Page 137 of Reclaiming Adelaide

My deafening screams burst through Franklin’s fingertips with chaos.

“Shut up.”

Three men in full military gear stepped around the corner, their rifles drawn, as they searched the room until Franklin’s laughter pointed them in our direction.

“I’ll give you credit. For an arms dealer, you’re quite resourceful,” he said, ducking down behind me.

An arms… what?

I shook my head as a fourth man stepped between the others and pulled off the ski mask from his face, revealing Jake beneath the gear.

My body jerked forward despite the powerful arms wrapped around my body, and the gun pressed to my side. He was alive.

“Ah-ah,“ he said in my ear. “Not yet.”

His hand slipped from my mouth as he gripped me tighter to his body and pressed us into a corner.

A door to the left opened up, and the barrel of a gun peeked through first, then Charity’s bloody, beaten face walked through.

“Let her go, or you’ll suffer a death you couldn’t possibly imagine,” Jake said, inching toward me.

“Jake. I’m sorry.”

“Shh, sweets,“ He said, pressing his pointer finger to his lips while his other hand held out his pistol in surrender. “This’ll be over soon.”

“Awe, that’s adorable.”

I winced as he pressed the barrel harder into my ribcage, making me recoil from the pain.

“We had a deal, Franklin.”

“We did. Until you started fucking with my accounts.”

Jake shook his head, but before he could dispute Franklin’s claim, he continued. “Yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice you meddling.”

“If that was me, you wouldn’t have known until it was too late.” His gaze cut towards me. Because, unlike Franklin, Jake knew exactly who touched his bank accounts.

“Then who, Jake? It wasn’t another random person who had a vendetta against me.”

“How do you know it wasn’t Yergi?”

“Yergi wasn’t that smart.”

“He was smart enough for you to feel threatened,” Charity said, her feet inching closer to us, which made Franklin twitchy.

“You’re surrounded. You might as well give up,” Jake said as the other two men at his side flanked him. He pulled his gun back to his body and aimed it at us.

“If I die, so does she. Death with honor.”

“Is it honorable in your country to kill pregnant women?”

“Even better. Eliminate the offspring of thy enemy. There is no higher honor. That’s not from my country. Just a little something I picked up along the way.” A sob broke my parched throat. “Come now. We knew this day would happen.”

My knees threatened to give way. But the band of hope that diminished before sparked back to life like the brightest beacon.

In the three days I’d spent in the hotel hacking and watching self-defense videos, I’d learned a thing or two and I just prayed to God they had good aim.

Jake took two steps forward, and the gun dug deeper in response, my side bending away from the pressure.

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