Page 106 of Rescued Dreams

If she could, she would scream and not stop.

Nicholas needed to be admitted to a psychiatric facility for the criminally insane. There was nothing else, except for his death, that would keep him from hurting more people.

He froze.

She heard it too—voices.

He dragged her along the carpeted hallway, going faster until they were practically running, then into a room where he left the door cracked and stopped to listen.

She wanted to make noise. Scream.

Fight him.

All her strength had evaporated, leaving her without the will to fight him, even if she were able to succeed. Maybe he wouldn’t shoot her, because that wasn’t how he wanted her to die. But she knew he would make her suffer for trying to overpower him.

A low male voice drifted to them from somewhere down the hall. “Nothing she said made sense. But as long as she’s safe and out.”

“I’m not so sure.”

It was Kane and Maria.

Nicholas shifted, and she felt the barrel of the gun press against her ribs. Amelia sucked in a breath through her nose.

“This whole thing doesn’t add up. Let’s—Ridge!”

Footsteps pounded down the stairs.

A tear rolled down Amelia’s cheek while she huddled in the dark with Nicholas. Her friends had no idea where she was. They weren’t going to save her, and right now she didn’t see how she could save herself.

Aren’t You supposed to help me get out of things like this?Maybe it didn’t work that way. Her grasp of faith was tenuous at best.Can You help me? Ridge, the twins, and Olivia…They all need You. Get them out. If I don’t make it…

It doesn’t matter.

She would rather die knowing they’d survived. But right now, she had no idea. They could just as easily be casualties of this whole thing.

His sick plan.

Nicholas dragged her from the room, continuing down the dark hall, away from that scene in the lobby. Where Ridge lay dead on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

He shoved another door open, and her shoes hit wood floor. The temperature dropped drastically, and Nicholas stopped long enough to flip on a light. “Down the stairs. Now.”

He was almost crazed with energy. The dangerous gleam in his eye was nothing she wanted anything to do with. But here she was. Trapped by her past mistakes.

It was a form of justice, keeping a balance to life, that she paid like this. People like Maddie and Ella should never be hurt because of her mistakes. There was nothing she could do about that.

Wasn’t God all about vengeance as well as love?

About justice and things being fair.

Mercy.

Amelia figured she could use all of that right about now. And if she could, she would send it all to Ridge and his sisters. To Olivia, who had been helping out apart from her job and didn’t deserve to be hurt.

She would give all the goodwill she had to them if it meant they would go on.

“Go.” He pushed her toward the dark staircase.

She should fall on purpose, stumble down the stairs and go flying, injuring every bone in her body. Which would, of course, be excruciating, but it would also hopefully ruin whatever plan he had in place.