Page 60 of I Need You to Read This
“Stay back,” Brian shouts at Janice. She hesitates a few feet inside the doorway.
“What do we do now?” Lucy cries from the edge of the room. All this time she has been standing back watching.
“We’ll bring them both,” Brian says. “Lu, bring me the zip ties.”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” Janice assures them, planting her feet firmly. “I’ve seen enough true crime documentaries to know how that works out.”
“You’re going wherever the fuck I tell you,” Brian says. “Lu! Bring me the fucking ties.”
But Lucy is looking past him toward the front of the house. She’s not moving.
“Let her go,” a deep voice commands from the far door.
The beam of a flashlight hits Alex square in the eyes. She blinks, and the light moves past her. Now Alex can see the outline of a figure. He is stooped, thin arms held rigid. He advances on them. As he steps into the room, she can see he’s holding a gun.
“Raymond?” Alex gasps, disbelieving.
Brian’s arm drops from Alex’s neck as he brings it up to shield his face. She uses this moment to twist from his grip, pulling herself away from him into the middle of the room. She is too dizzy on her feet and wobbles, collapsing onto the carpet. Brian starts for her, but Raymond steps closer, nimble on his feet. The gun is steady.
“Step away from her or I will shoot you.” The voice booms out of Raymond’s slight body.
“Brian,” Lucy pleads, “he has a gun.”
“Oh, please,” Brian says dismissively. “It’s just some old guy.”
Raymond takes a deliberate step deeper into the living room, the gun locked on Brian.
“Please do what he says, Brian,” Lucy shrieks from behind him.
“I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want,” Brian snarls, stepping toward Alex.
“I wouldn’t,” Raymond says.
“Or what, you’ll shoot me?” Brian scoffs.
The violent velocity of a bullet pierces the air just to the right of Brian’s head, exploding against the mantel. Lucy ducks, and crumples to the ground. She lands near Alex on the carpet, tucking her knees around her head. “Oh my God, Brian.” Her scream turns into a low moan.
Raymond looks surprisingly calm. “The next one is going straight through your Neanderthal skull if you don’t move away from my friend there.”
“Oh? This is your friend?” Brian scoffs. He lets out a bitter laugh as he looks down at Alex, kicking her in the ribs hard enough that Alex gasps for breath. “Please. Do you even know her real name? You can’t trust this one. She’ll try to tell the whole world a bunch of lies about you. Make you out to be a bad person when all you’ve ever done is help her.”
“Right, you really do seem like a great guy.” Janice’s voice is thick with sarcasm. Brian turns on her, seething, and she backs into the wall. Alex struggles to pull herself up on her elbows, the throbbing in her skull making her body heavy.
“Do any of you know what a mess this girl was when I found her working at a hardware store in the middle of nowhere?” Brian roars, turning around the room. “Twenty-two years old and still living at home. She couldn’t even say her name without her face getting all red. I helped her. I got her out of her mom’s house. Out of her dead-end job. And how did she repay me? She disfigured me.” He points at his own face, mottled red with fury. The scar glows white.
“No, that doesn’t add up,” Raymond says, taking a step toward him. Alex watches the gun quiver slightly in Raymond’s hand, his finger lightly pressing on the trigger.
“Stop,” Lucy sobs, her fingers clenched in front of her. “Just stop it.” Raymond glances at her, and in that split second, Brian barrels across the room toward him.
“Ray! He’s moving!” Janice yells. But it’s too late. With shocking speed Brian lunges at Raymond, yanking his arm to the side and sending a knee straight into his diaphragm. Alex watches, horrified, as Raymond falls to the floor. He wheezes helplessly. Brian’s foot leaves the ground ready to strike.He is going to kill him,Alex thinks, her heart clenched. His heel comes down hard and she hears something crack below his boot, a shattering of bones. A shaky groan of pain comes from Raymond.
“Ray!” Janice screams.
Alex’s eyes travel across the carpet to where the gun has fallen. She rolls away from it and reaches behind her, the zip tie cutting into her as she stretches her hands out toward it, nearly there. Lucy spots it now too. She leaps across the floor toward Alex, her fingers closing around the barrel. Alex watches, her vision tunneling, as Lucy stands, the gun in her hand. She swings it at Janice, who backs away from Raymond’s crumpled body.
She points the gun at Alex. The barrel of it blurs in Alex’s line of vision. Staring her down.
Brian grins. “Oh, too bad your little rescue committee failed you. Bring the car around, Lu. I’m not letting her get away this time.” The air in the room shifts.
