Page 82 of Tell No Lies

How did these get here? Who was doing this? The studio was locked up. How did anyone get inside without me noticing?

I could hear Brandon’s voice yelling at me from my phone. Slowly, I lifted it to my ear. “Brandon, I think someone is here.”

I heard him curse. “Aubrey, where are you? I want you to get to your car as fast as you can!”

“I’m in the hallway. I’m just leaving the studio now. Someone turned the lights off, and there are these pictures of me on the ground. Brandon, I don’t know what to do.”

“Keep calm, Aubrey. Just get to your car. I’m going to stay on the line with you.” There was silence for a few beats. “I just texted Carter, so he knows where you are. He’s hurrying.”

The hair on the back of my neck sprang up. I spun around, coming face to face with a masked man. I had nowhere to run and no one to help me. I was stuck. My phone and the pepper spray, my only weapon, slid into the darkness.

“Hi, Aubrey. Did you miss me?”

This couldn’t be happening. The need to get away from him took over. I stepped back, shaking my head. My back hit the wall.

He took another step forward as I told myself to fight. One kick to his knee caught him off guard. He fell forward at me, but I dodged to the right and ran.

I heard his pounding steps following me. Ten steps from the door, my foot was pulled out from under me. I crashed to the floor and felt him move on top of me.

Thrashing out, I made contact. Warm liquid gushed onto my hands. Feeling his pause, I pounced to my feet. Limping over him to the door, I prayed I would make it.

All I could hear was the sound of my own breathing.

I gripped the doorframe for a second before pulling on the handle. It was locked.

Before I could blink, I was being thrown to the ground again. My head made contact first, then my shoulder, which let out an alarming pop. Pain swept over my body, paralyzing me.

“You should have listened to me.” I didn’t know what he meant, but I didn’t have a moment to consider it before another blow came to my temple. “You ruined everything. Now it’s my turn.”

I tried to move my hands up to block my head, but only my left arm moved. His weight lifted away from me.

For half of a heartbeat, I thought he was done. I survived.

An explosion in my ribs released the screams I’d been holding in. Again and again, until my insides burst.

It was too much. I was done. My strength was gone and had taken with it my will to fight back.

Blow after blow landed in my ribs and stomach, but ever so slowly, the pain decreased. I was growing numb. My body jerked and bent with each hit, but soon I felt nothing.

☼ ☼ ☼

Unfamiliar voices pulled me out of the darkness. I told myself to move but nothing happened. Not even my eyes had strength to open. The voices blended into other sounds, too confusing to follow. The sensation of being lifted jolted me into awareness.

A painful breath escaped my lips, and it felt like the first movement my lungs had had in years. Everything ached.

“Stay with us, Aubrey.” One voice, a man, spoke gently near my ear.

☼ ☼ ☼

I laid propped up in the back of the ambulance while the paramedics looked me over. I felt numb. I couldn’t hear or feel those around me. I watched the chaos around me but saw nothing.

I heard my name but didn’t bother turning. Anyone could find me. I wasn’t safe anywhere.

Two officers walked out of the studio with a man between them. Actually, that scum didn’t deserve to be called a man.

I mindlessly watched them walk him to their car. Before they let him slide in, one of the officers pulled off the mask, and I finally saw who had been watching me, photographing me, attacking me.

I gasped and immediately began choking back my sobs.