It took another ten minutes of her ranting and raving before I finally got my hand in place.

I pushed with all my strength.

And nothing happened.

My hand didn't even move a single inch.

"All I wanted was to be a wife to my ex-boyfriend. Then everything was screwed up royally when Brendan went all the way instead of my ex finding him. I'd have gone with it, too, but then my supposed best friend caught us and then told Scooter," Vanessa spat.

Scooter must be the ex-boyfriend. I hadn't heard his name before now.

I still couldn't fathom how this little teenage girl was able to get past the entire room of men, and then drug me.

Why hadn't Cleo come to check on us yet?

The gla.s.s I was pushing against slipped minutely, giving me hope.

"Anyway," she said waving her hand. "I just needed you to know that there were consequences. You should've listened when I had daddy's friend come to scare you. This all would've been avoided, but now I have to prove a point. It'll be ugly. It'll probably hurt, too. But it can't be avoided."

The girl was f.u.c.king cuckoo. What did she think she was going to do with a room full of men on the other side of this wall?

"Anyway, I hate to tell you this, but you're about to burn, baby," she said cheerfully as she pulled a bottle of liquor out of her purse, twisted off the top, took a swig, and then stuffed the ugly pink scarf she wore around her neck down the neck of the bottle.

My heart started to pound.

But she surprised me.

She didn't do what I thought she was going to, which was smash the bottle against the wall once she lit it.

Instead, she walked up to the door, opened it and started walking out.

She stopped, though, looking over her shoulder and smiling widely.

I must've had some sort of expression on my face that resembled pure terror, because she started to laugh once she caught a look at me.

"Oh, by the way," she said. "I sent the guys out to look at my car that conveniently broke down. They are all at the other end of the street."

Then she wiggled what looked like a spark plug at me and winked.

f.u.c.king winked.

"Peace," she said as she walked away, disappearing through the door of my bedroom.

A loud crash sounded from somewhere in the living room area, confirming that the men were not there anymore. If they had been, they wouldn't have let her do that. And they'd be rushing in here right now to see just what had happened to me.

Despair rose thick inside my throat, and I just knew this was it.

I'd never see Cleo again.

I'd never see my grandmother again.

I'd never be a mother.

Or a grandmother.

I wouldn't be anything, because I'd be dead.

As the thick, noxious smoke started to fill the air, I felt horrible for Cleo.

He'd witness his greatest fear.

Losing me.

A fear he'd admitted to on the way home from the courthouse, only hours before.

My eyes closed on their own accord.

The smoke was getting thick.

So thick that I couldn't even get a full breath anymore.

My lungs felt like they were on fire, and as my breath sawed faster and faster in and out of my lungs, I knew it was a matter of moments before I lost consciousness.

The hand that was on the gla.s.s vase slipped down, finally tipping the whole thing over.

The marbles crashed to the floor, scattering everywhere.

However, the roar of the fire burning just outside the room drowned out the sound, doing no good.

My arm flopped to the couch limply, and my face fell further, burying in the crook of the couch, suffocating me even more.

Then there was nothing.

Cleo This is a pretty new car to be breaking down, I thought.

Loki had gone to meet his wife so they didn't have two vehicles here when it was time to leave later.

He'd given Vanessa a withering look as he'd left, saying with his eyes that he didn't trust her.

Then she'd slunk away from him like a beaten kitten as he'd walked by, causing Loki's glare to soften; only minutely, though.

"You think her father beats her?" Torren asked as he puttered underneath the hood of Vanessa's car.

I shook my head. "I don't know, but by the way she cowered from Loki as he pa.s.sed her, I would say probably so. She looked like she was pretty sick, too. Do you think I should've woken Rue up before I sent Vanessa in there?"

Torren shrugged and started twisting something. "Maybe if she were naked, then yes."

I didn't look at what he was doing, however.

It was too dark to see, and my head was already killing me from being on the edge of my seat all day, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I'll go get the truck and we'll pull it to the garage...there's a spark plug missing," Torren said suddenly.

I blinked. "How the f.u.c.k..."

Then a sudden, sick realization hit me. A spark plug didn't just fall out on its own. Sure, it'd loosen, but it wouldn't just be gone unless somebody wanted it gone.

That girl.

Vanessa.

I'd fallen for her poor, pitiful me act; hook, line, and sinker.

I looked at Torren, and Torren looked at me, before we both started sprinting back to the apartment.

We'd left Tunnel there, seeing as he was waiting for his sister to come over.

However, he'd be more vulnerable than most to her act because of his own sister having the same thing done to her only a few short months ago.

My legs ate up the ground for a half mile before we turned the bend and saw smoke billowing out of Rue's apartment.

Fire poured out of the window in the front, so we bypa.s.sed it and ran straight through the narrow path between the Rue's apartment and the one directly next to hers.

Smoke poured out of the seams of the paneling as we rounded the back, thanking G.o.d that the back door and window were free of smoke and fire.

"Follow me," Torren instructed. "Walk where I walk, and don't deviate."

Knowing when I wasn't in my element, I did as instructed, staying on his a.s.s the entire way.

We both saw the lump in the living room at the same time.

Both of us cursed and went straight to Tunnel, Torren dropping down to one knee as I dropped down to both.

Smoke billowed thick and black around us, causing Torren and me to cough.

Tunnel, on the other hand, wasn't coughing.

He was staring straight at the ceiling, not moving even the slightest inch.

He was breathing, thank G.o.d.

Slow, and very labored, but he was breathing.

He wouldn't be for long if we didn't get him out of the smoke.

I looked at Torren, knowing without a doubt that it'd be easier for me to get Tunnel out.

One, because I was larger and would be able to handle him more easily. Two, because he knew what to do, and I didn't. He and I both knew it.

He understood my silent torture, and as I picked up Tunnel and threw him over my shoulder, I left him with my heart.

He nodded a silent creed, and turned towards the smoky hallway, disappearing in a matter of milliseconds thanks to the dense blackness.

The smoke was so thick that it disoriented me.

It took me a few moments to realize where I was at, and I lost a few precious moments that I couldn't afford to lose.

Or, rather, Tunnel couldn't afford to lose.

A roaring sound started to pound in my ears, and I couldn't tell if it was from the fire, or the blood pumping through my veins.

Either way, I started to move faster, feeling along the wall as I went.

My hand brushed pictures off the wall, shattered sconces to the floor, and finally, knocked all the keys off the key hook that hung at the back door.

Heart pounding, I pointed myself towards where I thought that the door might be, only b.u.mping into the frame slightly as I practically fell out of the doorway and into the open air.

I wasn't home free, yet, however.

In fact, it was just as bad, if not worse here since the fire and smoke sought the oxygen of the outside air.

I fell to my knees, coughing and gagging on my own spit as my throat burned like acid.

Then my body started moving on its own volition.

Or what I a.s.sumed was my own volition.

Turns out, it was my two best friends. DP took Tunnel, and Cord took me, carrying me out to the clearing behind Rue's apartment and dropping me down crudely into the deep foliage.

I sat up, choking and coughing as my two best friends worked on Tunnel. My brother.

Cord breathed for Tunnel as DP did chest compressions, while I watched in silent horror.

They worked for so long that two firefighters showed and took over.

Kettle and Sebastian.

They didn't even see who it was at first.