Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
I was about to climb on top of him and aim for his Adam’s apple, but he pushed me off and slammed me onto my back. The back of my head hit the cement floor. I was left with no choice but to freeze as the pain took over.
“Don’t be stupid, Rose,” Victor snarled. He wrapped a hand around my throat and used his other to grab the gun. I glanced at Gina and groaned. She had backed up with her hands cupping her mouth. Frozen too.
Victor tightened his grip around my throat, and I clawed at his hand. His jaw ticked as he pointed the gun at my head. “You’re going to get back in that chair, and you’re going to be still. You won’t try anything else, or I swear I’ll put a bullet through your head right now and end your worthless life.”
His eyes flared as I choked. Black seeped around the edges of my vision. My grip slackened as I lost oxygen. Just when I thought I’d lose consciousness, he let go and I inhaled a sharp breath.
Is that what he’d done to Eve?
Choked her to death?
Victor jerked me off the ground and lugged me to the chair again. I slumped in it, rubbing my sore throat, still dragging in deep breaths. This time, he tucked the gun into the waistband of his sweats before snatching up the rope. He gripped my shoulder to pull me back, then wrapped the rope around my chest. As he went lower, I felt it digging into the lower part of my ribs.
I winced. “Eve,” I croaked, swinging my eyes to Gina. “Are you talking about Eve? Is she the one who called you?”
“Yes! That’s her name!” Gina said, her misty eyes wider. “I was right, then. Wasn’t I, Eddie? You were fucking her.” The anger seemed to throttle her. “You lied to me! You said she was a friend—a colleague. You said nothing happened. I canceled our fucking divorce because you promised it was nothing! You promised you would focus on our family and our future! I should’ve known you were lying!”
“I think he killed her, Gina,” I rasped. Right after, Victor slapped me so hard I saw stars.
“You don’t know shit!” he spat in my face.
Blood flooded my mouth as I closed my eyes and groaned.
“I don’t know what you did to the other girl, but you need to leave this one alone.” Gina stepped forward, tipping her chin. “I should’ve known not to trust you. I should’ve listened to my instincts. You let her go now, or I’m calling the police.”
Gina clenched a fist as Victor stepped closer to her.
“I’m not letting her go, G. And you aren’t calling the cops on me. You’re not foolish. You know how bad this will make you and the company look.”
Gina’s hand shook. “I don’t care. You’ve underestimated me enough.” She twisted around and stormed halfway up the stairs.
Before she could make it, Victor raised the gun.
I screamed when the gunshot echoed through the basement.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Victor cursed as he watched his wife collapse, belly first, on the stairs. Everything fell silent after that, but to my surprise, Gina’s head was still moving. That’s when I realized he’d shot her in the calf. Blood trickled down her leg as she moaned. She began to cry as she reached for the gunshot wound, but in doing so, she ended up skidding all the way down the wooden steps.
Victor clutched her good leg, flipped her over, and dragged her across the basement on her back. She cried out as he fumed, hiking her up and pressing her back to a wall.
“Eddie, are you kidding me?” she cried. “You fucking shot me!”
I looked down, noticing the bottom of the rope wasn’t tied at my waist. He’d knotted the rope around my chest and behind my back, but not at my waist. I shifted my arm, trying to move the rope’s end, but that only caused the knots above to squeeze tighter.
“You don’t understand, Gina. I did what I had to do for you,” Victor said.
“What did you do, you asshole?” she demanded, wincing again.
“She was going to ruin us and everything we’ve built! She found us here and she threatened your company—our marriage. She wasn’t going to stop until she took everything.”
Gina grimaced. “You mean everything I’ve built!”
Victor looked taken aback as his wife glowered at him. “You wouldn’t have been able to build any of it if I hadn’t been keeping Emily with me every day,” he retorted. “This weekend is the first time where you’re actually with us, and you aren’t even really here, Gina! You’re still on your fucking phone. Still emailing. Still on those stupid Zoom calls.”
“I can’t just stop working because you want to watch a fucking movie, Eddie! God—oh, my God. My leg. It’s bleeding badly!”