Page 29 of The Queen of Nightmares

She pulled me to a stop at the edge of the maze. I could clearly see an empty field on the other side of the last row of stalks as she pulled her arm from mine. I wrapped both of my arms around my middle, as much for protection as comfort. She took her stocking cap off her head and stuffed it into her pocket, then straightened her blonde hair with a sigh, never taking her gun or eyes off of me.

“It’s too late for that, Sally. If I didn’t have to do this, I wouldn’t. You have no idea how many opportunities I’ve had to incapacitate you and hand you over to Oogie. I could have drugged you so many times but didn’t. Now, time has run out for both of us.”

“I’m glad you said that, little Kara.” A deep, masculine voice had both of us turning as a tall man slipped through a row of corn stalks. He was almost as tall as Jack, but he was brawnier, with a beer belly starting to form over his belt. His cut was showing through his open leather jacket, letting me know that this was the infamous Boogeyman President.

Kara straightened, one hand going to her hair to smooth it down over her breasts like I’ve seen her do so many times. “Oogie.” Her tone was breathless as she stared up at the man who had been threatening the club for months. I glanced between the two of them as I watched him smirk and Kara smile shyly. So she was in love with the monster. So much made a little more sense now. She was hoping to impress him. What a freaking joke. It made me want to slap her until she came to her senses.

“It’s good to know you disobeyed my direct orders, little girl. I could have had my hands on Bone’s woman months ago and had the town in my clutches. But you kept that from happening.”

She shook her head as her smile dropped, and her eyes widened in alarm. “No, it wasn’t like that?—”

The gunshot rang out, cutting off her words, and I jumped as the blood spray spattered across my cheek. Kara dropped to the cold, frozen ground in the next instant. As I stared at the growing puddle of blood that turned her blonde hair dark crimson, a large hand grabbed my upper arm in a hold hard enough to bruise through the heavy jacket and layers of clothes I was wearing.

I didn’t even cry out as he pulled me roughly through the cornstalks to the field outside. It wasn’t until the sound of Jack’s bellow from somewhere in the maze jarred me from the shock of seeing yet another person murdered in front of me.

ChapterTwenty-One

THE QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES

With a hard pull that I knew I only got away with due to surprise, I slid away from Oogie. I didn’t even make it two feet before I was snatched roughly by my hair. That time, I did cry out as my neck jerked back, wrenching with pain.

Oogie laughed, not even attempting to hide his amusement at my weak attempt at running away. “Oh, no, love. You aren’t going anywhere.” He brought me closer with his tight grip to put his nose behind my ear and inhale deeply. “I’m going to have fun with you. Maybe I’ll keep you for a while, hmmm?”

“Please, don’t,” I whimpered as I brought my hands up, grabbing his wrists to relieve some of the pressure on my scalp.

He shook me roughly, pulling several strands out with a snarl before shoving me to the ground. I landed on my hip, bracing myself from the fall with one hand, my wrist screaming with the hard impact of the icy ground.

“Grab her, throw her into the van.” Oogie turned dismissively and walked away. It was then I noticed a dark van parked several feet away at the edge of the corn maze. I wondered where Jack’s men were. They had said the place was secure.

A tall, skinny man with pockmarks on his face grinned down at me with stained teeth as he stood there wearing a dirty bomber jacket that had seen better days. He turned and spit, a long stream of saliva mixed with chewing tobacco hitting the ground a foot from my leg. I shuddered with disgust and tried to scoot away from the mess.

“I hope the Prez lets the rest of us have a turn with you, too. You look like fun.”

“Fuck you, asshole,” I hissed out the words, batting at his hands as he reached down for me. I swung my fist and managed to get him in the nose. He snarled, then spit more brown saliva on my chest, ruining the beautiful white jacket Jack had gifted me with. I gagged viciously, turning my head away from the sight. As he managed to get a hold of my arm and yanked me to my feet, I knew the nausea I had been battling since Kara had taken me was going to win.

As I swayed on my feet, I could feel the vomit rising. Before I could turn to the side, it erupted from me. All the apple cider I had just drunk, as well as my breakfast of French toast, came rushing out in a torrent all over the front of the greasy biker.

“What the fuck!” He cried out, letting me go to hold his arms wide at his sides. I fell back to the ground, heaving with tears running down my cheeks.

“What’s going on over there?” Oogie demanded from the side of the van as he drew on a cigarette. Jack had stopped smoking months ago when he realized the smell made my morning sickness flare. I didn’t care if he smoked; he was an adult who could do what he wanted, but Jack respected me enough to quit when he saw how uncomfortable it made me. As Oogie walked over with his lit cigarette in his hand, the smoke wafted toward me, and my stomach immediately rebelled again.

As I turned to my side to heave into the packed dirt ground next to me, the pale, sweaty-faced biker I had thrown up on started gagging.

“Oh, man,” he whined as he bent over. “I don’t do puke, Prez.” I may have been lying there on the frozen ground, covered in blood, spit, and likely splatters of my own vomit, but I couldn’t stop the grin at seeing what I had reduced this man to. As soon as he emptied his stomach on the ground with a moan, I had to quickly turn my head to avoid seeing it and heaving with my own nausea again.

“Fuck. We’re gonna be here all day with this shit.” Oogie stood over me, glaring daggers at my face. “Are you done?” I thought about lying, but in the end, I simply nodded my head weakly. “Good. Get your scrawny ass up and let’s get going.”

He reached down and once again dragged me to my feet, then over toward the van. As I got nearer to the open doors of the van, I could see a body inside. That’s when I realized what had happened to Jack’s men. I recognized the shaggy hair of the one lying motionless in the van, but that was all I could see through the blood covering him. I didn’t know his name, but he had always been smiling.

Before Oogie could pull me close enough to toss me inside the van next to the dead prospect, heavy footsteps thundered on the other side of the corn stalks, coming closer by the second. Everyone turned in the direction of the maze. Oogie had his gun up and pointed just as Jack came storming through the stalks with rage in his eyes and a gun in his hand. Barrel and Doc followed right behind him.

Just as Oogie pulled the trigger, I shoved his arm up, making the shot go wide. With my ears ringing, I saw Jack snarl viciously and come storming toward us. I would have described him as a deadly avenging angel, but that would have been wrong. He resembled a demon more than he ever would an angel, with his black eyes and the tattoos climbing up his neck and covering his gloveless hands.

“Jack!” I cried out, so glad to see him. I took a step toward him, but once again, I was yanked back, falling into the hard body behind me. Oogie wrapped one hand around my throat, squeezing hard enough to cut off my air supply. His other hand jammed the barrel of the gun into the side of my head. My hat lay somewhere in the dirt after our first scuffle, so it hurt as the metal dug roughly into my scalp.

I whimpered with pain and terror, looking at Jack as he stood only a few feet away. He appeared ready to rip off Oogie’s head with his bare hands as he eyed the gun the man had pressed against me. The greasy biker must have finally finished his vomiting because he grinned as he walked over to where we were standing by the van’s open doors.

“Stupid fucker. We win!” His laugh cut off abruptly with a loud bang. Jack shifted his gun back to aim at Oogie, not even bothering to watch as the other guy fell to the ground with a thud.

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