Page 163 of Save Me

“Shut your fucking mouth!” he yells. “Selfish, loud-mouth women like you need to be put in your fucking place. It’s because of you I’ve lost everything,” he screams, like a madman.

“I didn’t do shit to you,” I yell back, not knowing what he’s talking about.

“I had a lot riding on Blackmon’s deal with the Global Group. Because you can’t keep your nose out of business that’s not yours, that deal went up in smoke, and now my business is going with it.”

Despite the pain in my head from his hit, I start to laugh. “You really are a loser and a coward. You want to blame me because you’re a terrible businessman who also partners with terrible businessmen?”

My laugh is just as derisive as his was a few minutes ago. I meet his eyes when I tell him, “Blame me if you want. But deep down, you’ll always know you were the cause of your own downfall.

“And you fucking deserve it. For everything you did to Dae. For what you tried to do to him that day. You deserve everything that’s coming your way.”

That earns me a smack across the face. My ears ring from the pain that vibrates across the other side of my face. The taste of copper pennies fills my mouth.

I spit out the blood onto Park’s shoes.

“How about you undo these fucking ropes and try that again?” I challenge.

His eyes narrow on me.

“Hey, man,” Nicole’s ex says from across the room. “I-I think there’s trouble,” he tells him as he looks out of the blinds of one of the windows.

“Shut up!” Daniel barks at him, not even looking his way. “Now I’m beginning to see what that bastard stalked you for all of those years,” he tells me. “You fight his battles for him.” He snorts. “I knew taking you instead of him was a good move. You’re his weakness. Getting rid of you would hurt him more than anything else I could do to him.”

He pulls out a gun from the back of his pants.

“Daniel, something is happening—”

“I said shut the hell up!” Park screams at Michael. He aims the gun at me. “Any last words you want me to tell Dae for you?” he taunts.

“No, just two for you,” I say, looking him in his eyes despite the thundering of my heartbeat in my ears. “Fuck. You.”

“Bitch,” he curses at the same time he cocks the gun.

I close my eyes, but that’s when all hell breaks loose. The door bursts open, and there are pounding footsteps, followed by screams.

Two male screams, to be exact.

My eyes pop open when someone calls my name, and I feel hands pulling at the ropes around my wrists. I peer down.

“Uncle Brutus?”

He smiles up at me as my arms fall free. He moves to the ropes at my ankles.

There’s chaos all around me. I look before me at where Daniel Park was standing moments ago. He’s not there. Instead, he’s on the floor, a body over top of him, wailing on him.

Though his head is turned away from me, focused on his target, I would know Dae anywhere.

“Dae,” I call out.

He stills for a beat before rising to his feet. The malice on his face vanishes when he turns and then rushes to me, wrapping me in his arms.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I bury my face into the crook of his neck.

“You came,” I say, my voice trembling. Only in his arms do I feel safe enough to express the fear I truly felt staring down the barrel of Daniel Park’s gun.

He cups my face. “For you? Always.”

I squeeze him to me, inhaling his scent as that feeling of safety wraps around me.

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