Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 85183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
I hear the familiar lumbering footsteps coming down the hall again. It's always the same guy. I once tried to talk to him, hoping maybe, just maybe there was a grain of decency in him somewhere that I could persuade him to help me. I got a slap in the face and a split lip for my trouble.
The door swings open, smashing into the wall. He grabs my hair and drags me out of the corner. I wince, as everything hurts. The bullet wound in my leg is badly infected, and I know it won't be long before septicemia sets in, but I'm banking on being dead long before then.
He tows me along the corridor before pushing me back into the office. Fear consumes me as my entire body starts to shake. I think I'm going to throw up.
Joe has his back to me, and he seems to be talking to himself. "This is just like a fairytale, huh? And you want to be the hero. Don't worry Jude, I'll let you find her when I'm ready, just remember, I'm not one for happy endings." He laughs and turns to face me. "Ah, Victoria, you're just in time. I have dear Jude on the phone. Say hello."
All the blood drains from my face as bile rises in my throat. "Tor?" Jude's voice comes over the loudspeaker, and a small whimper leaves my lips upon hearing him.
"Tor?" his voice is calm and controlled and I can almost picture the cold rage on his face. It's when he's calm that he's at his most deadly. By now, he's seen the video. Shame and self-hatred wash over me. I can't talk. I can't even speak his name as tears track down my face.
"Oh, now don't be shy, little bird. Speak up." Joe moves toward me, and a strangled cry escapes my throat. He grabs me by the back of the neck, slamming my chest and cheek against the wooden desk. He presses his pelvis against me, and I wretch.
"Jude," I manage to whisper through panicked breaths. "Don't come for me," I sob.
Joe laughs. "You hear that JP? I told you she liked it. She wants to stay here. Maybe she just wants to get fucked by a real man. I told you I'm going to fuck her up, and I haven't even started having my fun with her yet."
"Do what you like with her," Jude's cold voice comes over the line. "She's nothing to me." The line cuts off.
He hung up. He hung up! It feels like someone just shoved their hand inside my chest and ripped my heart out. I'm nothing to him. I knew he didn't love me, but I thought... I thought I meant something to him. He doesn't care. And it's at this moment I realise I've been fighting for nothing. He was never coming for me. Joe torturing me has all been pointless because he was banking on Jude coming for me. It's such a brutal irony that I laugh, I actually laugh.
Joe's guys look at each other as though I've totally lost it.
"What's so funny, sweetheart?" Joe says, with barely concealed anger.
"I told you he doesn't love me; he doesn't even fucking like me!" My voice cracks. "So just kill me already."
Joe presses his body against me, his lips at my ear. "I wouldn't be so sure. He likes to think he's clever," His breath touches my ear, and I push down the vomit that threatens to rise. "Why would a man who doesn't care for you drive two hundred miles just to put a bullet in the head of one of my associates?" he muses. "He's getting desperate, and that means he's going to get sloppy. He's already dropped his guard, and I'm going to go for his jugular." He picks the receiver back up and dials a number, then puts the call on the loudspeaker. His fingers drum on the desk as he waits.
"Hello?" My entire body tenses when Caleb's voice comes over the line. I open my mouth to scream at him to hang up, but one of Joe's men is ready for me and rams the barrel of the gun against my temple. My pulse hammers in my ears. Please don't let him get dragged into this, he's too innocent, too young.
"Well, Caleb, my boy, allow me to introduce myself. I am the man who killed your mother, and if you don't do exactly as I say, I'll kill Victoria along with your pathetic brother."
He says nothing. All I can hear is him breathing into the phone.
"I will take you, and I will let her go. You tell your brother, you tell anyone where you are going, and I will make sure all three of you die, and as you know, I don't make threats."