Page 124 of I Promise You
Seeing him shot when we were both vulnerable was so calculated and planned. The people after us waited for this one moment of perfect opportunity, and they took it.
Kane warned me about them, but I was assured they wouldn’t find us.
Then I remember a cloth with thick-scented drugs, causing me to pass out. I never got to see Danny again. He must be here, right? He has to be alive, right?
I can only hear footsteps as if I’m being circled like prey.
“Wakey, wakey,” someone taunts me, and I already know who it is. The voice is too familiar.
I’m freezing, shaking, and wet. I’m finally able to open my eyes firmly, and I’m staring at the ceiling. My fingers twitch,trying to reach for my eyes because I feel the need to rub them. Maybe that will help me reach some clarity from this fog.
My vision is blurry, but as the seconds pass, after heavy breathing, I can see again clearly.
I look around, trying to pull away from the rope bound around my wrists that cut off my circulation, but it’s no use.
I’m in a barn with horse stables. Except there aren’t any horses, and I’m surrounded by a group of men in the dark, cold, empty night. Some of them wear white masks.
And her.
Ms. Salem.
The flashbacks of her standing in my front door after shooting Danny return, and I want to lunge for her throat.
She shot my Danny.
My heart pace accelerates with fear.
How could she do this? This doesn’t make any fucking sense!
“I thought you couldn’t walk,” I accuse, rubbing my arms to help grow warm.
She ignores me.
“He’s dead, you know…your boyfriend.” She laughs wickedly, standing tall as if she was never injured or had a surgery.
I feel betrayed by a patient I cared for. What the hell?
She stands before me, dressed in all black, next to a man with a long beard going down to his chest, and he looks at me like I’m the scum of the Earth.
“Ms. Salem, but how? Why? Y-you.” I shake my head as she looks at me like a game she’s won.
“You’re lying! He’s not dead. I don’t believe you. Why are you doing this to me?”
She walks slowly while I struggle to get out of the ropes. She bends down, getting into my face.
Her hair is tied up, slicked back perfectly, not one strand out of place. Her expression darkens with revenge.
Her lips curve villainously, and I’m shaking with anger. I will defend myself this time. Danny has taught me new tactics in self-defense, including using a gun. “I’m lying, huh?” She backhands me with her hand. My head tilts to the side from the hateful force she inflicted on me, but I stare back into her eyes.
She pulls out something from her pocket as she bends down, her elbows resting on her thighs, as she twirls a chain.
My eyes bulge when I realize what they are.
His dog tags.
Danny’s dog tags.
With his name on it. The same dog tags he wears, always. But they’re covered in blood.I’m going to be sick.
