Page 135 of Reclaiming Adelaide

My chest collapsed as I sucked in thin air, burning the bottom of my lungs.

No, don’t say that. Don’t say that.

“Wh… why?” I wheezed.

“Let me tell you a story about a boy who only wanted to be enough. That boy grew up to become a leader. He ruled his men with an iron fist. But then something changed. He stopped leading and became nothing but a coward until his men snapped.” He waved his gun back and forth as he spoke. “They turned against him, and he lost his control. But he wouldn’t have that, so he worked against them until one day he slipped up, and they found out. Like the coward he was, he ran into hiding. He disappeared into the wind like the people of Ani. Only when his men convinced his new friends to tell us where he was, did we find out he—“

Shut up.“Shut up!” I cupped my hands over my ears, anger surging. “I don’t want to hear about your stupid sob story when you made my life a living hell.”

“You American women are so rude, too.” Franklin’s upper lip lifted in a snarl, wrinkling his nose. “If only your parents taught you better.” A devious smile wrinkled the skin around his eyes as he studied the dagger from his words twisting my emotions into a raging inferno.

A scream erupted from my chest, and before I knew what I was doing, I lunged at him, my thumbs aiming for his eyeballs.

Franklin intercepted my attack, my hands so close I could feel his warm breath on my palms.

In a swift move, he released my hand and raised his. A solidthudbounced around inside my skull, and a heavy sharp ache tightened the skin around my left cheekbone. “I wouldn’t try that again.”

He shoved me backward toward the couch with his hands on my shoulders. I bounced, my body twisting off the couch and careening into the coffee table, my nose crunching against the edge.

Sharp agony stretched across my face and wrapped behind my ears, causing them to ring. A warm gush ran in torrents from my nose down my lips and chin. A groan ripped from my throat as I lay on the floor, my blood slicking the floor beneath me.

“That didn’t have to happen.”

My eyes burned as tears carved their sharp trail down my face, intermingling with the crimson debris. I groaned again, my need for escape moving my arms out in front of me as I army crawled to the end of the couch, my shirt mopping up the blood puddling on the floor. I pushed myself to my feet, my shirt soaked with blood.

“Are you faster than my bullet, Adelaide?”

My stomach sank into a bottomless pit full of venomous vipers attacking my nervous system.

“A little patience is all I ask. Until I get a phone call, then it’ll all be over.”

“What will?”

“Well,” he said, using his pistol to direct me back to the couch. “That depends on what happens at the drop-off.”

“But,” I said, pressing the bottom of my shirt to my nose. “You said Jake was dead…”

“You misunderstood me. I said that’s what Iwanted.”

“That’s not what you said.”

He shrugged. “Okay, maybe I fibbed.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

An evil grin poisoned his smile. “Define hurt?”

“Don’t kill him. Don’t touch him.Please. I’ll do whatever you want.“ I sat on the edge of the couch, my knee bouncing uncontrollably.

“That’s all dependent upon him and whatever stupid choices he makes.”

The faint sparkle of hope I’d had diminished as he spoke, spiraling me down into a darker abyss.

“Why did you kill my parents?”

Franklin sat in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned over, his hands and pistol resting between them. “A misunderstanding.”

“Between you and Jake?”

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