“Why are you doing this? Don’t you have enough money?”
“You can never have enough money,” the guy behind me said.
“Take him,” the other man in charge said.
They lowered the hook and unhooked Austin’s handcuffs from the chain. When his legs collapsed and his body dropped on his shattered knee, Austin let out an agonizing scream that tore through my heart and damaged my soul.
They were none too gentle when they pulled him off the floor and dragged him through a door to the left.
Austin turned his head towards me and mumbled, “Don’t tell them anything.”
“Fucking Boy Scouts, they never know when to quit.”
The guy in front of me paced while he waited for his orders to be carried out.
Glass shattered as a gunshot cut through the silence.
Then another.
“No, no, no…”
The guy behind me let go of my hair. My head fell forward while I sobbed for the man who’d done everything he could to save me.He gave me my parents. The steel eyed man who showed me his soft side. The caring man who stood between me and the bad guys.
“Now that he’s gone, there’s no reason for you to keep lying.”
The room went dark.
I screamed.
Flashes of light lit the room like fireflies on a warm summer evening.
I closed my eyes and waited to die as bullets flew around the room.
I heard thump after thump as things—people?—dropped to the floor.
I held my breath.
How long until a bullet ends my life?
“Clear,” someone yelled.
“Clear,” someone else echoed.
“Lights,” a third voice said.
I was still alive.
How am I alive?
The lights came back on. Six men, covered in black from head to toe, stood around the room.
“Nina Novak, I presume?” The guy nearest me said.
Nothing. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t think. All I could do was stare at the dead bodies and pools of blood covering the floor.
“Miss Novak, it’s over. We’re here to bring you home.”
Austin?I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
