Page 34 of The Mercenary's Guide to Mishaps and Romance

“Maybe there’s like… someone else? Maybe?”

“Oh hell, no. I’m here for you. Leland will be there lickety-split. Just you hold on to your panties,” he says as the door is jerked open.

“How the fuck did you get a phone?” Arthur demands as he yanks it from me and snaps the phone in half as Eugene, the guy I’d stolen it from, gawks at it. “If I find out whose phone this is, I’m going to make them fucking eat it. Now let’s go. I have a new and improved idea. I have come across some information about your mother and sister.”

My stomach sinks as this information settles. “Please, I don’t know anything, and neither do they. Why do you think my father would have told us anything?”

“I’m just thinking that it was foolish to only take you. But if we have all three of you, surely one of you will talk once we start torturing you. And honestly, it’d be a bit of a waste of time heading over, grabbing them, and hauling them back when we could just take you and have a nice family reunion. How fun!”

“This doesn’t sound fun at all,” I mumble.

“Not for you, maybe. Miller, take our guest. When you land, you will watch him while Terry and Danielle grab the mother and sister. I’ll meet you this evening,” he says before he gives me a little wave, like we’ve just had the best experience together.

“You’re a… monster,” I whisper.

“I know,” he says.

Miller grabs me and starts dragging me. When I jerk back, planning on digging my heels into the ground, he simply pulls out a gun and aims it at me. “Start walking.”

Fear makes me step forward, but if I go with him, aren’t I putting my mom’s and sister’s lives in danger? What if they hurt them or kill them? I don’t know how I could live with myself if something happened to either of them.

I stop where I stand, wishing I could convince them to look away from my family. But what the hell can I even do about it? Even if they shoot me dead, they’ll just go grab my family and torture them. I have to stop them from ever reaching my mom or Sienna.

Terry comes in looking a little red-eyed but is still strong enough to pick me up and start carrying me off. I thrash and struggle, but I’m at a complete loss about what to do. I mean, here’s a chance for me to get off the island, but at what cost?

Honestly, I’m given very little choice as I’m stuffed into a vehicle that he drives over to a smaller airplane than the one we’d come in on. This one doesn’t have any fancy seats or board games or a hostess. I’m tossed down in a basic seat and strappeddown, likely not for my own safety but to keep me there so they can watch.

Not that I would accomplish much if I did escape from the seat. I mean… where the hell am I going to go inside a plane?

I look through the large open door, out at the island as I realize that I’m finally getting off Murder Island… but not the way I’d hoped. Tavish is still out there somewhere. Maybe he’ll get off… maybe his weird friends will actually come and save him.

Or maybe we’re all fucked.

TWELVE

ELLIS

The door slides shut as the engine roars to life—it sounds about as loud as my thundering heart.

Besides Miller, Danielle, Eugene, and Terry, there are three other men on board, not counting whoever is beyond that door, which I have to assume is a pilot and a copilot.

“Why don’t we ever get to ride in the jet?” Terry grumbles as the plane starts to move.

“If I push Eugene out at about two thousand feet up, how dead do you think he’d be?” Miller asks as it gains some speed before the nose of the plane begins to lift.

“Is this because Eugene is doing the dirty with your mom?” Danielle asks.

Eugene eyes the door, like he’s considering jumping out as the plane lifts fully off the runway.

“It sure as fuck is.”

“It… It was an accident!” Eugene says.

“I hate it when I accidentally fuck my friend’s mom,” Danielle comments. “Makes sleepovers so awkward.”

Everyone but Miller and Eugene roars with laughter.

Miller looks prepared to murder while Danielle sits over there with a grin on her face merrily stirring the pot. She’s clearly loving every minute of it.

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