Chapter 22
Sometime in the middle of the night, the door flew open with a crash. I bolted upright, scared wide awake.
The lights from the house were bright enough to see that my visitor, Jason instead of the anticipated Maxine, held a syringe of murky yellow liquid.
The pale moon highlighted it in the most gruesome way.
He held the syringe away from his body cautiously, as if terrified of being pricked with poisonous liquid.
He’d come to kill me.
I screamed.
Jason mumbled confusedly when he fiddled with the light switch and the room remained dark. I frantically pawed around for the light bulb, feeling its cool glass against my fingertips as I closed my palm around the metal end. Hyped up on terror and rage, I got ready.
Grunting, Jason lurched forward, a personification of the worst nightmare I could ever imagine. He sounded winded, like he’d sprinted to the shed in a panic. He fumbled around for my limbs, disoriented by the darkness. Unlike him, my eyes had already adjusted.
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to do this, but I have to,” he said, his voice eerily calm despite his heavy breathing.
“You don’t have to do anything!” I shrieked, scrambling away from his grasp. I yelped as he seized my ankle.
“They’ll kill me and my family. I’ve got a wife and kids. I can’t let you go. I can’t.”
I kicked out at him with all my might, careful not to knock the needle. I hit his nose squarely and it crunched sickeningly under my foot. All those hours I’d spent doing old-school kickboxing videos had paid off—thank you, Billy Blanks.
Jason cried out but did not release me. “Now, stop it, girlie! It will hurt a lot less if you don’t struggle,” he said, jabbing the syringe at me.
“No! Please! I’m pregnant!”
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” he kept chanting, as if it would make a difference to me when I was dead. Yes, though he did murder me, he was awfully sorry about it.
“And I’m sorry about this!” I roared.
Shrieking like a Viking warrior princess, I thrust the light bulb at Jason’s neck.
Unlike Jason, I had fear and adrenaline on my side, giving me almost supernatural strength.
For a hideous moment, I thought nothing would happen as the bulb met his elastic flesh, but it shattered once it hit the underside of his jawbone.
It was the greatest sound I’d ever heard in my entire life, that shattering.
Groaning, Jason staggered away from the mattress, arms flapping wildly.
He was probably more shocked than anything, but he dropped the syringe all the same.
I could hear shards of glass pinging down onto the floor as he groped at his throat.
His injury certainly wasn’t lethal, but it must have stung a little. Or a lot.
Good.
Gaze fixed on the giant moon outside, I made a run for it. Chest burning, I sob-inhaled gulps of fresh air as I neared the door. My ears rang with horror, but my hysterical shrieks frightened me most. I sounded like a wounded animal running for its life.
I tripped as one of my slippers flew from my foot. I almost managed to right myself, but Jason’s giant meat hook flew up from the darkness and seized my calf. He yanked hard, and I lost my balance.
Instinctively, I threw my hands out in front of me as I fell to the floor. White-hot bolts of lightning shot up my left arm from where I’d landed on my wrist. I also tasted blood, having bitten down on my tongue.
Jason pulled me toward him. He had the syringe clamped in his teeth. His breath was coming out in agitated snorts as he straddled me. I clawed out at him, and he slammed my skull down on the floor.
“Stop fighting, damn it!”
I screamed and screamed. “Please,” I begged. “I won’t tell anyone who you are! I swear! I won’t tell—”
Bang!
Jason’s mouth fell open. The syringe tumbled from his teeth and bounced down on my face. Fortunately, it was capped, or else it would have stuck into my forehead like a unicorn horn.
Jason rolled off me, groping his shoulder. The scent of gunpowder assaulted my nostrils. He’d been shot.
I rolled onto my stomach, dazed from having my head slammed. Standing in the doorway was the silhouette of a tall, lanky man. He charged forward and pulled me to my feet, kicking the syringe to the other end of the room.
“Did he inject you?” The voice was a lot younger than I’d anticipated, teenaged.
“What?” My brain was taking a moment to catch up.
He brought his face close to mine. “With the needle? Have you been injected?”
I shook my head.
He raised the gun and pressed it to Jason’s skull.
“No! Don’t!” I screamed.
“He was going to kill you,” the kid said incredulously.
Yes, but Jason had also dropped a couple fortune cookies for me to eat when he hadn’t needed to.
And he did seem sorry about trying to inject me.
Also, I really didn’t want to add “gunshot execution” to the list of horrible things I’d recently witnessed, particularly not while I was pregnant.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explain any of these things to the teenager, who seemed dangerously eager to pulling the trigger.
I said, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t.”
The kid shrugged and then smacked the butt of the gun down on Jason’s skull, dropping him to the floor like a sack of potatoes. I didn’t think he was dead, but he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. He’d also have a monster headache when he woke up.
Outside, I could see just how young the gunman was, about eighteen. Looking toward the main house, I understood why there had been so much light coming into the shed. The mansion was on fire.
I looked at the kid. “You?”
“No. Richard and Maxine torched the place as a distraction, so they could get away. Good thing I heard you screaming, or else I’d still be in the house looking for you.”
“They left?” I asked hoarsely, still trying to process the scene around me.
He nodded.
“Why were you looking for me? Who are you? Did the VGO send you?”
The kid shook his head, but at which question I didn’t know.
“Whoever you are, thanks for saving me. I appreciate it.” I sprinted down the driveway away from the house, hardly feeling the gravel digging into the sole of my bare foot.
The kid caught up with me. “I have a car. I can take you out of here.”
I angled my chin toward the blazing structure, folding my arms across my chest. “How do I know you aren’t one of them?”
“Because I just saved your life.” He paused. “And because I’m your grandfather.”
I snorted. He was years younger than me. Then again . . . after the story Maxine and Richard had told me about Tilly’s mysterious pregnancy, he actually might be.
I gave him a once-over. My belated mother had looked a lot like him, especially around the nose and mouth. His eyes were gentle, and he was handsome in an old movie star kind of way. I could see why Tilly had fallen for him.
Wow, my grandfather.
“My car is that way,” he said, tugging at my sleeve urgently.
I hesitated, thinking of Jason. “What if the fire reaches the shed? He’s still passed out in there.”
“You didn’t want me to kill him, so I didn’t. Richard and Maxine set the fire, not me. It’s not my fault if the flames travel.”
Jason had tried to kill me. He’d regain consciousness in time. Hopefully. “Fair enough.”
I paused for a moment, weighing my options. I had one bare foot, I was miles from home, and it was the middle of the night. I had no idea if my demented kidnappers would come back, but I had a fair idea what Jason would do to me if he awakened.
“You can trust me, Olivia.”
I sure hoped he was telling the truth.
“Where are you parked?” I asked with a sigh.