Page 87 of Next Level
Samantha shrugs. “I guess I should listen to him more. It’s my fault I was taken.”
I stopped her inside the restaurant, next to the bar. “No, it’s not your fault. They manipulated you. You’re young.”
She gets tears in her eyes, and I turn us toward the bathroom. Once we are inside, I turn her to face me. “Samantha, you didn’t do anything wrong. You trusted the wrong person.”
She shakes her head. “Jared really did care for me. I know he did. He was manipulated too.”
Damn, she still has feelings for the guy.
I don’t want to upset her, so I just say, “It’s okay. You’re back, and you’ve learned a huge lesson. Don’t trust anyone.”
She giggles. “I trust my Pops.”
“So do I.”
We both use the bathroom and wash up. As we walk out, a man exits the men’s restroom, cutting us off and moving in front of us. Another man comes out of the men’s room, boxing us in and stepping in behind us. Samantha and I walk single file down the long hallway leading to the restaurant and away from the entrance to the kitchen.
The hair on my neck raises, and I become hyper-aware of my surroundings. The man behind us says, “Excuse me, you have toilet paper on your shoe.”
I make the mistake of looking down at my shoes and then at Samantha’s. The man behind Samantha grabs her from behind, and the man in front of me grabs me.
We both cry out, but their hands instantly cover our mouths. They drag us back toward the kitchen, where there is an exit I hadn’t noticed before.
Fuck.
Samantha fights to get free, and on instinct, I stomp the man’s foot and elbow him in the ribs and punch him in the nuts. He releases me, and I scream.
I reach for the man holding Samantha, but he has a knife, pointing it at me. I hold up my hands as the man behind me gets up. But before he can reach me, I hear, “Get your hands up.”
The man holding Samantha is distracted by whoever is behind me, and I grab his arm with the knife. Sam elbows him in the gut, which gets him to release her, but he gets his footing and lunges for her with his knife. Just as I move her behind me to protect her, the knife plunges into me.
“I said freeze.”
“Sam!” I hear Zip yell.
Samantha is screaming behind me, and the man holding the knife pushes it deeper. I slump down, but when he goes to run, there’s a shot fired, and he falls to the ground.
There’s yelling and people rushing all around me. Sam has me in her arms, crying, “Cherry, hold on.”
My hands are around the knife in my stomach. Zip is next to us, trying to stop the bleeding.
I ask, “Sam, are you okay?”
Tears are running down her cheeks. “I’m okay, I’m okay. You’re gonna be okay too.”
Samantha looks up at someone. “Agent Tellez, help her. Please.”
Zip has his phone to his ear, and before I pass out, the last thing I hear is, “Cherry’s been stabbed.”
THE CALL
“Ithink we need to move most of this shipment to the warehouse. We have too much heat on us right now with the FBI snooping around looking for George and his goons,” I say to Joe as we sit in his office.
My phone rings, and I see it’s Zip. I raise a finger, telling Joe I need a minute. I answer immediately, knowing he’s with the girls.
“Yeah?”
Zip’s panicked voice shoots through the phone. “Cherry’s been stabbed.”
