Page 76 of Salvation

Five million dollars…

This asshole thinks I’m going to give him five million dollars?!

He is completely deranged.

Instead of saying that though, I say, “And why should I give you five million dollars?”

Detective Rodgers’ eyes harden, and he glares at me… “All that ignorant asshole had to do was take you out… it should have been easy. I gave him all he needed. I gave him the location that couldn’t be traced. I gave him all the intel on you and told him exactly what to say to secure the meeting. I schooled him…

“It should have been easy.

“But no. Instead, they all ended up dead and you drove out of there. I thought you might die… You were shot… I saw him shoot you… I thought he got you in the heart… I was in the woods… Watching… biding my time… waiting for my plan to fall into place.

“But that idiot couldn’t even hit a mark at that close of a range. Imbecile! You bled a lot though. When I saw the extent of your injuries, I thought you might die. So much blood.

“Yet… you didn’t die!” He’s manic. He’s screaming. Rambling, talking in half sentences that make no sense. I’m trying to follow along.

He was there…

He set me up…

Renald was working with him.

I ask, “You were working with Renald Antoinette?” trying to keep him calm and distract him. Anything to keep Hope safe while I make certain I can get a clean shot on Detective Rodgers.

His eyes blaze and spittle flies from his fat lips as he rages. “Working with him? No! It was my plan. My brilliance. I did the work. I searched him out. He was working for me! Only he was too stupid and smug to realize it. Once you were out of the picture, I was going to kill him.

“It would have been easy. He was crazy.”

HE was crazy? No, you are bat shit crazy.

Renald was too stupid, too crazy, to see he was playing right into Detective Rodgers’s hands.

Shit, they’re both crazy.

He rages again. “I had a plan! I watched you. I watched you all. You and… her.” He looks down at Hope and his face twists. “Her and Luke… Her and you… Just you… just her… Always her…

“She’s so beautiful. I see why you want her. She’s easy to want. She’s so sweet… so pure… she looks like an angel… but she’s not.

“She’s poison. Did you know that? She’s like a black widow spider. She seduces men with her innocent face and her loving nature. She makes them want her… makes them love her… makes them think they’re special… and then she rips their heart out.

“She makes you think she’s good… but she’s not… she’s bad… so bad. It’s all a charade. A lie. The perfect plan to make fools of us all.

“You just can’t help but want her though…

“She’s like a drug. She’s worse than a drug.”

His hand strokes her face almost lovingly and I want to vomit.

She’s still not stirring.

What did he DO to her?

Is she breathing?

His eyes flash with mania as he looks back at me. “My money, Gabrial. I want my money. I’m leaving. I can’t stay here. You’ve ruined the plan.

“You and Luke…

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