled to my knees, holding her against me. Then, without a moment to lose, I laid her on the hard floor.
My heart sunk as I took her in.
“Bianca!” I touched her face, but her closed eyelids did not even flutter. Her head dropped to the side.
“Oh no…”
She was still alive—but not breathing. How could I have been so careless?
We’d all been forced to learn CPR in class, and the movements came naturally, robotically. It was a rhythm of trying to clear her lungs, breathing life back into her, and checking on her current condition.
