On Tenterhooks Read Online Free Page B

everywhe re , primping with hairdryers in hand and shouting back and forth to each other about what to wea r for the night’s sorority mixer.
     
    He picked up his pace toward Maggie’s room . The persistent been-here-before feeling inched darkly toward dread as he walked the dormitory hall . It was dead quiet — unheard of on a Friday night.
     
    And why am I even here on a Friday night?
     
    He always picked Maggie up around noon on Saturdays . He’d take her to lunch or a movie, talk about her classes, life in general . But never on a Friday! He knew there had been a perfectly good reason for the change in routine; but he couldn’t put his finger on it now . He reached her room, the last on the left, and knocked on the door.
     
    “ Maggie , honey?” he asked through the door. “It’ s Daddy, sweetie .”
     
    No response. He could see light under the door . He knocked again , softly.
     
    “ Mags ?” he repeated through the door.
     
    He heard rustling . Was someone moving across the carpet? He saw a shadow move under the door, but still no response. He grabbed the handle of the door and turned . Locked.
     
    He pounded the door with his fist.
     
    “ Maggie !” he shouted at the door. “It ’s you r father! Open the door . Mags, w hat’s wrong?”
     
    He heard a faint cry — Maggie’s cry. He cursed. He frisked himself, searching his pockets.
     
    “Damn!” he said. He’d left his cell phone in the car . He turned and pounded on the door across the hall . No response . He considered sprinting back to the stairwell, using the emergency phone to call for help . H e was afraid to leave her. He turned back to her door.
     
    “Maggie, it ’s okay ! ” he shouted. “I’m gonna try to break down the door , honey !   Move away from it if you can!”
     
    The shadow beneath the door shifted. He backed up across the hallway .
     
    “Just like on the cop shows , ” he whispered . He took a giant step forward , and then smashed against the door with his right foot using all the power his six-foot five, two-hundred pound frame could manage. The door rattled against its frame , but didn’t budge . The pain in his leg was a firestorm . He cried out and fell on the plush carpet , with its now-faded plaid rendition of the school colors . He’d broken his ankle ; the knowledge was as certain as the pain. From behind the door , he heard a girl scream.
     
    “No!” he screamed back. “I’m coming , baby! Hold on!”
     
    He pulled himself up using the doorknob . He back ed up again across the hall and g ritted his teeth . He knew it would permanently damage him, but he didn’t care . Maggie was behind that door , and she was in trouble .
     
    “Gonna do it!” He focused his mind on the door . He would break it down . He took a deep breath and held it. Leaning gingerly on his right leg, h e step ped forward on his left leg. At the last moment, he clenched his thigh muscles, pushing all of his force into his shattered right ankle. He connected with the door, directly above the doorknob . He heard the wood shatter at the same time he felt and heard a wet popping sound at his knee. He screamed once again , this time in sheer agony . The pain was a white light of fire racing through his body . H e collapsed in the doorway , as the door itself flew open wide.
     
    Propping himself up on his elbows , struggling to rise above the pain, Martin saw Maggie . Sh e was lying on her bed, face up . Her eyes were sunken and glazed, surrounded with deep circles of purple. Her face was a pale gray. Her hair hung in matted clumps around her face, glistening with sweat.
     
    Standing above her was a thin man in a dark suit. He tipped his black- brimmed hat to Martin with a crooked half - smile. Martin’s first thought was that Maggie had died , and this man was administering priestly last rites.
     
    “No!” he screamed. “ Maggie !”
     
    At the sound of his voice, Maggie blinked , and she focused on him for the