Page 69 of Virtue & Vengeance

“He’s not my boyfriend. I just work for him. He’s not going to care about me. He isn’t going to give you any money.”

Allen snorted, the sound sending a few sprays of spittle from his lips. “Don’t listen to her. She’s a fucking liar. He’s been at her house almost every night for the last month. He stays late or sometimes stays all night.”

Hearing Allen tell them about Zander made me sick to my stomach. He’d been watching me for weeks.

The three men were staring me down, and I knew I needed to lie.

“Allen’s lying! He thinks you’ll spare him if he tells you he has another way. Zander doesn’t care about me, and he isn’t the type to give in.”

“Shut up, you bitch,” Allen roared and stormed toward me.

I braced myself for the blow coming my way. The strike of the back of his hand across my face made me see stars, but when the butt of the gun came down across my temple, my head rolled forward, and I saw black.

For several seconds, I was out of it altogether, and then the muffled sound of voices started to penetrate the haze. My entire face felt swollen, and my head pounded so bad I wanted to sob.

I could feel something against my thigh, and when my vision cleared, I could see the pool of blood that had gathered there from my face.

My first instinct was to go into full-on panic mode, but then the voices became harsher and I was forced to focus on their words.

“She’s lying. I can get the money.”

“You had your chance, Allen. Monty doesn’t give second and third chances.”

“Wait-”

And then it happened.

A loud shot sounded, echoing throughout the room. I screamed at the unexpected sound and watched in horror as blood and pieces of Allen practically exploded. His body went limp before he folded over and fell to the ground.

The room went silent, and tears streamed quietly down my face and onto the front of my shirt. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep from seeing Allen’s body just a few feet from me.

“What about her?” One of them asked as if I wasn’t right there quietly weeping.

“Bring her.”

“Please,” I whispered, my voice cracking from thirst and anxiety. “Please just let me go.”

“Sorry, but that’s not going to happen.”

They handled me like I was a sack of potatoes, not caring that my face felt like it had been rearranged and it wasn’t long before I was being loaded into the back of yet another car.

THE HOTEL THE NEW guys took me to was much cleaner than the motel Allen was squatting in.

Not that it mattered, I still ended up tied to a chair as the two men, whose names I learned were Winston and Rodger, openly planned and talked in front of me, which could only mean two things.

One: they were idiots, which I highly doubted was the case.

Or two: they weren’t worried about me knowing anything, which meant they were going to dispose of me once this was over.

They had no qualms about killing. Neither of them batted an eyelash as they kicked Allen’s dead body to the side when we left Allen’s motel room.

Meanwhile, it had taken everything I had in me not to puke everywhere every time my eyes landed on the bits of brain matter scattered on the wall beside his dead body.

Winston and Rodger left me in the room alone for an hour once they had me tied and secured. When they came back, they had food, and their expressions were much happier.

My stomach growled with hunger when the smell of their food met my nose. I hadn’t realized it, but it had been a long while since I’d eaten anything.

“How much longer are you going to keep me here?” I asked.

---