Page 44 of Clash

“Fuck you, Chuck!”

He started to shake me, my head violently whipping back and forth until he started slamming it into the ground. He pistol-whipped me with the barrel of his gun, hitting me over and over again until I could taste the coppery hint of my own blood coating my tongue. I was lucky he didn’t pull the trigger in the process.

“I want my fucking money!”

“Like I said,” I growled, spitting blood out the side of my mouth. “It. Wasn’t. Fucking. Yours!”

He kicked me again, this time I definitely heard the same rib from before re-break. God, Zeppelin and my mother are going to tan my hide for this one.

If I even make it out of this alive.

Fuck!

I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Gina… her money… she’ll never receive it now.

Fuck!

Why was I even thinking about her?

Why was I not fighting back?

He had the upper hand. My piece was locked in the saddle bag of my bike, there was no way to grab it, and the accident made it impossible for me to wrestle with him, not when I felt like a few of my bones shattered upon impact.

It was like I was too broken to put up a fight, knowing that I probably had it coming anyway. Nobody would miss me…

Not Gina…

Not Alex…

Hell, even my own brothers wouldn’t care that I was gone. Besides my mom, nobody gave two shits about me. I was a fuck-up, one that people tolerated at best.

“I’m going to take great pleasure in ending your life, Chuckie Boy. This is for Addie.”

Closing my eyes, I awaited my fate, ready for the bastard to pull the trigger. I probably deserved this. Karma was a bitch, but she was my bitch, one that attached to me like a leech.

And then, just like I anticipated. The gun went off.

BANG!

17

The alert flashed across the TV screen, making my heart bottom to my feet.

AMBER ALERT

Alex Elias: Boy age four

Last seen with his mother, Gina Elias, driving a 2021 Chrysler Pacifica. Proceed with caution, mother may be armed and dangerous.

License plate. ERICGRL.

Boy has black hair and hazel eyes.

If you have any information about their whereabouts, please contact your local police station.

Then our pictures flashed on the screen. Only you couldn’t really see us. It was from the security camera at the truck stop. It didn’t even catch us getting into the cab with the trucker lady. It just showed us walking through the parking lot in the dead of night. Why didn’t he use actual pictures? Oh… I know why… because the bastard never let me take them. He said that I was too ugly to be on camera, and that he didn’t want people knowing what his son looked like, just in case he turned out disgusting like his mother.

Yeah… I married a real winner.