Page 108 of Cougar Point

“It’s time, princess. Get on your feet and don’t look at me. My boyfriend might decide to get rid of us both. Understand?”

Victoria gets up but keeps her eyes downcast. “It’s time for what?”

“Time for you to get poor and me to get rich.”

Victoria thinks of how much pleasure this woman, and the man, have taken in her humiliation and pain. She doesn’t believe she’s going to be released. She is being taken somewhere to be killed. She has to get out of here and she weighs her chances of taking this smirking bitch on. Missy won’t expect her to fight back.

She’s had more time than she needs to consider her life. First her parents told her she’d never amount to anything. Then she’dmet Jack. He was great, loving, supportive, considerate. For a while. And then he became just like every other man she’d ever known. He was the boss. She was his maid. His to do whatever he wanted with. Kept helpless, unable to go out on her own. She’d had the girls and her maternal instincts told her they were her life. She’d given up everything. But as they left the nest a deeply hidden part of herself started to push its way to the surface. She realized she didn’t need Jack. She didn’t need her house, the money, the life. She just needed to be herself and hope her girls would still love her. She’d worked up the nerve to tell Jack she was leaving him and that took more courage than what she needs to do to this little bitch. Missy isn’t going to keep her from moving on. No way. Her remaining hand curls into a fist and she takes a step forward, just as two men enter. One of them, she hasn’t seen before. The other man she recognizes only too well.

“Vinnie,” she cries out. “Oh my god, what have they done to you?”

Vinnie is bleeding badly from a cut on his head. It looks like he’s been pistol-whipped. As she speaks, the man holding him at gunpoint pushes him roughly forward.

“What the hell, Duke? Why is he here? This isn’t the plan,” Missy says.

The man apparently called Duke shoves Vinnie again, harder this time, and he falls at Victoria’s feet. Vinnie looks up at his sister. “Hi, Dinky. Found you.”

Duke cracks the gun barrel down on Vinnie’s head. “Shut up, asshole.”

“What’s happening, Vinnie?” Victoria asks.

Vinnie struggles to his feet and spits blood on the floor. “Just a misunderstanding, sis. I’ll sort it out.”

Another man wearing a black ski mask comes into the room, holding a gun and a black bag. From his build and his voice,when he speaks, Victoria knows this is the man who cut her finger and her hand off.

“I thought I told you to come alone, Duke,” he says.

Duke points his gun at Vinnie. “He knows too much, Len. He saw Marsh handing over the money and got in the way when I tried to shoot him.”

“Is that right, Vinnie?” Len asks.

Victoria knows their names now. She knows enough to realize that this is very, very bad. It means they have no intention of letting either her or her brother walk out of here alive.

Vinnie struggles to his feet in front of Victoria and turns his bloody face toward her. “Are you hurt?” She shakes her head. Vinnie faces the others. “You’ve got your money, Len. Why don’t you let her go. She doesn’t know who you are.”

Duke says, “That’s bullshit. She knows enough. She knows our names. The police will show her the mugshots. I say we kill them and split the money. Equal shares.”

Missy says, “Why should you get an equal share, Duke? You’re as useless as a dead battery.”

Duke gives her the finger and Len says, “In the hallway. Both of you. Now.”

They shut the door behind them leaving Victoria and Vinnie alone. Vinnie wraps her in a bear hug. “I’m sorry about this.”

She’s shaking from the adrenaline rush. One second she’s going to fight for her life, and the next she’s facing three crazy people, two with guns. “Are these friends of yours?”

“Not friends. Just desperate psychos.”

“They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?”

“The one with the ski mask is Len Thundercloud. He’s insane. The other two are just greedy. If it was just Duke and Missy, I could talk to them.”

Victoria says, “Maybe they’ll leave us locked in here while they make their getaway?”

“They’re coming back in a minute. If I know Thundercloud, he will have Duke do the dirty work. If Duke comes in by himself, I’ll distract him and you make a run for it.”

“No, Vinnie. Absolutely not. I won’t leave you behind.”

“Jack got the money together. He really loves you, sis. Maybe he’ll be a better husband now. Maybe you won’t have to leave him. But he’s still a dick.”

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