Page 78 of Shielding Aubree

She didn't know.

Maybe it was just another part of her memory loss.

CHIRP

There it was again.

She couldn't help but smile.

"Damn it!"

His fingers tightened around her throat and she tried to lift and turn her head, pulling away as she could.

But it didn't work.

She tried to kick out her legs, but couldn't her ankles still wrapped with tape.

The strain on her back sent pain stabbing through her spine.

The sky above her darkened at the pin pricks of light around the edges of her vision multiplied and started to fill the sky around her.

Darkness was bleeding in.

"W-wait."

She needed time.

"W-"

His hand lifted away from her throat, and she gasped in air like a fish. "Not so high and mighty anymore."

"I," she swallowed against the pain. "I'm a simple girl." Her voice was barely there. "I just want to live."

His smile was more of a snarl. "Then you should learn to be nice."

She didn't have the ability to lie that convincingly with the anger crawling through her veins, so she kept quiet.

She could tell it wasn't what he wanted exactly, but at least he didn't choke her again.

"Good," he leaned over her, "you might not want to be nice, but at least you could learn to shut up once in a while."

He leaned over her grasping her face with his hand.

"Or maybe now you're ready to tell me what I want to know."

He was stronger than he looked.

"I could make it quick for you when it's time. Or I could go outside my usual interests and make things really painful. I wouldn't need to make it look like an accident."

The encroachingdarkness made it easier to get more people in closer.

They were approaching from three different directions, going in for the kill.

Antonio had stayed back at the SWAT truck, holding his wife and son close while Ruben and some of the other men from the Refuge were making their way closer, working amongst the SWAT team. No, they weren't there officially, but they weren't exactly going to sit back on their hands and wait.

One of the SWAT team ahead held up his hand and their group stopped.

"Take a look." Leaning back, lowering his voice, the SWAT team member handed his binoculars to Ruben. "Things just got a little more interesting."

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