Gage suppressed a groan, barely repressing the urge to shove Fiona back down. But he could never do that. He could never do anything that might hurt her, even in the name of saving her life. It was too important for Fiona to have control over her body. Gage couldn’t tell her what to do with it, not even now.
“On three,” Gage instructed her in a low whisper, gesturing towards the door. “One, two…”
“Three!” Fiona cried out, and they both slammed their bodies against the door at the same time, knocking it off its hinges and sending it clattering inside the wooden house.
There was a young man with short, cropped hair and wide, terrified eyes clutching a shotgun in his trembling hands.
Before Gage could do anything, Fiona ran forward and grabbed the gun out of Josh’s fingers, turning it around and pointing it at him until he sat down on the ground with his arms up.
“What have you done with her?” Fiona asked between pants for air. Gage didn’t know what to do. He felt frozen to the spot, shocked into place by the sight of Fiona in full fury mode.
“Who? What?” Josh asked, and even from a few feet away, Gage could see him shaking, trembling like a little boy under the gun that Fiona was now waving in his face.
“Tori! Tori Greenwood! What have you done with her?” Fiona shouted, shoving the tip of the gun into Josh’s chest. The boy winced and whimpered, turning his head to stare at Gage, an unspoken plea in his eyes. But Gage wasn’t in a very charitable mood. He let Fiona keep going.
“Tori. Greenwood. Where the fuck is she?” Fiona repeated herself, her mouth screwed up into the most terrifying scowl that Gage had ever seen on her face. Maybe he’d never really seen her mad before, as this was a sight to behold, something more frightening than any argument they’d ever had.
“T-Tori?” Josh stuttered in response. “The girl at the mall? I just met her a few times. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, yeah, sure, like I’m going to believe that,” Tori muttered, sticking the tip of the gun harder into the front of the kid’s shirt. “Gage, search the house,” she said a minute later, still gripping the gun so hard her veins stood out from the rest of her hands and arms, her blood obviously working overtime inside her body.
Gage nodded and began to do as instructed, running towards the nearest hallway and opening every door, looking into every closet and under the all beds before rushing to the other side of the house, searching under the rugs, looking for a cellar door. Gage was sure when he began walking down the steps that he was about to find Tori, but there was no sign of life (or death, for that matter) in the basement.
Gage came back to the main room, where Fiona still held the gun, pointed directly at Josh’s heart. “Where is she?” Gage asked, leaning over the boy to stare directly in his eyes, watching his pupils for any sign of deception.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Josh sobbed out, banging the back of his head against the hard surface of the living room floor. “Please, I don’t know what you’re saying. I haven’t seen Tori in weeks, please, please.”
“Why did you shoot at us, then?” Gage demanded, grabbing Josh by the shirt collar and shaking him a little bit.
“I thought—I thought you were here for the drugs. I…I sell stuff,” Josh said, breathing so hard he could barely force the words out. “It’s in the kitchen, in the cabinet on the left side, you can take it, please, take it, I don’t care, I just…” He trailed off, his face screwing up as he began to weep, his entire body trembling as he sobbed.
“Search the house again,” Fiona said, but Gage could see that her grip on the gun had become looser. She pulled the tip of the gun away from Josh’s body, letting it hang suspended in midair between them.
Gage was tempted to argue with her. He already knew that Tori wasn’t in the house, but he could tell that Fiona meant business, so he set about searching it again, more slowly this time, while Fiona kept watch over the pathetic boy on the floor.
“Nothing,” Gage announced as he finished his second search a few minutes later. “There’s nothing here, Fiona.”
“If I find out that it’s you…” Fiona said, her jaw clenched hard, veins popping out of the side of her pale neck. “If I find out that you’ve hurt those girls, I’ll come back and kill you.” Gage saw Josh nod furiously, clearly terrified of Fiona. “I’m keeping your gun,” she said, finally pulling it away from Josh’s body. “Come on, let’s go.”