AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know I can’t. I tried. That’s why you have to do it. You are the only one who can get close enough.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
She approaches me, and I only realize at the last second what she’s about to do when her hand pulls back and she delivers a sharp slap across my face. The whole world goes bright white for a second while sizzling pain bursts to life in my cheek and radiates outward.
My mom’s never hit me, didn’t even spank us as kids. This woman in front of me is so far gone. I can barely bring myself to call her my mother anymore. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help her. There is still time, time to find her way back to us. If I can just get her away from here, get her help, I’m sure one day she can be my mom again.
She doesn’t say a word, leaving me gasping and fighting to stay on my feet while the world spins. She locks the door behind her, and the sound rings out like an accusation.
One thing is for sure. I need to get the hell out of here. Frustrated tears threaten to fill my eyes, but I force them away. If I want to feel sorry for myself, there will be plenty of time to do it once I’m out of here.
What was I thinking? That she would magically see reason? There’s no getting through to her. And if she can’t protect herself, she can’t protect me. The memory of those bruises and that swollen eye make me test my theory on how to break through my tape. I find the sharpest of the four corners of the desk and turn around, rubbing the tape over it. I work quickly, racing against the clock, and it doesn’t seem like it’s doing much good until I feel the tight wrap loosening. That gets me moving faster, ignoring the pain in my sprained wrist, and focusing everything on succeeding. I have to. There’s no choice.
By the time the lock clicks again, I’ve been at this forever and there’s a thin layer of sweat coating my skin. I stop what I’m doing, leaning my ass against the desk, hoping nobody will piece together what I’ve been working on. The tape is looser now than it was, and I think I’ve cut close to halfway through. There are so many layers, and I can’t fucking see what I’m doing.
“Look at this.” The pair of tall, bulky men who enter are dressed in black, but this time, there are no ski masks to hide their faces like there were back in the garage. Once I spot the swollen nose on one of them and the bandages around it, I remember the elbow I drove into it.
No wonder he’s looking at me with blank hatred.
“How’s the nose?” I ask, smiling. “I hope it’s not bothering you too much.”
“That’s right,” he murmurs before snickering. “Be a smart-ass now. Pretend there’s anything you can do about this.” He and his friend exchange a nasty laugh before they’re on me, and no amount of squirming or kicking will help as they force me to turn around and bend over the desk.
“We might as well get something for our trouble,” one of them grunts while the other laughs.
Absolutely not. This will not happen. I throw myself back with all my might, the back of my head connecting with the face of whoever was closest, before I make a run for the door. All I get for that is an arm slung around my waist, lifting me off my feet and carrying me back to the desk.
“Fucking bitch.” I’m slammed against the unforgiving metal surface and register the feeling of hands yanking at the waistband of my jeans. I was only panicking before. Now I’m a rabid animal, and the adrenaline rushing through my system gives me the burst of strength needed to snap the tape and free my hands.
Right away, I use my good hand to grab the wrist of the man pulling my pants down. A sharp twist, and he lets go, gasping in pain before I bend his hand at an unnatural angle. The sound of bones and tendons snapping shouldn’t excite me like it does. He howls before I pivot and drive the heel of my hand into his face, demolishing his freshly broken nose and sending him to the floor in a heap.
The second man jumps me from behind, an arm around my neck. I throw myself backward, slamming him between my body and a filing cabinet. It’s not hard enough to kill him, but it is hard enough for his grip to loosen, and for me to slide out of his grasp. A knee to his balls leaves him groaning in misery before I take his face in my hand and slam his head briskly against the metal cabinet doors. He drops, too, plunging the room into silence only punctuated by my rapid breaths.
