Page 50 of Thirteen Years
I had a sinking feeling of dread. Something more than the fact that my best friend was taken. Missing.
Something felt off and I rubbed my chest shakily.
Something felt irrevocably changed.
I looked towards the pile of blankets on the floor. Lacey’s blonde hair against Nat’s black. Lexi’s red hair she’d gotten from Paul tangled with the other two colors and I started crying, praying, and begging.
Chapter 36
Icould see the house, and the closer I got, the more I heard Becks’ screaming. It enraged me, so I ran faster, pushing my body harder. Something was wrong. Paul hadn’t checked in. He would’ve if everything had gone well. If he had Becks and she was safe.
Something was wrong.
I pushed myself harder.
Chapter 37
Iscreamed again. I also managed to loosen the rope around my ankle as Clark was fighting me, trying to put his full body weight on me. I clawed and kicked, bit and screamed, never staying still. No matter how much pain I was in, I couldn’t give up. I wouldn’t give up. I had to fight.
Lucas was coming.
Lucas was coming.
Chapter 38
As I ran the last few feet towards the decrepit house, hearing Becks’ screams, the adrenaline shot through my system like an injected form of the hormone. I didn’t pause or hesitate running through the black space where the door should be. I heard sirens faintly in the distance but there wouldn’t be any waiting, not that I’d ever planned on it to begin with.
Thundering down a short hallway, I hit the only room with light in it and kept going despite the horrifying scene before me.
My best friend, my partner and brother, lying sightless in a pool of his own blood.
Somebody had already taken care of Larry. The fucking world was better off without that scumbag.
What had to be Clark, in all his asshole glory, was on top of my woman, who looked like she’d been through hell and back. Despite being broken and bleeding, she was giving him absolute hell.
I dove the last foot and tackled him off of her, rolling across the wooden floor and slamming into the wall.
Fists started flying and I grinned through the pain and blood every time he made a connection, relishing in his grunts when I struck back.
Becks was screaming and crying to my left but I couldn’t pause to look at or reassure her, not yet.
This was literally life or death.
Clark managed to straddle me and a flash of silver caught my eye. Fuck, he had a knife. I caught his wrist as it arced down at me, straining against him. The scumbag was stronger than he looked.
“Clark!”
Becks’ voice caused both of us to glance over.
Clark threw back his head laughing at what he saw.
Chapter 39
“Go to hell!” I screamed, gripping Larry’s gun in my shaking hand. Clark didn’t get a chance to finish laughing before I was firing and watching the bullets hit him in the head. He toppled backwards off of Lucas before my knees gave out and I dropped the gun when my knees hit the floor.
Lucas scrambled over to him checking for a pulse.
“He’s gone, Becks. You did it,” Lucas’ voice was coming to me faintly, like it was down a tunnel, as I watched him crawl towards me. He hesitated before touching my arms lightly, seeming to be unsure of where to touch me that would hurt the least.
