Part 2 (2/2)

Chapter 3

”WHAT DO YOU mean the door won't open?”

In a split second, the smile had disappeared from Abby's face.

Ethan pulled harder on the handle, but the sauna door wouldn't budge. ”It's like it's locked,” he said. Only they both knew there was no lock on the door. ”It must be jammed.”

He pressed his face against the gla.s.s of the little window for a better view.

”Do you see anyone?” Abigail asked.

”No. No one.”

Making a fist, he pounded on the door and shouted, ”Hey, is anyone out there?”

There was no response. Silence. An annoying silence. An eerie silence.

”So much for it being the maid,” said Abby. Then it dawned on her. ”Do you think we're being robbed and they've locked us in here?”

”Maybe,” said Ethan. He couldn't rule it out. Of course, as the son of a billionaire, he was less concerned about being robbed than being locked in a sauna.

”What do we do?” asked Abby. She was starting to get scared. He could see it in her eyes, and that frightened him.

”The first thing we do is turn off the heat,” he answered, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He hit the Off b.u.t.ton on the control panel. He then grabbed the ladle sitting by the lava rocks and held it up to show Abby. ”This is the second thing we do.”

Ethan wedged the ladle's wooden handle into the doorjamb as though it were a crowbar, leaning on it with all his weight.

”It's working!” she said.

The door s.h.i.+fted on its hinges, slowly beginning to move. With a little more muscle Ethan would be able to-snap!

The handle splintered like a matchstick, sending Ethan flying headfirst into the wall. When he turned around, Abby said, ”You're bleeding!”

There was a gash above his right eye, a trickle of red on his cheek. Then a stream. As a doctor, Abby had seen blood in almost every conceivable way and always knew what to do. But this was different. This wasn't her office or a hospital; there were no gauze pads or bandages. She had nothing. And this was Ethan who was bleeding.

”Hey, it's fine,” he said in an effort to rea.s.sure her. ”Everything's going to be okay. We'll figure it out.”

She wasn't convinced. What had been hot and s.e.xy was now just hot. Brutally hot. Every time she breathed in, she could feel the sauna's heat singeing the inside of her lungs.

”Are you sure the sauna's off?” she asked.

Actually, Ethan wasn't sure at all. If anything, the room was beginning to feel hotter. How could that be?

He didn't care. His ace in the hole was the pipe in the corner, the emergency shutoff valve.

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