Three, Two, One (321)

So is JD. Be very careful. I’ll be there soon.

I let out a long breath. If they’re both lying, who do I trust?

JD? He is walking towards me, smiling big, the charm I love about him practically dripping off him.

Or Ark? The serious one. The one who refuses to accept that JD and I have our own special relationship. The one who refuses to even fuck me unless he has JD as a buffer between us.

I stick the phone in my pocket and open the car door. JD pulls me out and hugs me hard. “I’m so glad you came back.” He kisses me on the head, and then he takes my hand and leads me to the door I came out of with Ark.

We go back upstairs in silence. I’m afraid JD’s going to start asking questions, but he doesn’t. And it makes me nervous. “Do you still love Ark?” I ask. “Can you guys work this out?” The elevator doors open and we walk to the loft door together.

“Of course, baby,” JD reassures me as he open the door and waves me in.

I go first, so damn happy to be back here I breathe a sigh of relief. “I was only gone a few hours, but—”

I stop short as I see the man sitting on the couch in our living room.

“You were gone a lot longer than that, Star.” The man tsks his tongue in that way he used to do, just before he’d beat me with a cane or cut me with a knife.

“What the fuck—”

JD grabs a fistful of hair and yanks me down to the ground, forcing me to my knees. He slaps my face. Hard. Not harder than he usually does during our ravishment sex, but this time, there is nothing sexual about his blow.

Gabriel, all dressed up in his fake priest outfit, gets up and walks towards me.

I look up at JD. “Why? Why did you do this?”

“It’s you or her, Blue. And look, this is nothing personal. But my daughter is the only thing I have left of Marie.”

“Marie would hate you for this!” I scream.

But JD just slaps me again. “Shut up,” he growls.

“He did it, Blue”—Gabriel snarls my new name—“because I offered him something so much better than you. You’re nothing,” he hisses as he walks up to me. He presses his face close to mine. “You’re nothing but a sick little slut who wants to be raped.” And then he laughs. The stench of his breath making me want to vomit. “He told me, Star. He told me what you asked him to do.” And then he pulls out a set of handcuffs and JD forces me to the ground, face first. They cuff me and then yank me to my feet. “Thank you,” Gabriel says to JD.

“I want their names,” JD says, yanking me away from my old master and pulling out a gun. “Now. Or you don’t get her. And then we’re going to take a drive and you’re going to walk into their house and bring my daughter out. That was the deal. That’s the trade.”

“JD,” Gabriel laughs. “Please. We’re not going to steal your daughter back tonight, son.”

JD shoots him in the leg. No hesitation. The gun goes off right next to my ear and I scream and fall to my knees at the same time that Gabriel crumples to the ground in agony.

“I’m not fucking around with you,” JD says, walking forward. I’m still on the floor, so he drags me with him as he goes. And when the bodyguards appear from the hallway where Ark’s bedroom is, JD shoots one in the chest, blowing him backwards into the wall. The man didn’t even have a chance. His body leaves a thick streak of blood on the wall behind him as he slides down until he’s just a heap on the floor.

Another gunshot blasts from that same direction, and this one grazes past my shoulder, so close I feel the sting and the gush of blood.

JD pulls me again, and then grabs my arm, yanking me to my feet. He tosses me aside as he takes another shot at the hallway, and the other guard has a giant hole in his chest. I fall forward, knocking my head into the granite countertop. The sharp blow to my temple shakes my world and my vision blurs.

“You piece of shit,” Gabriel says from the floor a few yards away. He’s got a gun out too, and he points it at me and fires. The stone above me shatters down, shards like shrapnel. “You’ll never get her back now.”

“You’re going down, Gabriel. I find her and she and I will be together again. But you—you will never sell another baby again.”

“That’s funny coming from you.”

“Shut up!” JD yells.

“I don’t suppose he ever told you the truth about Marie, did he, Star?”

Bile rises in my throat from that name. But then JD pulls me to my feet once more. He shoves the barrel of the gun against my temple and I let out a sob. “You want her back pretty bad, don’t you?” he asks Gabriel. “You told me earlier that my daughter is my Achilles’ heel. Well, Blue is yours. And I’ll take her away from you, just like you took my daughter away.”

“JD! Please!” I scream. He elbows me in the side, making me gasp for air.

“Tell her then,” Gabriel says. “Tell her you—”

JD shoots him again, only this time the bullet rips his shoulder apart and he is silenced.

“JD.”

Ark is standing in the open doorway, a gun in his hand, but he’s not pointing it at anyone. It’s up in the air. “Just be calm now. OK? Think about what you’re doing here. This isn’t how you want it to end, brother.”

“Brother?” JD spits. “You’re not my brother. You’re just like all the rest of them. You take. You use. You used me.” He pokes the side of my head with the barrel of the gun again. It’s throbbing from my fall, and my vision blurs once more.