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I don't want to say no, because I know he's only going to hurt me more if I decline. So I force myself to keep my eyes trained on the scene before me. The men keep pouring gasoline, and then one of them strikes a match and throws it on the remains of the shelter. I watch, horrified, as the bodies in the home burn, filling the air with a putrid stench.
Dead.
Gone.
The women who came here seeking shelter didn't find it, and now our once happy place has been turned into a burning pile of ashes and embers. I don't make a sound as I watch the place burned down. There is nothing for me to say. Tears would only make me appear weak in front of these men, who would undoubtedly use it to their advantage to hurt me more. But I'm not going to show my weakness.
I force myself to keep my head up and stare straight into the eyes of the man who brought me here. The one who keeps calling me sweetheart.
"You can break everything in my life, from my bones to my relationships. You can burn down my home. You can kill my friends, but you're never going to break me," I tell him.
"Is that so he?" He laughs easily, as if this is all a game to him. "Maybe you think I can't break you, but I'm here to prove you otherwise. By the time we're done with you, there will be nothing left. Just the broken shell of a girl once thought she had a will of her own. But we'll quickly beat that out of you. You won't be thinking that way for much longer."
With that he knocks me out. My face hits the hard ground and I whimper helplessly as I realize there's nowhere left for me to run. I feel a gun being cocked to my head and the cold barrel presses against my forehead. I think of begging for my life, but decide against it. There's no use. Maybe that would be a better fate than what's going to happen to me anyway.
Maybe I would be better off buried in the ground or burning along with the bodies of the rest of my friends inside the house. There's nothing left to do but find out what's going to happen.
Chapter 11
I'msittingonthecurb, and my head is heavy with the fumes of alcohol and nicotine I've consumed today. I feel heavy, tired and exhausted. But there's nowhere left to go. I decided to take Saul's advice, and tried to busy my mind with anything that would prevent me from thinking about Tallulah. But it didn't prove to be a good decision, because now, I'm too fucked up to think of anything but her. I thought alcohol would dull my senses, perhaps convince me that there is more to live for than the insufferable girl who escaped my clutches.
But it appears I was wrong. Because even now when my head is cloudy, all I can think about is her. The family she left behind, our dogs and me, everything I've built for her, for us. She was my angel, designed to stay by my side, born to be my wife. But now there's nothing left of our future. She made sure to shatter all those dreams. And the reality I once thought was waiting for us is nothing but a long gone dream.
My phone starts to ring and I groan as I pull it out and see Saul's name flashing across the screen. I don't want to answer, but I don't think I have a choice. He's going to keep calling me until I pick up. He's probably just trying to make sure I'm okay after the tumultuous night I've had, but as the phone incessantly rings longer and longer, I realize there's no running away from my business partner and his intention of helping me. Finally, I pick up the call.
"What?" I growl.
"Xavier, where are you?" he says, an urgent tone to his voice, one that instantly makes me think something's wrong.
"I don't know," I mutter. "I'm somewhere in the city. I went out drinking."
He doesn't ask me if I fucked anyone, which takes me by surprise, especially since he's been the number one cheerleader for me to do exactly that. Instead, he begins talking in so fast it takes me a second to catch up to what he's saying.
"We may have found Tallulah."
"What did you just say?" I hiss, getting up in an instant. My fists are shaking, and I want to fucking punch something. My eyes are already sweeping across the street trying to find the car that I came here with. And once I locate it, I start walking to it.
"I'm going to send you an address, and you need to be there as soon as you possibly can," Saul says. "I'm texting it to you now."
My phone buzzes with an incoming text and I shiver. Is it really possible Tallulah is really back? Could I be reunited with the love of my life in a matter of mere hours? It's going to take a while for me to get there. But Saul assures me that he will be there before me. That he's already close.
Once I end the call, I get in the car. I'm drunk as fuck, and it doesn't matter. There's no choice for me but to drive. I need to get to the location and help my girl before something happens. I can imagine Tallulah won't be happy about being caught.
I start driving like a madman. I know no one's going to stop me. My license plates ensure that everybody who works the streets here knows exactly who I am. Xavier fucking Gunn doesn't get stopped for random police checks. I'm not going to get pulled over by the side of the road because all of these men know I have the cruel desire to ruin their lives if they ever wrong me.
I drive, skidding off the road, tires crunching against gravel as I start pulling off well known roads, and driving into smaller areas that are less populated.
I check the address that Saul sent me, and quickly realize it's for a women's home that's located in a country next to ours. I cross the border without any trouble and race ahead of the clock to hopefully get there before Saul. I don't even trust my right wing man to be alone with Tallulah... I'm fucking obsessed, still, after all this time.
Reluctantly, I remember there's still a prize on bringing Tallulah home, dead or alive. Even though most of my men know that I won't want her brought back to me in pieces, I'm still worried one of them will do it. Pull the trigger and end her life, trying to bring her body home as a trophy. Little do they know, if they so much as harm a hair on her head, I'm going to kill them, including their families. I need to ensure they know just what a big mistake they've made by angering the don of the Scorpion cartel.
I get closer and closer to my destination. I soon see the house in front of me. A small crumbled down building. It looks like it's seen better times, especially now that it's fucking burning into cinder.
I stop the car a street over, and race to find out what happened. When I reach the house, the first thing I hear is the wailing of a small child inside the home's burning walls. I can't bring myself to leave that kid in there.
I groan, pulling my shirt over my head while still recovering from the all the alcohol I've drank tonight.
But there is no time for hesitation and no chances left to take. I hold the shirt over my mouth to prevent smoke poisoning. I go into the burning building, following the wails until I find the baby in a crib crying his heart out while his mother lies on the floor, unconscious from all the smoke that's in the room. A beam has ripped itself from the roof and buried her. The moon shines upon the scene ominously.
