The urge to defy his order just to spite him before he could rape and kill me was strong but fleeting. Liam’s voice was stronger.Do whatever it takes to survive, Firefly. Fight with everything you have.
I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. Ignored his penis under me. His hands on me. His cum-covered sock in my mouth. My body being stretched and pulled past its limits.Just breathe.
“Good girl. That’s not how this ends. It ends with a pretty, young librarian who was too curious for her own good. You saw all the workers leave early and decided to come in and explore. Made the tragic choice to try out the angle grinder. It may look small and lightweight, but that saw is way too powerful for a little thing like you, especially with the blade guard broken. It can cut through metal, stone, and bone. By the time anyone findsyour body, it'll be so severely mangled and bloodied, this will all stay our little secret.”
Ignore him. Just breathe.
He was delusional. Liam was coming back. There were cameras and people. It might be too late to save me, but he wouldn’t get away with it.
Then suddenly he was on top of me, and all thought fled my brain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Liam
Goddammit, this was taking too long. I heard sirens in this distance, but they were taking their sweet ass time getting here.
“You’re doing great, Mary. Just stay right there,” I said for the hundredth time.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I grabbed it. I’d already texted and called Jenna, but she hadn’t answered. I knew she never answered her phone when she was with patrons, but I wished she would’ve today.
My gut clenched at the name on the screen. Why the hell was Quint calling?
“Quint?”
“Hey, man. Are you with Jenna?”
Shit. My eyes flew to the library. “No. Why?”
“Addams is a useless ass, so I took it upon myself to read the reports on the rape case, including the victim’s and yours and Jenna’s.”
I grabbed the arm of a woman who’d been watching with morbid interest and pulled her closer. “Talk to her. Keep her calm and don’t let her move!” That would have to be good enough. Whatever Quint had read, I knew it wasn’t good.
I sprinted to the library, my heart in my throat.
“The things the rapist said to the victim… Nothing is definitive, but it fits the profile of him stalking Jenna.”
Motherfucker. And I fucking left her alone. “Tell me.”
“He was furious about another woman. Said that he’d been waiting for her and she’d ignored him, even talked about her being there with another man.”
“It fucking fits.”
“Liam, she called him insane and obsessed. Even after she was just brutally raped, she was worried about the other woman.”
I ran into the library, dodging around people coming out. “Jenna!” I bellowed as I ran into the children’s section. Let her yell at me for being too loud and embarrassing her. I’d love to have a furious Jenna in my arms. As long as she was safe. Why the fuck did I leave her alone? Why the fuck wasn’t she already running over, admonishing me for yelling in the library? “Jenna!”
Jim, the security guard I’d met this morning, hurried out from the back of the library. “Sorry I was gone so long,” he said. “I had to?—”
A loud crash sounded from the construction area, and my heart stopped. I felt it in my gut. It was her.
Where the fuck was that gut instinct when I left her unprotected? When I failed her. I shouldn’t have needed Quint to tell me Jenna was in danger.I’m so sorry, Firefly.
Quint. He was still on the phone, barking for information. “Send police and an ambulance to the library!” I quickly gave him the address and hung up, sprinting through the library.
The door was locked, of course. I wanted to ram through it with all the fear and fury I felt, but I had to be smart. Had to think like a soldier so I wouldn’t put her in greater danger. Would the music playing inside be loud enough to mask the sound of the door frame breaking? I was still assessing the lock when Jim caught up to me.
“Jenna’s in there and she’s in trouble.”