Page 26 of The Seductress

“Okay, I want you to say these words. I’m okay for now, but if you don’t do as he says he’s going to kill me.” He held a phone out to me and waited. For some reason that pissed me off. I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to do as he said. But if this asshole was going to kill me anyway, why should I make it easy for him? Maybe the longer I held off the longer I’d get to live andsomebody just might find me before it’s too late. That was a lot to think about in a short space of time, but I was going on instinct.

“No.” His face registered shock ten seconds before he hauled off and slapped me across the face. I cried out before I could stop myself and that’s when all hell broke loose.

There was a crash at the door and a shot, followed by a yell of outraged pain. Through a flurry of movement, I saw Simon’s pale face as he tore the rope from my arms and legs before lifting me from the chair. I barely had time to notice another man holding my captor at gunpoint as he laid on the floor clutching his arm.

“Let me see you are you okay baby? Did her hurt you?” His palmcovered the heat in my cheek from where I’d been slapped and his eyes smoldered. I was too overcome with relief to form words and just went limp in his arms as he hurried me to the car. I had to pee so bad I was afraid I would go on myself but the relief mixed with fear held it locked inside.

“Stay here baby, I’ll be right back.”

“No don’t leave me.” I looked around the isolated place in fear as I clutched at him. Now that I was free, all I wanted was to go home. I didn’t even care what happened to the crazy man who could even now be heard raving like a lunatic.

“You’ll be fine, I promise. Just let me take care of something.” Heextricated himself from my arms, which barely had any feeling left and headed back inside. The other man came out and stood guard next to the car as Simon walked in.

Now, I was worried for a different reason. I’d seen the gun in his hand. What if he shot that guy? He’d go to jail for sure and it would be my fault. I started to get out of the car but the door was held shut against me. The towering man who stood there just shook his head at me and went back to keeping watch.

I was a nervous wreck as I strained for any sound coming from the cabin. There was yelling but I couldn’t decipher the words, but I knew it wasn’t Simon’s voice. The shakes started somewhere around the time I heard the first scream. Shit! Iflung open the door and made a mad dash for the bushes. The guy started to follow until I stopped just at the edge and threw up. Once I was sure he wasn’t going to follow I hid behind some trees and relieved my bladder. Somehow that was the best damn feeling in the world.

***

Simon

***

We’d been making our way around the cabin as quietly as possible so as not to alert whoever was inside.There was no other vehicle here, but who was to say Jen wasn’t in there as well? I was barely keeping myself in check when we got into position at the backdoor and could see into one of the dusty windows off to the side. The door was flimsy at best with weathered and grey wood that had been weakened by the elements, which was good for us.

I breathed a little easier when I saw that she was still okay and in one piece. She was tied to a chair and a man was walking around and around, pacing, with a gun rubbing the side of his face. The sight of that gun sent shivers down my spine, but I bit back the growl of anger.

I felt helpless as I watched him hold out the phone to her, having a good idea what he was saying. Butthen he hit her and everything else ceased to exist. I don’t remember crashing through the door, or pulling the trigger to get him away from her. I just remember the feel of her in my arms when I picked her up from that chair, safe, whole, alive.

Once I got her out of harm’s way, I was finally able to think clearly again, which might not be so good for the asshole I’d left writhing on the floor. He’d be lucky if the shot to his hand was the only one he suffered before the day was done. There are a million ways he could find his end out here in the backwoods of Tennessee never to be found again.

Back inside, I had to caution myself not to end him before I had some answers. “Who the fuck are you and what do you want with me?” Hewas either very crazy or very brave, because all he did was grin at me like I wasn’t standing there with a gun pointed at his head.

“So you don’t remember me huh?”

“Am I supposed to?” I knew for a fact that I’d never seen this asshole before in my life.

“Sure you are. Or do you make it a habit of going around destroying other people’s lives? Other than mine of course.”

“Am I supposed to know what the fuck you’re talking about? Why were you and Jen after me? I’m not your usual mark, so there must be something else going on here, tell me.”

“You really don’t remember huh. Well that’s just great.” I waited for him to tell me what the hell he was talking about but he just glared up at me with venom. “I need to get to a hospital.” He raised the hand with the hole in it at me.

“We’ll get to that as soon as I get some answers. That is, if there’s anything left for them to patch together when I’m done if you don’t start talking. Now I know you and Jen had some kind of racket going, what I don’t know is why me? You keep inferring that I’ve wronged you in some way but I don’t see how that’s possible, since I have no idea who the fuck you are.”

“Does the name Rosalinda Strait mean anything to you?” It sounded familiar but obviously wasn’tsomeone I dealt with on a regular basis because I still couldn’t place it. He seemed to become more irate at my blank look, and forgetting the gun I had pointed at his head struggled to his feet.

“She was my mother and you destroyed her with your lies.” Spittle and blood came flying from his lip where I’d punched him when I walked back into the cabin. “Now do you remember?”

“Not a clue.”

“So you don’t remember the woman whose name you dragged through the mud. The woman you destroyed until she slit her wrist in the bathtub of a filthy motel after her family turned their back on her.” I was starting to get a picture but itcouldn’t be, could it?

“Are you, was your mother the one who took me in as a teen and treated me and others like me like shit?” Now I was incredulous. Granted he was about three or four years younger than I back then, but there’s no way he didn’t remember what the hell went on in that house.

“Ding-ding-ding-ding, what have we got for him Johnny?”

“You’re just as fucked as she was and if she ended herself all the better. Your mother was a sick twisted fuck.” He charged me, giving me the perfect excuse to put a bullet in his head, but instead I kneed him in the balls.

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