Holding You Close (Ex-Con Duet 4)

A lump the size of Texas forms in my throat as I hang on to every word she says.

“Noah,” she purrs. “How are you?”

I can only imagine what he said to her and wish the phone was on speaker.

“Ah. Okay. Playing hardball. Got it. Well, as you’ve probably figured out, I have your girlfriend.”

She’s silent for a moment. “We’re not playing macho man today, Noah. You’re not in control here; I am. Now you’re gonna listen to me very carefully and follow every fucking one of my directions, or I’ll kill her. And trust me when I say it would satisfy me beyond belief to end this cunt’s life.”

I wish I could see her reaction, but based on her tone, she’s unamused.

“So if you want your precious girlfriend back, I need you to meet me alone at the storage units outside of town,” she says. “You know which ones.”

For a second, I think she’s ended the call because she’s quiet. All I can hear is the hum of the tires against the road. She eventually speaks up and forces me back to this reality. “Because I want you to suffer for murdering the love of my life. This is only fair, Noah. There are consequences to every action, and this is yours. You took away the only man I loved, so I’ll take away the only woman you’ve ever loved. At first, I wondered how I’d be able to pull this off. Honestly, you made it too easy.”

The tears begin to fall again. I never wanted to put Noah in danger, and now, I’m the reason he’ll go straight to Brittany.

“I’ll tell Nicolas to let her live,” she says with a laugh, then continues. “Don’t worry about it.”

I try to scream and tell him to stay away.

She speaks up again. “Oh, I’d much rather see you bleed out than her. You have thirty minutes. If you arrive a minute late, she’ll have a bullet in her head. And I won’t stop until you do too.”

She hangs up, and I can only imagine the satisfied look on her face. “It will all be over soon,” she confirms.

“It will,” Nicolas agrees. “I told you it’d all work out.”

Eventually, the SUV makes a hard turn onto gravel, then comes to an abrupt stop. Brittany and Nicolas get out, and I’m convinced they’re going to leave me in the hot vehicle. It’s already hard enough to breathe, but the heat seems to make it worse.

A long time seems to pass before the back opens. Nicolas grabs my arm and drags me across the gravel toward a storage unit.

I’m thrown into a metal chair, and I try to adjust my body the best I can without slipping off it. I glare at Brittany, wishing my internal anger could magically strike her down. By the grin on her face, I know she’s enjoying this a little too much. Psycho bitch.

The large garage door of the storage building is closed to a crack. Nicolas flicks on the overhead lighting that seems to buzz with intimidation as they load their guns.

Right now, I’m more scared than I have ever been in my life. The last thing I want to do is bring any attention to myself, but it doesn’t matter because her beady eyes zero in on me.

Brittany stands before me and shakes her head with disgust. Another step forward is all it takes for her to grab a fistful of my hair and pull it as hard as she can. I nearly slide off the chair, so Nicolas finds a way to secure me to it as if the duct tape isn’t enough.

I wish I could tell her to go fuck herself. Excitement seems to roll off her.

With great exaggeration, she sticks out her bottom lip, mocking me. “Poor baby is upset. She didn’t get to hang out with the murderer all day.”

I let out a muffled scream as she paces in front of me, playing with her gun.

“We’ve got twelve minutes,” Nicolas says before stepping outside and closing the garage door again.

Brittany acknowledges his words with a nod but keeps her focus on me.

“I know you’re probably wondering why I want to kill your boyfriend,” she says, randomly pointing her gun at me to try to scare me.

If I could talk, I’d tell her I already know why. Instead of giving her any sort of response, I keep my eyes forward, not acknowledging her because that’s what she wants.

She doesn’t like me ignoring her, so she grabs my cheeks and forces me to meet her cold gaze. “Gabe loved me. He loved me so damn much, more than he could have ever loved you.” Her voice shakes with anger, or maybe it’s pain. I can’t tell.

“The night of the accident, he met me at the bar so we could come up with a plan for him to leave you. You disgusted him, Katie. It’s why he fell in love with me so hard. I was your opposite in every sense. He promised me we’d be a family and move away from Lawton Ridge to start a new life together. Him, me, and our son, Anthony.”