Chapter 34 Louise
LOUISE
There was nowhere to go. There were only two doors and two of them—a man was always between me and escape. We’d taken out all the walls so I couldn’t run for a bedroom and lock myself in. I backed away across the huge room, but every time I took a step, they took a step.
“Please,” I said, my voice shaking. “Please!”
They weren’t even running. They knew they had me trapped and they were taking their time, enjoying the game. “He wrecked our grow house,” said the taller of the two men. “Destroyed it. So we’re going to destroy you.”
My back hit the wall. I was at one end of the house, looking down the long rows of tables. “Please!” I begged, my voice cracking.
The other man laughed. “Nice of him to leave us a mattress,” he said, nodding at it. “Maybe he knew we were coming.”
My insides turned to water. Oh, Jesus, no….
I bolted between two of the rows of tables, trying to put something, anything, between me and them. The one with the knife strolled down the row towards me. I turned around, but the other one was waiting for me at the opposite end.
I jumped across a table and made a run for the front door, but they darted that way as well.
I dropped to my knees and crawled under a table, thinking I could maybe make it to the back door, but they just flipped the table over, exposing me and sending the plants crashing to the floor.
I was screaming, hysterical, and they wouldn’t stop laughing—
And then I heard the crunch of the fallen plants as the man with the knife walked over them, stems crunching sickeningly.
I tried to scramble away but, before I could move, he’d whipped his arm around my waist and hauled me to him, the denim of his jeans rasping against my bare legs.
I kicked and yelled and clawed at his arm.
..and then the knife was at my throat and I went deathly still.
The other man stepped up in front of me, sandwiching me between them. “When your boyfriend gets back,” he told me, “he’s not going to want you anymore. We’re going to fucking ruin you.”
Tears were streaming down my face as he reached out to tear off my top.
This was my punishment. This is what I got for leaving my nice, safe world and teaming up with criminals.
I shouldn’t have tried to change Kayley’s fate, should have just accepted it and wept at her funeral like a good little girl.
No. The thought of that made the anger well up inside like lava rising in a volcano. Fuck that.
I spat in his face.
Sean opened the door just in time to see him slap me.