Page 63 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

“Did you hear that?”the first guy snapped into the phone.“We’re not going to jail because you fucked up.”

After a few seconds of silence, the first guy said, “Fine, we’ll try again.”

It took everything in me not to cry out as he hung up the phone, knowing that he planned on picking up from where he'd left off.I wasn't sure how much more I could take, and I knew that my mother wasn’t faring any better.

However, I didn’t have a choice when I felt one of them grab a fistful of my hair again, then yank me from the couch to throw me on the floor.My eyes snapped open to see the second guy still standing next to my mother in the chair, and the only way that I could tell them apart was by their eye color.The first guy had light blue eyes, and the second guy had a set of dark brown ones.

Looming over me, the first guy asked, “Do you want to see your mother die?”

I frantically began shaking my head.“N...no...please-”

“Then you’ve got one last chance to tell me where the money is, Zoya,” he bit out, and that’s when I knew that he was really going to kill us.Letting me know that he knew my name hadn’t been a mistake on his part; it’d been to show me that he’d finally run out of patience.

“We don’t have any,” I repeated for the millionth time.“I haven’t been paid yet, but...but if you...if you give me a couple of days, I can go to...to Stephanie and tell her that I need my money.”

“Do you seriously think that I’m going to give you the opportunity to go to the police?”he sneered.

“No, no...”I rushed out.“I’d never go to the police.The...the auction was sponsored by the Korolevs, so I’d never call the police.”

“Man, we’ve been here too long,” the second guy stated coldly.“We need to cut our losses.I’m not trying to get caught.”

“I want the fucking money,” the first guy snarled.“And I’m not leaving here without it.”

“Fine,” the second guy spat, and my heart stopped as I watched him finally pull out a gun, then point it at my mother.

“What...what are you-”

“I’m counting to three, and if you don’t tell us where the money is, I’m shooting your mother,” he announced evenly, sounding like he had no soul.

“No!”I yelled, but he started his countdown as the first guy grabbed me by my hair, then slammed my face into the coffee table.

“One...two...three...”

The sound of gunfire stole my breath as I looked up to see blood seeping out of my mother’s chest, and when I started crawling towards her, the first guy grabbed my left ankle, then dragged me back towards the couch.

I was screaming for my mother as he said, “You should have just given us the money.”

Hot fire erupted across my chest when a second gunshot echoed throughout the house, and I’d never felt such an all-consuming pain before.I’d been shot because of Marcelle’s greed, and even bleeding on my living room floor, I could hardly believe it.

“Let’s get out of here,” the second guy rushed out.“We should have gotten silencers.”

I ignored the rustling sounds of the men fleeing the scene, and even though I’d sworn that I’d never bring the police to the Korolevs’ doorstep, I knew that my mother and I were going to die if I didn’t call 911; there was no way around it.

So, doing my best to ignore the need to get to my mother, I dragged my beaten body towards the kitchen to find my phone, and when I finally managed to get my phone, I struggled to unlock it, but when I finally did, I dialed 911 with no choice.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“My...my mother and...and I have been...we’ve been shot...”I rasped, pain threatening to take me under with each breath that I took.

“Okay, you’re saying that you and your mother have been shot,” the operator echoed.

“We’re at...we’re at 2461 Singleton Street...”I went on, trying to give her as much information as I could before I passed out or died.

“Are the perpetrators still there, ma’am?”

“No...no, they le...left...”

“Is your mother alive?”she asked, and my heart froze in my chest.