Page 138 of Out on a Limb
Alan looked from side to side as it happened again.
He was turning to run as the door broke free, dropping to the floor of the garage.
Alan made the mistake of looking over his shoulder, trying to assess the threat he never saw coming.
It was a mistake he would regret once he woke up.
Because the second Andrew’s fist connected with his jaw he dropped like a fly.
An unconscious fly.
With a broken nose.
A future rap sheet.
And maybe an STD.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Andrew
“WELL—” GRANT CAME into the garage right after me. He leaned over my shoulder to look down at where Alan was sprawled across the floor. “I guess that works too.”
I’d abandoned plan A the second I heard Alan’s voice. “You owed me one.”
I went straight to where Collette was sitting and dropped to my knees in front of her, cradling her face in my hands. “Are you okay?”
She nodded as I wrapped both arms around her, holding her as close as I could manage. “What happened?”
She tucked her head into my shoulder but didn’t say anything.
And her silence twisted the panic buried in my gut.
“What did he do to you?” He hadn’t had her long, but I’d witnessed Alan’s lack of stamina firsthand.
I leaned back, running my hands down her arms as I looked for any signs of what she’d been through. “Talk to me, Pickles. Tell me what happened.”
Her lips pursed and for a second I thought she was refusing to speak.
Then I noticed she was working her jaw.
A second later something peeked out from between her lips.
She shoved it the rest of the way out, holding the end of the key between her teeth as she smiled at me.
I took it from her. “I’m glad we washed that.”
She snorted then started to cackle, the way she did when she genuinely thought I was funny.
“You can untie her you know.” Julia stomped her way into the garage, bumping past me as she went to work Collette free from the chair.
“Maybe I like being tied up.” Collette leaned to look around me at where Alan laid on the cement of his garage floor. “Not so much by him, though.”
“Is he who tied you up, dear?”
I turned to find Grant’s mother standing behind me, Michael close at her side.
Collette shook her head. “There were two other guys. They were the ones who took me.”
