A Debt Repaid (The Debt Duet 2)

But they’re wearing Deion and Ashanti’s clothes.

I shriek and cover my mouth while Nick brings them toward the table.

A gun is pulled out.

But it isn’t my father holding the gun.

It’s Easton.

“What are you doing?” I scream. “Get them out of here!”

“Don’t get close.” Easton’s voice is low, gravelly … the last time it sounded like that was when he murdered those two men behind his home.

No.

“Stop!” I shriek, and I run toward them.

Easton points the gun at me instead. “Don’t. Move.”

“Easton. Please, stop this madness,” I beg, but he doesn’t say a word or move an inch from his spot. “What’s wrong with you?”

His face is marred with shadows, the look in his eyes not that of a lover but of a man consumed by his own wrath. This isn’t the man I fell for. This is the devil I feared.

“You know this needs to happen. One way or another, you will stay here,” my father says with a chilling voice.

I clutch my own arms as the gun in Easton’s hand is steady and still aimed at the two people I can’t let go. He can’t kill them. He just can’t.

“Please … don’t do this,” I say, tears welling up in my eyes.

This has to be one big joke. There’s no way Easton would just shoot them. Not after taking me to them and letting me spend the entire afternoon with them. It wasn’t some kind of last supper; I refuse to believe that.

“I need them! Don’t do it!” I scream at him. “You promised me you’d leave them alone!”

Easton cocks his head, guilt lacing his face. “I’m sorry, Charlotte.”

BANG.

Chapter 24

Charlotte

My eyes snap shut, and my body trembles.

I don’t dare open them.

I can’t … but I must.

I have to see, have to know the truth, even if it kills me.

When I do, my knees buckle, and my throat slams shut. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. All I can do is catch my body as I fall to the floor and heave.

Two dead bodies. Blood seeping out from the burlap sacks.

A wail escapes my mouth, a sound I’ve never heard before. Tears stream down my cheeks as my body collapses and my lungs constrict. My stomach turns itself over, and I puke on the floor.

I feel crippled. Split in half and laid out in the dirt.

My two best friends—Deion, the only guy who knew what happened to me and accepted me just the way I am, and Ashanti, the most innocent, lively girl in this city.

Dead.

And for no other reason than my father’s fear of dying.

How dare he? Their lives were not less important than his.

And how dare Easton betray me like this?

My nostrils flare as I crawl up to my knees, my nails burying into my skin as I drag myself off the ground. There are no people in front of me.

“You monster …” I growl, glaring at Easton.

How could I ever say I felt something for this beast? The mere thought makes the bile rise up my throat again.

“How could you?” I scream. “They were innocent!”

“Nick, take her away,” Easton says, throwing the gun on the table. “And call the cleanup crew from the Company. Tell them we have two bodies they need to get rid of.”

“Yes, sir.”

Nick tries to grab my arm, but I pull away. Marching straight toward Easton, I slap him right in the face.

“How dare you?” I growl.

He doesn’t flinch, and he doesn’t say a word. He merely stands there and accepts the blow as if it means nothing. As if their lives were worth the pain he’d have to endure.

But this painful dagger in my heart will never stop piercing me, and I will make sure he feels every single stab along with me.

I punch him in the chest again and again until my hands start to hurt. Nick wraps his arms around my waist and drags me with him out of the room.

“No! Let go of me!” I growl, punching his arms, but he’s much stronger than I am.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that, ma’am,” he says, pulling me into a different room at the end of the hallway.

“You’re murderers! All of you!” I scream, hoping Easton and my father can hear. As Nick closes the door, I shove my foot in the space, and say, “You won’t get away with this. None of you will.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you will have to stay here,” he says.

“How long?” I growl as he pushes back my foot.

“I can’t say, but it will all be explained soon.”

His last comment catches me so off guard that I lose control over the door, and he shuts it right in front of me. I fiddle the door handle, but of course, he locked the damn thing.

I bang on the wood a couple of times but to no avail. Either no one can hear me, or I’m being ignored.