Entanglements Read Online Free PDF Page A

range, luckily for her.
    “You’re ridiculous.” I gave a laugh that sounded fake to my ears. Psychic vibes of daggers in Petra’s direction shot from my head.
    “Chill, Kizzy,” she said with seeming obliviousness. “It’s not like he’s not giving you the eye too.”
    My eyes flew to Rom and I was surprised to see him gazing at me. He shrugged with a half smile. Face burning, I turned back to Petra.
    “You need to shut up right now, my friend,” I said.
    “It’s settled.” Senji pulled a rope from his backpack. “I say we’re going to the basement.”
    “Who died and made you the freakin' king?” Chase asked.
    “The last of your working brain cells,” Senji replied.
    “Take it back.” Chase twisted out of Petra’s embrace and charged at Senji, getting up in his face.
    “Huh?” Senji held his ground. “I can’t help it that you’re a moron.”
    “Don’t talk to my honey like that,” Petra shouted.
    As they bickered, I noticed Rom wander out of the room.
    Following him, I entered a hall just as he disappeared into a room at its end. To my right was a staircase going up and down. We could take the stairs to the basement after all.
    I passed through the hall and entered a room empty except for a few metal hospital bed frames without mattresses, and of course Rom at its center. He stood unnaturally still as if expecting something.
    “What are you doing?” I asked.
    Rom started then turned to me with his signature smirk.
    “Exploring.” His soft laugh enveloped me like a cashmere afghan. “Exploring is the point is it not?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Kizzy!” The call from Petra came from the other room. “They’re gonna kill each other.”
    Dashing away from Rom and toward the group, I continued running until I was back in the main room. Senji and Chase wrestled at the center of the wavering beam of the flashlights. A fairly girly wrestling match. From time to time during the struggle, Petra pounded a small fist on Senji’s back.
    “Stop it you two,” I shouted, taking another step toward them. Suddenly, my right foot broke through a plank in the wood flooring. As my leg sank, the broken edges of the wood scraped and bit into the skin, tearing a cut from ankle to shin.
    The pain of the tearing flesh shot through me and I screamed. The girly guy fight stopped and the group rushed toward me. However, Rom reached me from behind first. I felt his hands under my armpits and then he lifted me until I sat on my bum at the edge of the newly made hole.
    Rom carefully pushed up the leg of my jeans. With his flashlight beam, Senji revealed a bleeding gash on my leg about four inches long.
    “That looks bad,” Petra said.
    “It’s just a scrape,” I replied. Yeah. A scrape that hurt like hell. Reflexively, I covered it with my gloved hand, which didn’t stop the bleeding. I’d probably never get the blood out of the fabric.
    “You’ll infect it,” Senji warned, pushing my hand away. After rummaging in his backpack he came out with an alcohol swab and a large square Band-Aid. As he ministered to my leg a sound from beneath us startled me.
    “Did you hear that?” I asked.
    Rom shook his head.
    “No,” Petra said. “I can’t think of anything but your poor leg.”
    There it was again, like hearing a pounding against the metal door of a submarine, twenty thousand leagues under the sea.
    “Now?”
    More shrugging and shaking of heads from my friends.
    “I hear nothing,” Rom insisted. But his sideways glance and something in his expression contradicted his words.
    “You’re lying,” I said. “Why?”
    Rom ignored my words and examined my leg again.
    “An end to our exploration it seems,” he said.
    “Not on my account.” I tried to stand.
    Rom placed one arm under my knees and the other around my back before lifting me easily.
    “Put me down.” Ridiculous shame flashed in me. I wanted to relax against his broad chest instead.
    “Service offered.” He gazed down at me. And as I