Sitting in the corner to his right, a twenty-something man with chin-length hair and dazed, bloodshot eyes drew circles in the dirt next to his leg.
“What?”
“I asked if you were okay. You look like you’re about to hurl.”
The guy talked like a surfer who’d smoked enough weed to last him a week.
“I’m good.” Garrett—slowly—got to his feet again. Once he was sure he wouldn’t face-plant, he walked to the door and began assessing the knob.
“It’s no use,” the girl’s dad mumbled. “The lock and hinges are both on the outside.”
The man was right. The building might be old, but the door wasn’t. It was metal and sturdy…and there was no way he’d be able to break it down without an entry ram.
Fuck.
Swinging his gaze to the right, he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the spinning to stop. Damn, he’d have to watch that.
Carefully, Garrett opened his eyes again and studied the rest of the room.
Small, probably twelve-by-twelve. Cinder block walls, dirt floor, and a tiny as fuck window that he could probably pull himself up to, but no way would he or the other two men fit through it.
Goddamnit.“We need to get out of here.”
The father shook his head. “Already told you, there’s no way out.”
Not good enough.
“So wefinda way.”
“You think I haven’t tried?” The distraught man stood. “What, you think I don’t want to get out of here? To find my daughter…my fifteen-year-old daughter who’s going through God knows what?”
“Then help me think of a way out!” Garrett seethed.
He knew he was losing his shit, but damn it…this was Avery. Sweet, caring Avery who’d risked getting shot to save his ass.
No way in hell would he just sit back and let these assholes decide their fate.
Sure, they’d demand a ransom in exchange for their safe return. Probably already had. But Garrett knew better. He’d seen it in their soulless eyes.
The men who’d taken them had no intentions of ever setting them free.
“He already told you, man,” the stoner chimed in. “There’s no way out. We just need to sit back, relax, and let the cards fall where they may.”
“Yeah well, you do that,” Garrett bit out harshly. “In the meantime, I’m getting the fuck out of here.”
“You’re just going to make things worse.”
He turned back to the father. “No, I won’t. Trust me.”
“Trust you? Man, I don’t even know you!” Spit flew from the guy’s mouth as he seethed. “And those men…those monsters took my daughter! What if we do something to piss them off, and they hurt her in retaliation?”
“I understand you’re scared, but—”
“You understand?” The angry man’s face twisted with painful emotions. “How can you possibly understand? They didn’t takeyourdaughter!”
“No, but they took the woman I love!”
Garrett’s declaration echoed off the room’s cement walls.Shit.He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Not to this man, and certainly not before he’d had the chance to tell Avery how he felt.