Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I glanced around at the men. There were three of them. They were tight-lipped and stern. The bargain was obvious. Open the door, or else I would be killed. I had no clue if they would really do it, but one look at them and they looked like they meant business. I had barged in where I was told not to go, so I wasn’t going to force Cole and Anya to suffer because I was an impatient little shit.
I began to fight and struggle, but the man’s grip on me was like iron.
With a vicious shove, I was thrown against a metal door. It was so thick my body made a dull thud when I collided with it. My entire body hurt like crazy. The man then banged against the door. He grabbed me by my shirt and pushed my face against what looked like a camera.
"See who I have here," he growled. "You don't want to see her dead, do you? If you don't, then open the door right now, and we’ll talk. We just want to talk. The longer this takes the more hurt she gets."
One of the other men banged the door with the edge of his gun, and I swallowed, and started to shake my head to tell whoever was on the other side of the camera, since Cole’s car was not in the front my guess was it was Anya, not to open the door. I didn’t speak lest I pushed them too far over the edge, and they killed me immediately, but I was almost certain they were not going to kill me while I was useful to them. Once the door was open and they got what they wanted though …
There was no movement.
The man who was holding me up sighed. “Go on,” he said to the guy who was tapping his gun against the door.
The man lifted his gun and pointed it straight at my head. My heart stopped beating. I was so terrified I couldn’t even scream. He cocked his gun, and I knew it was the end. There was no point in fighting, they were going to do what they were going to do, but at least, I could save sweet little Anya. I closed my eyes and called out to God.
"I know you can see this," he said to the camera. "I'm going to count to three, and if you don't open up by then, she's dead."
"One ..." he began, and despite how brave I wanted to be, I couldn’t stop the tears that ran down my face.
"Two-"
"Don't open the door!" I yelled and squeezed my eyes shut. This was because I was sure they were going to hit me again or perhaps they were going to put the bullet in my head. I didn’t care.
"Don't open it," I screamed again, trembling, and the blow came behind. I fell to the floor in a daze. I couldn’t even see properly. Suddenly, I felt a blast of cool air.
The door was open. She had opened the door.
A commotion followed and I heard a scream. My mind registered it as Anya's voice. With that, I was shocked back to my senses. When I managed to pull myself up, I felt her small, warm hands on mine, trying to see if I was alright.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, her face soaked with tears. "I couldn’t allow them to hurt you."
"Oh, sweetheart," I cried and hugged her. I whispered in her ear. "Where's your dad?"
Before she could respond, she screamed and flew into the air. I watched in horror as she landed on her back on the ground. One of the men had kicked her so hard she was almost six feet away from me. She was screaming in pain.
I was so furious, but I couldn’t lash out. Her father was not around, and so from now on, she was in my care. I needed to protect her, if necessary, with my life. It was my fault. I came here when I shouldn’t have.
I heard one of the men speak on his phone. “We got the girl and the teacher.”
I wiped my tears away, pushed away my pain, and sharpened my focus. I was going to find a way for both of us to get out of this frightening trap, no matter what. And if both of us couldn’t survive it, then I would make sure at the very least that she did.
Chapter 53
Cole
“He just wanted you to come over for a friendly chat, but now that you've killed his men, you have to pay for that, bello?”
I received the call when I was midway back to the city. It was Anya’s phone, but it wasn’t her. For the first few seconds, I couldn’t understand it. The room was blast-proof. How could they have her? Was my phone hacked so that it seemed as if the call was coming from her phone? I was confused until I heard her crying in the background. They had her. Somehow, they must have tricked her into opening the door. The line went dead. My knuckles on the steering wheel were bone white as I pressed down on the gas pedal and flew even faster back to the city.