Page 77 of Ache
“Enough,” Gunner grumbles. “Open it already. We need to get out of here.”
“I’m not opening shit.” I clench my fists.
“Oh, no?” Gunner nods, and the guy with the gun points it at Alec’s head. I visibly tremble. “We make this simple or hard, pretty. Open the safe, no one gets hurt. Fight me, he goes first, then him.” He looks at Tage. “Then you.”
“What did you say about cutting off your fingers?” my mother asks condescendingly. “We can totally do that.”
“You’re full of shit.” Tage pulls me closer. “None of us are walking out of here alive once you get what you want.”
“I guess that’s a gamble you are going to have to take, groundhog.”
“Gamble on your words? No, thanks,” Tage hisses.
“How come you didn’t just die the first time?” Gunner groans.
“You’re a shitty shot?” Tage offers superciliously.
“Let’s see.” Gunner pulls out a gun from the back of his waistband and points it right at Tage.
I don’t know what suddenly comes over me, a moment of insanity, maybe? A suicidal mindset perhaps— death-or-glory, do-or-die?
“No!” I scream, pushing Gunner’s arm away. It goes off, and instantly all hell breaks loose.
Tage dives at Gunner, wrestling him to the floor. Gunner’s hit man points and shoots, and then Alec is in front of me. Then, he’s not. He’s on the ground. Bleeding.
“Alec!”I screech one octave lower than a dog can hear. Everyone in the room grinds to a halt.
“Alec!” I try to reach for him, but I’m grabbed. “Alec,” I fight, “Alec. . .” I’m having déjà vu.
“Save him!” I scream as they tear me away. “You have to save him!” I flail in the stranger’s arms in a fit of panic, reaching for the window.
Gunner drags me out of the room with a gun to my head. Tage looks like he wants to bolt after us but is stuck to the floor.
“Move, and she’s fucking dead.”
The glass door swings closed, and the elevator doors ding open. The last vision I see is Tage frozen, and Alec bleeding out on the floor.
Alec . . .
The elevator ride is hazy. I’m in shock, back in the hands of the two people I hate the most.How did this happen?
“Did the two of you have it all planned?” I ask, removed. “To ruin my life again?”
“We just wanted what was ours.” My mother’s answer is foul. It’s like she can barely stand to converse with me.
“How did you break out of jail?” I look up at Gunner through blurry eyes.
“Lots of money, the right contacts, and a stellar escape plan. The only thing I didn’t bank on was your boyfriend still being in the picture. All my intel told me he was history. And then you fucking showed up with him. How did you know?”
“Tage was never out of the picture. He’s just a master at disguising himself.” I’m smug. I’m about to lose everything, might as well try and hold on to my attitude. “I remembered you two fighting about a key. We researched. It wasn’t hard. You’re not that smart.”
“Aren’t I?” The ugly, faded tattoos on his neck dance as he looks down at me. “I have you. You’re the only one who can open that box. My fingerprint may work on the door and elevator, but that box and those contents belong solely to you.”
We walk down the light hallways to the steel door we entered through as Gunner verbally vomits. I don’t care about a thing he’s saying. I don’t care about what he’s going to do to me or what he fucking wants. All I care about is Alec.
Please God, let him live. Let him be okay.
“And there are a lot of people I owe. I need those diamonds. This isn’t over.”
