Page 54 of A Very Happy Thanksgiving
CHAPTER 20
Marc
Just do it, okay? The words echoed in Marc’s ears. Am I dead already?
That’s what he wondered when the slender figure who’d materialised in front of him with a gun began speaking with his ex-girlfriend’s voice.
And if I am dead, is this heaven or hell?
“I don’t understand.”
“Look, I know communication isn’t your strong point, but for once in your life, could you not act dumb?”
“Phae?”
“Not now, okay?”
If not now, then when? He’d be a corpse in five minutes.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Trying to avoid another funeral. You know I hate funerals.”
“Just do what she says,” Katie half screamed, half sobbed, leaning against a pillar for support.
“At least she knows how to follow a simple instruction,” Phae muttered, and then the shooting started again.
Marc didn’t take his eyes off Phae as he obeyed her order and crouched beside Katie. Yes, Phae had always had an edge to her, but this was a whole other level. How had she even gotten here? And more importantly, how did she plan on getting away?
She took something out of her backpack and pressed it over the spot where chain met pillar, then duct-taped what looked like a bag of saline over the top. What was she doing? He tried asking, but she didn’t answer. Probably didn’t even hear him over the noise of the gunfire. Who was shooting? Frank? Who else?
Then Phae was next to him, grabbing his hands and pressing them over his ears. The muffled boom shook him on his feet. Dirt splattered through the air, followed by the now-free end of the chain. Katie fell sideways, dazed, as it smacked her in the head.
“Shit! You okay?” Marc tried to pull her up, but she was limp.
“Get ready to run,” Phae ordered.
“What about Katie? She isn’t running anywhere.”
“If I suggested leaving her behind, would you be mad at me?”
“Are you kidding? We can’t leave her behind.”
“Hello? She kidnapped you?”
“Yes, but she’s not a bad person.”
In the middle of mayhem, Phae shot him a withering look, and it was just so…so her. Calm in a crisis, mildly annoyed that the world wasn’t running to her schedule. But in those eyes lurked a hardness that hadn’t been there before.
She’d changed.
So had he.
On the edge of Marc’s vision, a shadow moved past the now-perforated wall. Friend or foe? Before he could duck, or run, or yell, or even form a coherent thought, Phae raised her gun and fired. The shadow crumpled.
What the…?
“Did you…did you just kill a person?”
