Page 88 of My Secret to Protect

Sucking in a breath, I freeze as my blood runs cold, and my eyes meet the ones smiling down at me.

‘Hey, princess.’

Stumbling backward, I exhale as Nolan steps forward into Arlo’s apartment, and I hear Beans start to growl.

‘Bree,’ Nolan pulls out a gun, and my breath comes hard and fast as I try not to panic. I try desperately to find what my training tells me I need to do right now, but there’s nothing. ‘Call off your dog before I put a bullet in his head.’

‘No, Nolan, please.’

Beans approaches, fierce growls and raised hackles telling me he’s getting ready to attack, but I can’t risk him getting hurt.

‘Beans,’ I call out loud enough to get through his alert state of mind. ‘Bed.’ He doesn’t stop, and I turn to stand in front of him. He backs down immediately and looks up at me, a worried expression in his beautiful eyes, and I know he’s confused. He senses that this stranger in his home isn’t welcome, but I’m sending him away. ‘Bed, Beans, now.’

Turning, he slinks away and tucks himself into the space between the sofa and armchair, a silent protest against my order to choose the floor over the bed he was sent to, but I don’t care. He’s safe.

‘Good,’ Nolan says brightly, and my stomach churns.

‘Arlo will be back any minute.’

‘No, he won’t. He chose Indian food. I watched where he went. It's a block away and has terrible wait times.’ He rolls his eyes at the inconvenience. ‘Let’s go.’ He nods toward the door, and I take a step back.

‘What?’

He holds up a syringe with a large needle attached.

‘Well, princess, you have a choice. Either I sedate you, then kill your dog, wait for that monster you’ve been associating with to come home, and kill him, too, then take you. Or, you come willingly, and they keep breathing.’

The tears come now. There’s nothing I can do to stop them. Come on, Arlo. Please, come home.

‘Clocks ticking, Bree, option two fades with every passing second.’

I have to go, I think. I can’t let him hurt them.

‘Can I say goodbye?’ I gesture to Beans, and Nolan checks his watch.

‘Thirty seconds.’

Rushing over to Beans, I drop to the floor and press kisses to his head.

‘Stay there, okay. Stay put and wait for your daddy. I love you. Stay there, Beans.’

Then, without a second thought, I walk toward the man who has made my life hell for months and follow him out of Arlo’s building. Looking around in the parking lot, I silently pray to see the man I love barreling toward me just in time, but he isn’t there, and before I know it, Nolan is holding open the back door of a blacked-out SUV for me to climb in.

‘Don’t worry, princess,’ he says as he leans across my body to buckle me in. ‘I’m going to take good care of you.’ He smiles, then, without warning, slams the needle into my thigh, and before I can protest, everything goes black.

Get Your Gun Out Of My Son’s Face

Arlo

ThesmelloftheIndian food in my hand has my stomach growling as I walk toward the building. I make a mental note to take some Indian cooking classes when the dust settles for Bree and me.

As I reach the door, though, the bag of food falls to the floor, and I rush inside and up the stairs. The door was open, wedged by Bree’s sweater, and I already know she dropped it there to tell me something was wrong.

My apartment door is open as well, and Beans has curled himself into a tight ball on the floor. He lifts his head to look at me, his eyes wide and worried, and the fact that he’s still breathing is the only saving grace of this moment because right then, it hits me full force. She’s gone.

Her cell is still on the table playing her music, and her sneakers are still by the door. I grab a gun from a cabinet drawer and pulling out my phone, I head for the stairwell and fire off a text to Mrs. C.

Me: I need you to get Beans from my place.

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