Page 103 of Beautiful Killer

The sound of footsteps echoed through the shop again and I froze. He was back already, and I was terrified of what came next.

Bobby walked back in. He was carrying a gas can.

My fear skyrocketed to the point I felt dizzy from it.

I shrank back. “What are you going to . . .” A shadow moved over the floor by the door. Someone was out there. My eyes shot to Bobby, but he’d seen my reaction and descended on me, grabbed my hair, and held the gun to my head.

“I know you’re there. Show yourself, or I hurt her,” Bobby called out.

Van stepped into the open doorway. His eyes came straight to me. “You okay, sweetheart?”

I bit back a sob. “I’m sorry,” I said. Because of me now Van was in danger as well.

He shook his head. “Don’t need to be, Sunny.” Van took another step into the room. “Why don’t you put down that gun, huh, Bobby?”

Bobby tugged my head back hard. “You make another move and I’ll blow her fucking brains out.”

Van froze, hands coming up, palms out.

“Put your gun on the floor and kick it to me,” Bobby said.

Van did as he asked, expression hard as stone.

“Looks like you won’t be dying alone,” Bobby said to me. He waved his gun at Van. “Sit down, asshole, take those cuffs from your pocket, and put them on.”

Van did as he was told, seemingly unfazed. “Zeke’s on the way,” he muttered under his breath when he sat down by me. “It’s going to be all right, Sunny.”

“Okay,” Bobby said, drawing our attention back to him. He picked up the gas can and walked back toward us. Van jumped to his feet again, but Bobby aimed the gun back at me. “Sit the fuck back down.”

Van growled, nostrils flaring. “No matter what happens here today,” Van said, voice cold, deadly. “She dies, you die. I want that to sink in.”

“I’m the one with the gun,” Bobby said.

“You’re stupider than you look if you think that’s going to save you.”

Bobby started to look uneasy. “I said, sit the fuck back down.”

Van held his eyes for a beat then started to lower himself back to the floor.

Bobby took the opportunity to take a cheap shot while Van had his hands cuffed, and hit him on the side of the head with the butt of his gun. I screamed, and Van growled again, listing to the side momentarily. Blood instantly started oozing from a cut on the side of his head.

That wouldn’t stop Van, I knew that much, but with the gun pointed at me again there wasn’t much he could do. Bobby’s hands were shaking as he lifted the gas can and splashed gas on and around us.

I gasped, a sob choking me, and Van cursed.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could make this quick,” Bobby said. “But it needs to look like an accident. Someone finds you with bullet holes from my gun, it could get tricky for me. This way there’ll be no evidence.”

Van said Zeke was on the way, but I was starting to think he wouldn’t get here in time. That we were going to burn alive.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

“I owe a lot of bad people a lot of money.” He was sweating, shaking harder now. “If I don’t pay them, I’ll end up chopped into tiny pieces and buried in cement somewhere.”

“What about Julia? You kill me, it will hurt her. You say you love her, but you’ll do this to her?”

“I have no choice!” he roared, his voice echoing around the room. “I’ve lost her anyway. I found the key to your house in Julia’s bag, your security code on her phone. I took a chance, tried to get what I needed to keep my head above water. You’d stopped giving us money.” He cursed. “It wasn’t enough, things were past desperate. So I decided to hit your place again, but without Kyle. I couldn’t afford to give him a cut, but your asshole boyfriend showed up before I could bust through the window.” His fingers curled into a fist. “When Julia found out what I did, that I was behind your robbery, she lost it.” He gritted his teeth. “She was going to call the cops, I couldn’t let her do that.” His face clouded over. “I’d hoped we could work things out, but now . . . you’re right . . .”

It was him, behind the robbery.