Page 134 of Reclaiming Adelaide

“I’ll be back. Don’t worry. I don’t think I could handle Jake losing another girlfriend because of me.”

“What?” What was that supposed to mean?

A smirk tipped her lips. “I’m kidding… sort of.” Charity shut the cabinet doors, drenching me in darkness with nothing but my labored breaths and the stench of cleaning products burning my nose as she walked away.

I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my forehead against my knees, pinching my eyes closed.

Thump. Thump.The same noise as before hit the enormous glass walls, and then the alarms died mid-crescendo.

A pang hit my breast bone from my heart, cranking into gear. My muscles froze, locking me into place as though fear encased me in cement until… a boot hit the marbled floor.

And then another.

And another.

I held my breath as I strained through the residual ringing in my ears, hoping to determine which direction the footsteps traveled until they stopped, leaving my heart rattling in my chest.

Where did they go?

I squeezed my legs harder, walking my feet back towards my butt, making myself as small as I could, then pressed my finger to the center slit in the cupboard and peered out through the sliver of light.

The cupboard door ripped open, and bright flashing lights temporarily blinded me. “There you are.” The man clad in all black wrapped his hand around my hair, sending pins and needles spreading across my scalp. “I’ve been looking for you.”

I screamed, my legs skittering across the floor as I kicked out at him, my heel connecting with his knee, giving me a satisfying cry from him. I pulled my hair from his loosening grip, my hair popping free from my burning scalp. “Charity!” I crawled across the pickle juice and broken glass on my hands and knees. The straight-edged shards slipped into my skin with deadly precision.

Where did she go? Did they get her?

“Where do you think you’re going?” The man grabbed my ankle, twisted me around as he pulled me towards him, and then gripped me tight around my throat.

Franklin.

I wrapped my hand around his wrist. “The police will be here any minute.”

“I almost wish that were true.”

Jake’s description of his automatic alarm system was his way of deterring me from leaving while he wasn’t here to watch me. The question was, would it matter if the police responded? Franklin had gone through all of Jake’s men he’d posted outside. What could a few cops do?

He yanked me up from the floor and pushed me towards the couch. “Have a seat.” My eyes widened when he pointed his pistol at my temple. “Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be.” I collapsed onto the couch with bleeding wrists and forearms tainting Jake’s red leather.

“What do you want, Franklin?”

“Have you figured it out yet?”

I nodded and swallowed hard.

“What tipped it off? Was it the gun or the outfit?”

“What do you want from me?” I cowered on the couch, wincing as my legs brushed against the glass infesting my flesh.

“Nothing. I’ve got everything I wanted.”

“And what is that?”

“You here. Your boyfriend dead and Yergi out of the picture for good.”

“Jake’s…” I bit back a sob, and salty tears stung my eyes and sinuses. “He’s…”

“Shh. You American women cry over everything.”

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