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I throw my arms up to cover my head and protect myself from further damage. I’m rewarded with a punch to the gut, and I dare to peek at my attacker. It looks like the hooded guy from outside my apartment yesterday.
He snarls, “You made my job easy for me. So easy.” His casual glance at my phone makes me realize he somehow tracked me through it, so I toss it down. He shakes his head. “Too late now. You shouldn’t take what doesn’t belong to you.”
“I’ll give it back!” I plead. “With interest.”
“Doesn’t work like that.” He grabs my throat and squeezes. “Boss said I could make your death as painful as I wanted to.”
I remember this goon—Billy. He’s known for being merciless. I thought I had been smarter, that I could get away, but I should have known Big Eddie would find me.
“If you kill me, you won’t ever get the money back,” I reason.
“You don’t get it.” He pulls me closer. “It ain’t about the money. It’s about his rep. We can’t let you get away with it.”
I feel the surreal sensation of metal sliding into my side. It registers as if it were happening to someone else. He jerks the blade up, and pain tears through my senses, blood gushing out of me.
I reach down as he steps back, applying pressure to the wound, but it does little to help because my hands are shaking too hard.
Billy says, “I was always wondering about that phrase, death by a thousand cuts. How many can you suffer before you die?”
As dizziness overwhelms me, I fall to my knees. I’m not sure if it’s from blood loss or the thought of a thousand painful cuts. It could also be the nasty blow to the head.
He grasps a handful of my hair and drags me to his car, which is hidden on the side road. I scream as the pain overtakes my shock.
Opening his trunk, he lifts me up and tosses me inside the plastic-lined compartment—an easy cleanup for my bloody death.
I kick out and catch him on the hip, and he raises his fist to punch me in the face. I flinch, covering myself. A swirling sensation of fear and anger spin in my gut, and then I kick at him again. I make contact and feel him fall away.
There’s a grunt as air is knocked out of someone, but it isn’t me.
I open my eyes and don’t see Billy. I don’t see anyone. Struggling to sit up, I finally lean out of the trunk, preparing to leap out and run.
All three guys are standing over a prone, motionless Billy.
“Is he dead?” I ask.
Kurtis narrows his eyes on me. “We can’t kill.”
“I wasn’t asking you to kill him,” I reply.
“He’s alive.” Evan nudges Billy with his foot. “But we can’t do any more to help you unless you agree to return with us.”
Spots fill my vision. I’m on the verge of passing out. “But he knows where I am. He will just come for me again.”
“We can make him believe he killed you,” Evan says. “But only if you sign the contract.”
Evan pulls the paper from his back pocket and holds it out.
Apparently, one can’t escape one’s karma.
Blood is already coating my hand, and I press my required bloody thumbprint to the paper.
“Shit!” Dante calls out at the sight of my bloody hands. When he moves closer, he sees that I’m sitting in a pool of my own blood. His hands grasp my wounded side when he discovers the source. “We need to stabilize her,” he barks at the other two.
“I didn’t realize how bad it was,” Evan says apologetically.
My eyes flutter closed, and Kurtis whispers a curse. “Is she going to make it?”
“She looks as pale as death,” Evan mutters, then orders, “Kurtis, grab his phone to get a pic.Dante, let her go for a second. Okay?”
