Page 66 of All He Sees
"Shoot her!" Chad shouted.
The redhead went for the shot.
Nicky fired first.
She pinned him right in the shoulder of his shooting arm, and his gun dropped. The other guy--a tall, tanned one--had a handgun, and he went to shoot Nicky. The bullet grazed just past her arm. Nicky dove at him. Nicky had one advantage: these boys were panicking.
They weren't used to combat, and they didn't know how to react.
She could still beat them, Nicky thought. She could still save Mira... and herself.
She dodged past the tanned guy, and using the base of the gun, she smashed him in the head. He instantly dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground. The redhead was still writhing in pain. Nicky grabbed both of their guns and tossed them far away.
She could easily kill these boys, but she didn't want to. She wanted them to suffer. To pay for what they did.
She turned back around to see Chad, standing there like a deer in headlights. Nicky pointed the gun at him.
"Don't move," she said.
He raised his hands in surrender.
"Please," he said, voice shaking. "Don't kill me."
"What did you do to those girls?" Nicky asked, taking a step closer to him.
"N-nothing," Chad stuttered. "We were just playing around."
"Playing around?" Nicky asked, incredulous. "You were shooting at her!"
"No, no, no," Chad said, shaking his head vigorously. "It was an accident, I swear."
"An accident?" Nicky asked, her finger hovering over the trigger. She wanted nothing more than to pull it and watch this boy bleed out, but she knew she couldn't. She had to take him in. He was the one who needed to suffer--not die.
"Look, don't shoot me," Chad said. "My dad--he's super rich. I can pay you off. Anything you want. A million dollars, cash, no questions asked. Hell, you can take my friends. Just don't shoot me."
Nicky scoffed, holding the gun firm. He was such a coward.
"I'm going to handcuff you now," she said, hesitantly stepping closer to him.
"Yeah, go ahead, handcuff!" Chad eagerly held out his wrists. "Just don't shoot, okay? Go ahead and handcuff me but don't shoot!"
They inched closer together. Chad still had his wrists out. Nicky still had the gun. Carefully, she reached into her jacket pocket, where she had handcuffs--but then Chad dove forward. Nicky went to fire, but he slammed her arm so hard that the gun dropped.
He tackled her, and they both went down hard to the ground. He was on top of her, and before Nicky could react, he punched her hard in the face.
"I'm not letting you arrest me!" Chad shouted. "I won't let you lock me up! I'm rich! I'm rich, bitch!"
Nicky struggled underneath him, but he was too strong. She tried to reach for one of the guns beside them, but Chad pinned both arms down. He punched her over and over in the face, and she cried out in pain.
Then she felt his hand on her neck.
He was choking her. She couldn't breathe. Nicky felt her vision blur. She couldn't do anything but writhe and struggle underneath him. He was trying to kill her.
Her vision faded. Her breath slowed. Her whole body gave up, and she stopped struggling. Her eyes rolled back in her head.
Until she felt a cold blade on her neck. Chad let go of her neck, letting her breathe, but now he was holding a knife to her.
"I'm not going to jail, bitch," he said, practically growling. "You're going to die right here. You're going to die, but you're going to die knowing I'm getting away. And no one's going to save you. No one knows where you are. And you're going to die cold, and you're going to die scared, and you're going to die alone."
