Page 55 of Kraken the Seal

“Probably about fifty miles,” another said.

“Naw, we don't need to go that far,” Rick said.

They argued for a little while, giving me hope that I’d have enough time to recover.

Come on, I begged my inner beast while frantically wiggling my big toe.Wake up, our mate needs us!

Nina

They dragged me to the basement and locked me in. There weren't any windows and the only door was reinforced.

The first thing I did was find a piece of sharp brick poking out of a wall. It took a few minutes of frantic rubbing, but I sawed through the binding around my wrist. I’d been right, it was an average zip tie. Once I was free, I went to the door, screaming and banging on it until my hands hurt.

Giving up, I backed up and sat down on the concrete floor. The place was empty except for a sink and a toilet in a far corner. It was clear I wasn't the first person to be locked up in here. Norris and his people were so much worse than I’d first thought.

I fought back tears. My body hurt from the rough treatment earlier, but I didn't care about the pain. I'd been injured much worse in the past. What I couldn't stand was feeling helpless.

Frustration made me want to get up and beat on the door some more. The sound of the front door upstairs banging open made me rush to put my ear to the basement door. I heard panicked voices and then silence.

Hope filled me. Maybe Delmar had woken up and was coming to get me.

When the basement door unlocked, I jumped back, desperate to see Delmar but prepared to fight if it was Norris.

The person who appeared was entirely unexpected.

“Abby?”

“Hurry,” she said, grabbing me and pulling me up the short flight of stairs. “They won't be gone long. We have to leave before they realize there wasn't really a fire.”

I pulled her to a stop at the top of the stairs. “They did something to Delmar. They're going to kill him!”

Abby turned to face me, her expression distressed. “I don't know anything about that. All I know is that they plan to give you to my brother. I can't let them do that, he'll hurt you.”

That's when I saw her black eye. She was also holding one of her arms against her body in a way that told me she was injured.

“What happened?” I asked.

She looked confused, then gave me a tired shake of her head. “Nothing new. Dad is usually better at hiding what he does, but he’s been drinking tonight so he wasn't careful.”

I hissed out a breath. I wanted to rage again, but that would’ve been useless and dangerous.

“Come on, we need to go,” Abby said. “I have one of the colony cars packed and ready to go. I’ll drive you home and then I need to disappear.”

“I can’t leave without Delmar,” I said as we got to the front door.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to help,” she said.

“Tell me—”

I stopped talking when a car screeched to a halt in front of the house. Abby flinched, tears filling her eyes. “No, it’s too late.”

Archer jumped out of the car and rushed up the short walkway, then stumbled to a stop when he saw us standing there. “Nina, you’re uh, you look nice.”

I raised an eyebrow and pushed Abby behind me. “Didn’t you mean to say ‘Nina, what are you doing out of the basement?’”

Archer sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what Dad was planning to do until just a little while ago. Let me get you back to your boat and mate.”

Did he not know what had happened tonight?