Page 58 of Jackson

“It wasn’t an accident, and we both know it. You killed that girl, and she likely wasn’t the first.”

“Want me to count you down?” Cade asks, casually standing next to us, arms crossed.

“I’d love that,” Spike nods.

“One.”

“Gerard,” the woman cries. “Please. Do something.”

“Two.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Gerard tries desperately.

“Three.”

“Okay,” he screams, his voice filling the shed. “I killed her. I did it. It was me.”

Bingo.

Spike tosses him to the ground.

“You can’t prove it,” he shouts up at Spike. “You can’t ...”

“Gerard, how could you?” His sister gasps. “No.”

He looks to her, his eyes wide. “I just ... It just came over me.”

I reach around to my back pocket and pull out the recording device, holding it up. “Thanks for that,” I murmur. “The cops will love it. Spike, lock him up until we can hand him over to an officer.”

Gerard’s eyes bulge. “No. No, you can’t. No.”

“Get him away from me,” I wave a hand.

Then, I turn and walk out.

I have one problem gone, now I need to get the other.

The last one is a lot more dangerous.

21 – Serenity

I’m starving.

My body hurts.

Everything inside me feels like it’s slowly shrivelling up.

I haven’t had water.

It’s the second day here, and so far, nobody has come.

I don’t have a plan to escape; I’m too weak. Each night, Hound injects me with some kind of drug that knocks me out for most of it, and then more into the next day. I’m barely awake, and when I am, I’m unable to move much. He’s doing it on purpose, so that I can’t figure out a way to fight back.

I don’t know how I’m going to get out of here.

The door opening on the third morning has my eyes flickering open, praying it isn’t Hound. I’m shocked when I see a man walking in with a bottle of water. Whoever he is, I haven’t seen him before, but he certainly doesn’t look as mean as Hound and he’s a lot younger, maybe mid-twenties.

“Here,” he tosses the water bottle at me, and it lands on the floor.

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