Page 79 of Reformation

“Drop the bag and put your hands up!” Paul yells as Garrett gets out of his car, a duffel bag in his hand.

Garrett does as he’s asked, holding his hands above his head.

“You didn’t call the cops, did ya?” Paul asks.

“No. You told me no cops. It’s just me.”

My mom walks over to where Garrett stands and picks up the duffel bag, looking in it before she walks back to us.

“It’s all there,” she says, holding up a few stacks of money. “If I would have known you could get this much so quick I would have asked for more.”

She then grabs Garrett’s shirt and yanks him down, planting her lips on his. What the actual hell is she doing? I see him cringe at her touch. I want to vomit.

“Just wanted to see what my daughter was getting. She never brought any boyfriends for me to share.” She waves her gun in front of Garrett, signaling him toward the door. “Now open this up. Disable the alarm. And take us straight back to the pills. No lights.”

Garrett listens, and when he walks past me, the look on his face nearly kills me. I can tell he’s trying to be strong, to not show weakness right now. But I can tell he’s scared.

I’m scared too.

He does as he’s told and we all enter the clinic. My mom flips on what I’m guessing is a cell phone light as we make our way back to the safe that holds all of the narcotics.

“Open it,” she says, pointing the gun in his direction.

Garrett looks at Paul, his eyes pleading. “Please, let her go. We’re here now. I’ll give you what you want. Just let her go.”

“I thought doctors were smart?” Paul says, his grip getting tighter on me. “Quit fucking talking and let her in. Naomi, get the damn pills.”

Garrett swipes his card for the safe before entering a code. I hear the beep as the door unlatches.

“Sweet Jesus, we’ve hit the jackpot,” I hear my mother coo as she opens it.

“Quit talking, Naomi, and get the shit.”

I have no idea what Garrett’s plan is or why it has gone this far. There is no way Mark isn’t in on this, or isn’t coming in to save the day.

I just wish I knew when.

As if someone could read my mind, all of a sudden Paul’s grip goes loose on me and I hear a grunt. Before I know it, I’m being grabbed by a hand and pulled into an exam room.

“Stay here and don’t move,” Mark says as he slams the door shut.

I do as I’m told. I try to listen through the door, but it’s muffled. I hear something hit the ground, my mother yelling, and then—a gunshot fired.

I know what Mark told me to do, but I have to know what’s going on. I throw the door to the exam room open and look at the carnage in front of me.

Paul is on the ground and unconscious, lying in a heap in the middle of the hallway as Charlie ties him up. I take a step forward toward the safe and see Ben holding my mom around the waist as she desperately tries to break from his hold.

And then on the floor, bleeding, is Garrett.

“No!” I scream as I sprint to his side, Mark already next to him applying pressure to his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Angel,” he says, though his words come right before a hiss of pain. And there’s blood. So much blood. “It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll be fine.”

“You fucking bitch!” my mom yells as Ben carries her out of the clinic, literally kicking and screaming. “I wish you were never born!”

And those were the last words I hear out of my mother’s mouth as she’s dragged away. Hopefully, for good.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

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