Page 34 of Four Times Saved

The click of the safety being released from the handgun vibrated against my skin, and it was like a switch, pulling me from disdain, back into terror. Squeezing my eyes shut, I took a breath.

He kept talking and that breath rushed out of me, for now. "She went and blabbed her mouth off, didn't she? So, now there's been a change of plan. Your precious little whore is as good as dead." He spat and wet, raw, warm slobber slapped me in the face, adding insult to injury.

At this point, I was begging for him to pull the trigger, already, just so I could escape the cringe of his voice, the stink of his mouth. But my men, my mother...

"So, I've upped the stakes. If you want to see your bitch again, I'm going to need one hundred million dollars tonight," he said.

I almost said, 'what the fuck?!' out loud. Who the hell did he think he was? I couldn't even imagine that amount of money, and he just came up with it off the top of his head. If he wanted some actual money for his troubles, he should have aimed lower.

He was right about one thing though. I was as good as dead, because there was no way. No matter how much I hoped my men loved me, and despite how rich they were, there was no way they were going to have one hundred million dollars just lying around.

"You might as well kill me now," I said, with nothing left to lose.

"What?" He stumbled over a gasp.

"There's no way you're going to get that money. So you might as well end it now." He walked around to stand in front of me.

My body was existing without meaning or soul at the moment. I was a dead woman talking.

"I mean, what a huge waste of time!" I scowled. "All of this for nothing. You could've gone about your merry way, ignored the temptation of Terry Thornbread's stupid ideas, and you could've left me the hell alone, for free! I mean, you're doing this for free anyway, aren't you?"

He panted, his face twisted up in all kinds of ways as he raised his gun at me. "Shut the fuck up!"

"Why? You're just going to kill me anyway, aren't you? Why waste my final chance at free will? I think I'll exercise the right to keep speaking if you don't mind," I said.

"You think this is fucking funny?" He raised his hand to hit me in time for a white stream of light to flicker near us. We both jerked our heads toward it. Wind slapping blades echoed above us. Was that a helicopter?

"Fuck!" He grabbed me by the arm. "We have to move!"

Chapter 18

Eric

The video cut off at 'Fuck!'

He'd left the video running through it all, as she taunted him, as he hit her. He fucking hit her. My skin grew hot, the room closed in, and I saw red. If I ever got my hands on him, I was going to fucking kill him.

But my mind kept echoing the word 'Kill' back to me. "He's going to kill her." My lungs caved in on me and the words left my mouth in a breath.

My best friends trembled. Ethan was still staring at the phone even after the video ended. I didn't know what thoughts were lurking inside his head, but given the incident with Marco, I knew it was something dark. I couldn't fucking blame him. Watching the slime with our Lily, barking at her, shoving the gun in her temple, grinding her knees into the ground, hearing the thump as he hit her and her grunt in response. I wanted to split him in half and leave him to the vultures to feed on.

Matt threw his phone across the room, regretting his action as soon as it smashed into bits. He ran to pick it up and tried to turn it on. "Fuck!" he yelled, tossing it again.

Ryan had sunk to the floor, holding his head in his hand, rocking back and forth, his sanity on the point of no return.

My phone started ringing and I answered in a rush. "If you ever touch her again, you fucking..."

"Mr. Fletcher, sir. Turn on the news."

I caught my breath and planted my feet into the solid ground to keep my head from spinning. A second was all it took for me to recognize the voice as one of our military contacts, but that second was stuck in a whirlwind.

"T-turn on the news." I pointed at Ethan, my voice trembling. "Has something happened?" I asked the contact.

Everything blurred.

The room spun.

My body was already anticipating horrible news. My legs faltered and hot tears filled my eyes.

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