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38

Ella

I moan as I shift my body to relieve the pressure on my shoulder. I’m lying on my side with my arms secured behind my back on the same hard floor, blindfold back in place. Between the drugs and the probable concussion, I’m having a hard time fully regaining consciousness. Just when I think I may be able to open my eyes, my mind and body slip back into nothingness. I have no idea how long I’ve been here. All I can think of whenever I come to is how happy I am to be alive. It’s in those brief moments, I’m hopeful, feeling like there’s some way I’ll get out of this. My head lulls to the side. It’s hard for me to control my muscles.

I’m trying to will my body to keep me awake. There are raised voices coming from another room. The sound is muffled, but I can tell it’s two men. My heart races as I suck in a breath. One captor is terrible enough; two is much worse. And given who my captor is, I’m pretty sure I know who’s with him.

My body jolts as the door slams open. A whimper escapes me as my bruises ache and limbs tremble.

“Get her up.”

I’m again pulled into a seated position and thrown back into the wall. From the voice, I know I was right about who will be on the other side of the blindfold when it’s ripped from my eyes for the second time.

Craig’s bloated, red face is hovering in front of my unfocused gaze. “Well, look what we have here. The nosy bitch who couldn’t mind her own business.”

My stomach twists as he squats down in front of me. The scent of stale sweat assaults my nostrils. With my fogginess, I don’t have time to react before Craig’s hand tightens around my throat. My nervous system immediately prompts my body to go into fight mode. I shift my body away from his hand the best I can from my awkward position against the wall, my hands still behind my back. Right as I’m about to give up my resistance, Craig releases me. I collapse to the side, gasping and coughing. I land hard on my shoulder since I don’t have my hands to catch me. Everything hurts. My head swims as the lack of oxygen, but I’m grateful it doesn’t slam into the ground. I’m not sure I can take another head injury.

Craig stands, lifting me back into the seated position as he does. He reaches to the side and pulls a chair over so he can sit in front of me. Leaning forward, he settles his elbows on his thighs, his hands clasped between his legs, and smiles down at me. “You being here now is all your fault, you know that?”

I gingerly shake my head, trying not to make the movement too aggressive .

“I knew you started to get suspicious at the end of last year. Why do you think I had Steve try to scare you away with the little stalking bit?” Bewilderment and fury make my stomach turn. How unhinged do you have to be to get your son to stalk someone in order to cover your crimes? At least his son gets it honest. He looks at me expectantly, then continues when I’m silent. “I thought you would run home to your family to get away from your stalker.” Air-quoting stalker , he lets out a humorless laugh. “How was I supposed to know you were a pathetic little orphan with no family to run to?”

If I wasn’t already so broken, his barb may have worked.

“You know, it was actually Steve’s idea. He seemed to think you two had a connection at the Christmas party last year. Then Steve got a little too into stalking you, if you know what I mean.” He gives me a pointed look. I don’t really know, but that’s probably for the best. It’s fitting that Steve thought we had a connection from him drunkenly hitting on me so aggressively, that eventually, one of my coworkers told him to stop. “I forced him to take a break, until I made one fucking mistake.” Craig clenches his hand into a fist and slams it against his thigh. “The one wire I forgot to approve, and it unraveled all my work over these years. Now that I had to pin those payments on you, everything will be under a fucking microscope. Which means my stream of additional income is about to decrease significantly. All thanks to you.” He shakes his head. “I feel real bad about what I had to do, but you ultimately brought this on yourself.”

“Why am I here, Craig? You could have just let me go to jail for your crimes. Why this?” I grit my teeth against the pain of simply speaking.

He sighs. “Sadly, what I gave the cops probably wouldn’t have stood up in court. Because of how I have the bank accounts structured, thankfully, they’ll never link them back to anyone. I could have tried to fabricate more evidence to implicate you, but this seemed easier. And you won’t be around to point any fingers at me.” He raises his eyebrows in question. “I couldn’t take that risk, don’t ya think?”

“Killing me is easier?” I breathe out shakily.

His smile is sickening as he answers me. “Tomato, to-mah-to.”

My stomach drops at how casually he’s talking about my impending murder. My face tingles with the tears gathering in my eyes.

“So you’re just going to kill me? And then what?” I press.

Craig shrugs, as if he doesn’t care. “Steve says he can make it look like you killed yourself. We’ve drafted quite the suicide note, revealing all your crimes. It’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.” He gives me an admonishing look. “But we’ll need you to cooperate and handwrite it for us. It’ll be much more believable.”

“I’m not going to help you, you piece of shit.”

He gives me a sad smile. “I was afraid of that. I guess we’ll just have to kill that boyfriend of yours.” I feel lightheaded. “Or maybe his cousin.” He scowls as his eyes shift to the door. “Since Steven failed the other day, he’ll just have to try again.”

Tyler? Steven was the one who almost shot Tyler?

Guilt makes my stomach hurt. I feel awful that Jack’s employee was injured and Tyler was scared all because of me. Tears leak uncontrollably down my face, unable to hold back any longer. I can’t let that happen. I would rather die than let anything happen to anyone else I care about. Shaking my head, I sob as I plead, “No! I will write it. Don’t hurt anyone else.”

“That’s what I thought.” His grin widens again. “But thankfully, we have a little time before it has to come to that.” My skin crawls when he runs his hand up my legging-covered thigh, squeezing it when he gets an inch from my center. “We have a little time for some fun.”

I’ve never felt fear so bone deep. Being murdered is terrifying, but being violated before is more than I can handle. And if that’s Craig’s plan, what if Steven wants the same thing? I swallow down my vomit as anger starts to battle the fear.

How dare these motherfuckers?

He leans closer to me, and I blame the head injury for what I do next. I gather as much saliva as I can and spit in his face. “I hope you rot in hell.”

Rage blankets his features. He wipes his face as he stands so abruptly that the chair tips over and bangs loudly on the floor. Kicking his leg behind him, he sends the chair across the room.

“You fucking bitch.” This time, he kicks his leg forward, knocking my feet to the side. I land hard on my back. Or as much on my back as I can with my hands behind me. The next kick collides solidly with my ribs. I instinctually try to tuck myself into the fetal position while also trying not to throw up. Any amount of hope I had earlier that I would be with Jack again starts to evaporate with every insult spat at me and kick delivered to my already mangled body.

Right before I slip into oblivion, I hear…something.

Footsteps, maybe?

My body attempts to force my eyes open. I need to know if my mind is playing tricks on me, but I quickly lose that battle.