“Shut her up, Caz.”
Oh shit. Caz, the big guy, the not dead guy, turns me to him, wild eyes demanding obedience. I stop screaming and start sobbing. “You seen what just happened, right, girly?”
My chest shakes as I try to pull my shit together, but he just shot him.
I’m wearing his blood.
I can’t do this.
I can’t be here.
“Don’t piss him off, girly. We only need you to get the money. Alive is better than dead. But we can make it work either way.”
Oh God. Oh God.
Pull it together... I’ve got to pull it together.
Somehow, with a strength I only manage to muster because if I die, so does my son, I lock it down and clamp my lips closed, balancing as much on my good leg as I can. But I can’t stop the tears that are pouring down my face.
“That’s it. Looks like we got one with a brain, boss,” Caz announces, and I suck in a deep breath through my nose, trying to breathe through the pain and the fear. “Awful pretty when you cry,” he whispers. “Bet you’d be awful pretty crying with my cock shoved all the way down that throat too.”
No . . .This isn’t happening.
“Of course she’s got a brain. She’s my kid.” The boss answers, and bile creeps up my throat.
“What?” I gasp before I can think clearly, forcing the vomit back down.
I didn’t hear him right.
I couldn’t have.
“Didn’t hear me,Ash-ton?” He says my name like it’s a curse to be hissed. “Bring her a chair before she falls the fuck over. I need her standing on her own if I’m going to get Murphy to pay.”
Caz slides a metal chair behind me and shoves me into it, unimaginable pain radiating down from my knee. “Leave us,”the boss tells his minion, and my head swims as Caz obeys, leaving me alone with the killer wielding a gun.With my father?
The boss brings his yellow eyes back to mine. “You’re prettier than your momma.”
I stare in shock and horror, the pain growing with every second, and try to cling to the idea that this man is lying. But under the scars and hollowed cheeks, under the strung-out eyes and greasy hair, I see it. I see Evan in his features. And I don’t want to, but I see me too, and another tear falls.
“She wasn’t lying,” I whisper, horrified.
“Oh, your momma. She lied her fine ass off when you went to see her, but not about everything. She wasn’t lying about that plea deal. She signed that shit, but we had a plan, and the kingpin she’s giving up ain’t me. Your momma is making herself useful and taking out our competition.”
I stare at him, trying to force my brain to ignore the pain and process his words... but I’m not sure I can.
“She wasn’t lying about me though. We met when she moved to Maryland and was looking for a way to... take the edge off. Your daddy just didn’t know how to give Suzanna what she liked.”
He thrusts his hips, and I think I’m going to be sick.
I breathe through it.
Scared to give this man any reason to shoot me as he spins his gun.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
Think, Ashton, think.
Okay, keep him talking. If he’s talking, he won’t kill me...will he?
