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“Just make sure we look thoroughly over everything. Anything we might have missed, no matter how long it—”
Patrick walks in as I’m talking, opening the creaky screen door and crossing the threshold. But before I can get the whole thought out, he slumps to the floor.
At first, I think he’s tripped, and I’m momentarily stunned. But then someone is pulling me in, my body moving without me giving permission.
“If you scream, I’ll shoot him instead of just rendering the moron temporarily unconscious,” the voice at my temple growls.
I stumble back and the person lets me. Patrick hasn’t moved from the floor, and my eyes bore into his body as I silently beg for him to stand up. He was blindsided, we walked right into this, and it’s all my fault.
All my fault.
“Don’t worry, he’s just knocked out. Nice blow to the head will do that. He’ll still be the same dickwad pretty boy when he wakes up. If he wakes up.”
The evil in those words has my eyes flicking up, and I’m met with Nikolai Drafter aiming a gun at me.
“You,” I breathe, the word full of knowing and yet shock at the same time.
“My nephew called me. You’re not as stupid as you appear in all those hot shot movies, princess. But you were dumb enough to come here.”
Guilt rips my heart in two because I made Patrick come here. Everything in me wars with going for Nikolai or throwing my body over Patrick, the situation impossible. Adrenaline pumps through my system, making it impossible to concentrate, and yet everything is zoned in.
A nasty gash marks the right side of Patrick’s head, and I see the blood pooling on the floor. Panic grips my throat, and then that’s replaced by Nikolai’s hand when I don’t move fast enough.
“Patrick!” I wheeze, trying to will him to wake up.
If I lose him…
The thought makes my insides die a thousand deaths.
“You just couldn’t let it be, huh?” Nikolai waves the gun in my face as he pins me against the same wall he marked in red.
“Why?” I manage to mutter, his hand clamping down on my throat.
“Shut the fuck up, you know why. Your father ruined my family. That fucking rat. He could never get enough, not like you, you ran the minute it got hard. But couldn’t stay away, huh? Had to come back. He was six feet under, I didn’t have to be reminded of how he fucked my life and my family up, and then you came strolling into town like some Hollywood darling. All your fucking money. Assuming we’d all bow down. Someone had to make it end, had to stop the Mauers from fucking this town up even more.”
My lungs don’t seem to work, all the air being squeezed out in his fist. Spots dot my vision, and even if I tried to call for help, no one would hear it. We’re out here in the middle of the woods, all the Ashtons out for the festival.
“So here’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to get on your phone and transfer that money to me now. My fucking nephew sped up my timeline, getting caught like the idiot he is, but I don’t give a shit when I get the cash. Half a mil, now.”
He releases me, my knees giving out as oxygen rushes back into my body.
“I don’t know if I can get that much.” It’s not what I should say, but my brain won’t function correctly, and thoughts are just popping out.
“You better fucking try.” The cold metal of the gun presses to my temple, and I jump.
My knees hit the floor again, and I scramble for my phone, trying to push past the sheer terror and panic to concentrate. I open my phone, scrolling through the apps until I find my bank.
“No funny business. No trying to call for help, or I’ll kill him.” I look up in time to see Nikolai train the gun on Patrick.
“Please,no. You don’t have to do that. Patrick never did a thing, I didn’t do a—”
“Yes, you did!” He explodes, shaking the gun in the direction of the man I love. “Your fucking scumbag of a father fucked me out of a family business. My life was cushy, easy. I was about to walk into a guaranteed job and a ton of money after high school, and he ruined that. I was forced to become a fucking cop. You think I care about justice? About keeping people safe? Fuck no. I want what’s mine. And now you’re going to give it to me. And then I won’t have to see you all over the town you never should have stepped foot in.Mytown.”
That’s when it occurs; he’s going to kill me either way. When I give him this money, there is nothing else holding him back from fulfilling the destiny he believes he deserves. I need to give us a fighting chance, do something that might make it possible for me to get Patrick out of here.
“Okay. I’m going to wire the money. If I can … I don’t … I’ve never done this.” I fumble with my phone, pretending to shake uncontrollably. “I just … with you pointing that I can’t think.”
“Fucking do it,” he yells, my fear spiking with my heart rate.
