Page 69 of Wicked Deceit
My knees buckle beneath me, unable to hold my weight any longer. Sweat pours down my face and chest, burning the singed skin on my body. It all burns and aches with every move I make. I want to cry out. I want to move and call for more help, but I’m frozen, staring up at the thick flames, eating everything like a hungry monster. A second later, I wouldn’t be here. A second later, I’d be burned. A second later—
“Chase!” someone shouts from afar, but the flames eat their voice, too. It’s muffled, consumed by the constant snapping sound of the wood buckling under the blaze.
But I can’t. I can’t stop my heart from splintering in two. I can’t stop the vomit churning or the pain searing my body. I burn. I ache. But fuck my skin, it’ll heal. If we don’t find her, she’ll die. She’ll die. She’ll die. She’ll die! SHIT!
“They took her,” I mutter, voice thick and low.
“No,” Seger croaks, dropping to his knees. The wild, desperate look in his eyes examines me, looking me over from head to toe, taking in every burn and scrape. But he can’t see on the inside. He can’t see the pain eating me alive.
“I looked everywhere,” I whisper again, shaking my head. “She wasn’t there. They took her,” I repeat.
His hand rests on my cheeks, thumbs swiping at the angry red skin blistering. Tears erupt from his eyes, boiling over the edge and dropping to his chin. He shakes his head in disbelief.
“No,” he whispers. “Please,” he says again, grabbing harder onto my face. I flinch at the pain erupting from his touch.
But I deserve it. I let her go and did this to her. If we hadn’t separated, this wouldn't have happened. If I had protected her better, then she would still be here. If Kaycee dies, it’s my fault. They should stay away from me. I’m nothing but an anchor dragging them down to the ocean's depths. Soon they’ll be drowning like I am.
“He needs an ambulance,” Zepp whispers, voice dipping low. He’s trying hard to be the calm one. But he’s losing his battle, too.
Our eyes never leave the flames dancing in the night sky.
“You can’t blame yourself, you fucking hear me?” Seger says, bringing my eyes to his.
The flames in his eyes match the fire from the sky. He is monstrous, ready to destroy whatever he has to, to avenge his girl. Like a match, he sparks me, too.
“What happened?” Zepp asks, dropping down into the wet grass. “Chase? Tell me, please.” His assessing eyes check me over, too. He covers his mouth, shaking his head.
I explain everything—the phone call—the look on Kaycee’s face when she tried to play it off—and finally, getting hit on the head by a giggling asshole and being out for what felt like hours.
“We won’t settle until she’s back in our arms,” Zepp says in an eerily calm voice, clenching his fist so tight, I swear he’s going to puncture his skin.
“They fucking planned this!” Seger shouts, throwing his fist into the hard ground with a grunt of pain. “Dad was fucking fine when we went home. There wasn’t an emergency, they were just trying to get us to leave, and they fucking won!” He growls the last part, punching the ground repeatedly until blood seeps from his knuckles.
“Now we are coming for them,” Zepp says, staring at the fire roaring through the sky. “We need to call 911.” Seger nods, digs out his phone and makes the call explaining about the fire and our missing girlfriend.
Zepp shifts his hand into his pocket, pulling out his phone. I watch from the ground as his brows furrow and then widen in horror. Seger shifts next to me, plopping down into the grass. His hands work through his hair with tension filling every muscle in his body.
“They’re supposed to be coming to put the fire out. I told them about Kace. I told them everything,” Seger mutters, sounding utterly defeated.
Zepp’s eyes blink rapidly at his phone and the fire.
“Holy fuck,” Seger says, staring down at his phone.
Fuck I don’t even know where my phone went. I run my aching hand down over my gym shorts and find nothing until I hit a piece of paper that wasn’t there before I was knocked out cold. I grunt, crying out in pain when I unfold the paper and hold it in the air. When I read the barely legible words scrawled across the page, all the air leaves my lungs. Tears fill my eyes as I lay helplessly on the lawn, half-burnt to a crisp like a fucking marshmallow. Pain erupts everywhere, setting my nerves on fire. All I want is something to cool this burn off, but I won’t rest until we find Kaycee and bring her back to us.
Zeppelin looks up with more determination than I’ve ever seen before in his eyes. “We have a plan,” is all he says, helping me to my aching feet.
“We have a fucking plan,” Seger rasps to confirm some phantom plan I’m in the dark about. All I know is what the note says:
I’ll fucking save her. Save yourself.
I grunt, biting my tongue when pain encompasses my entire left side. Seger mutters how sorry he is under his breath when he helps me to my feet with Zepp on the other side. Together, they drag me out of the maze, pulling me to the beginning. The fire rages on, burning a piece of history down to the ground. By the time help arrives, our Maze House will be no more.
“Oh my god!” Ainsley cries, dropping to her knees in front of me. “Are you okay?” She chokes out, looking me up and down. “I saw the fire from my apartment!”
“Stay with him, Ains. Right the fuck here,” Seger says through clenched teeth, pointing toward the hedges.
“Okay,” she whispers, sitting beside me. “Ambulance?” Her fingers tremble when she takes in the extent of my injuries.
