Page 101 of Liberate Us

“You know where I am, Princess.”

“Please, Will. You need to stop this. Penelope died in thatexplosion. A member of your club died. A couple of members in fact.” I didn’tgive a shit that I was now begging for lives I didn’t know. This needed to end.“Please, Will.”

“You know the only way this will end.” There was some shufflingcoming through from Will’s end. “You know, maybe I should just keep your mom.She does look like you.”

My knees buckled beneath me. “What…Will…you’re not serious.”

“If you don’t give me what I want, Princess, I’ll have to takeit. And we both know what happens when I take things. Aaron especially knew.Since he took you from me.”

My heart began racing, my palms sweating. I was vaguely aware ofa dark shadow looming over me. “Please. You can’t do this.”

“Oh but I can and I already have. If you want this to end, youknow what to do. If you don’t…” He paused. “I wonder what the inside of yourmother looks like.”

“Will.” My breathing came out ragged and rough. He couldn’t bedoing this. There was no way. “You can’t. You don’t…”

“Oh but I can and I have.” A dark sinister chuckle left him.“You thought she was safe. It’s all your fault, Princess.” His laugh deepened.“Say hi.”

“Amber?”

A sob escaped me as I heard my mother’s voice. “Mummy. No, Will.Please. Let her go.” Tears streamed down my face as I fell to my knees on thehard cold pavement beneath me.

Arms wrapped around me, a deep voice tried whispering soothingwords to me but they didn’t help. I couldn’t focus on anything other than thefact that Will had my mom.

The phone was snatched from my hand, Will’s voice suddenlybooming through the speaker.

“You want to see your mom, you know where to find me, Princess.I don’t suggest waiting too long either because what happened to you will benothing compared to what I’ll do to her.” The click sounded around us, forcinga scream from my lips.

Amber

Voices surrounded me butI couldn’t make them out. The onlyone I tried focusing on was Sammy. He was rubbing my upper back, trying to coaxme into taking deep breaths. The guys were muttering to themselves, and I knewthey were forming a plan to save my mom. But they wouldn’t be able to do shit.If they showed up, Will would kill her. I would have to give him what hewanted. And this would result in my first fight with Sammy.

Before I lost the courage, I garnered that anger and rose to myfull height. Spinning on Sammy, my heart jumped as the guys surrounded him.

“I need a car.” I held my hand out. “And keys.”

Sam’s eyes dropped to my open palm before meeting my gaze.

“I suggest not arguing with me right now,” I told him, lookinghim square in the eye.

“Sammy.” Cyrus went up to his side, cupping his shoulder. “Thisisn’t right.”

“Of course it’s not fucking right,” I snapped. “Will has my momand the only way that I’ll be able to save her is to go there myself.”

“You are not offering yourself up to him,” Sammy finally said,pulling my eyes back to him.

“What the fuck do you expect me to do, Sam?” I threw at him. “Ifyou could have done the same for your parents, you would. You know you would.Both of you would.” I thrust my hand out. “I need to save my mom. Will is sickand mentally deranged.” I was thinking fast, trying to come up with ideas onhow my mom and I could get out of this safely.

“He’s not working alone,” Jaron added. “Cheesy, get her a car.”

Cheesy ran off to the garage at the side of the house.

I actually thought Sammy was going to argue with him, but whenhe didn’t and only stared at me, I wasn’t sure which I preferred. It wasunnerving how he could look into the deepest parts of me. The parts Aaron hadme feel like I was a bad person for having. But I realized that with Sam, withthe right person, those parts were beautiful. And safe.

“Leave us,” Sam said to no one in particular.

“You heard him,” Jaron barked. “Get in the fucking house andwait for my instructions.”

The guys did as they were told and left me alone with Sammy.