Page 97 of Tempt Me

I kept slowly walking toward him. He was smashing his head with the gun, and I reached forward, trying to take it from his grip. He snapped, his bloodshot eyes bugging out as he latched onto my wrist.

I screamed and tried to jerk free. He cackled and held onto my wrist tighter. Taliah smashed him upside the head with some medical tray, and he lost his grip.

Ferdinand lunged at Taliah and knocked her off balance, and the two battled with the weapon. Scrambling, I searched the ground for fallen medical equipment. I spotted a syringe, and without thinking, I pulled the cap off and ran toward the two of them.

I slammed the needle into his neck and pushed down the plunger. His body jerked, and his eye shot open before he gasped and fell forward. I reached for Taliah and was stunned when a loud shot rang out. Blood coated my feet.

“Oh god!” I screamed, trying to push his body off of Taliah’s. I couldn’t see where the bullet went. I had no clear view of who ithit. Finally freeing the doctor from the maniac, I saw the gaping hole in her stomach. My heart dropped.

“Oh my god…Taliah!”

She was panting, her strength a testament, as she forced out a laugh. “I have sewed up worse than this…I will…be okay.”

Her voice was trembling. Her effort to even talk was evident in sapping her strength.

“Hold on, Doctor Masters. I will get help!”

Her teeth began to chatter, and I walked as fast as I could to the phones in the living area of her home. Footprints of her blood trailed behind me. I picked up the cell and dialed the police.

“Please! There was an intruder who shot my friend. Come immediately!” After they confirmed they were on their way, I hung up and dialed a new number.

A gruff voice picked up on the other end, but not the one I dialed.

“Goliath? Where’s Pharaoh?”

He was silent for a minute. “He will be okay. Are you doing well?”

I started crying. “No! Your sister has been shot, Goliath. My ex came to kill me, and there was a big fight. Taliah, she…she was trying to protect me. She got shot. I called the cops. I don’t know what to do. Everything is happening so fast. I need—I need Pharaoh. Please. Where is Pharaoh?”

Goliath was speaking in low tones to someone next to him, telling them of the situation in a demanding tone.

“We’re on our way, Fallon. Where is he?”

Pharaoh’s brother sounded every bit the monster the rumors claimed him to be.

“He’s in the medical room. I-I stabbed him with some kind of drug. I don’t know what it was…he just went down.”

Goliath was silent.

“I…I don’t know what to do. I am waiting for the police.”

“We’re coming to you now. You need to lock yourself in a room, Fallon. In case he wakes up.”

I gasped, not even realizing he may not be dead.

“But what about Tal—”

“We will take care of our sister. Just hide. Now.”

He hung up the phone, and I cursed at it. All the Masters’ brothers were arrogant fucking assholes! I wasn’t going to leave Taliah to die.

I limped back to the medical room, opening the door to see…nothing. Both Ferdinand and Taliah were gone. There was an open window and an abandoned puddle of blood.

I walked to the window and looked outside. There were trails of blood leading into the woods behind the house.

Was she running?

Did he wake up and go after her?