Chapter 22
Naomi
I grabbed the gun off the floor and fired quickly, not caring if my bullet killed him as long as it struck him.
“Naomi,” Jon growled. “I thought that your bastard of a husband would have taught you how to properly handle a gun.”
A small chunk of the wall exploded near my face, and I realized that Jon was shooting back at me.
He was shooting at me.
With a cry, I ran down the hall, knowing that I was trapped either way I went unless I was going to take him head on. It was clear to me that he wasn’t just looking to take me now.
He wanted to injure me, perhaps even kill me.
I couldn’t let that happen. I had to protect the child inside me from this madman.
“Come on, Naomi,” he called out as he turned the corner. “This is futile, and you know it. There’s nowhere for you to run or hide for long.”
I just had to buy some time before Gavril showed up. He was coming. I had no doubt that he was coming to kill Jon if I didn’t kill him first.
When I reached the end of the hall, I turned back and held my gun out. “Don’t come any closer!” I shouted, my entire body trembling. “I will shoot you!”
Jon paused a few feet away, his gun at his side. “Really now? You will shoot me? I don’t think so, my dear.”
“Stop!” I cried as he took another step forward. My finger pressed on the trigger lightly and the shot reverberated through my already trembling arms, the smell of gunpowder filling the air.
“Again,” Jon said darkly as he leveled his gun at my stomach. “Your aim is off, my dear.”
I swallowed. I could try again. He was close enough, like Gavril said, but now that his gun was leveled at my stomach, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to take the risk.
For my child, I would do anything.
“I would suggest,” he continued. “That you put your gun down nice and slow. We have unfinished business that we need to take care of, or I will put a bullet into your child, Naomi, and watch as you slowly bleed out, knowing there’s nothing you can do to save it.”
Oh God. Bile rose in my throat as I thought about what he was saying, how he was willing to kill an innocent child. “Please,” I begged, my arm quivering now. “Please don’t hurt my baby.”
He motioned with the gun. “Then lay down your weapon.”
If I did, I knew that Jon wasn’t going to let me go. This was my own source of protection, but in my heart, I felt like he was really going to shoot me as well. Gone was the man that I might have been able to manipulate in the past. I mean, he hadn’t even fallen for the rescue mission.
His obsession with me was now just that—an obsession.
“If only you had stayed with me,” he added, seeing my hesitation. “I could have given you the fucking world, Naomi, but instead you decided to whore yourself out to a fucking criminal! I’m done with your little stunts. I’m done with you making me look like a fucking idiot. Put down the gun.”
There was my answer. Emotion clogged my throat as I laid the gun down on the carpet, cringing as I waited for the gun to fire. I wasn’t even sure if Jon would keep his promise and not still shoot me. He was going to kill me this time. I felt it deep down inside, and even the fact that he could have some sort of power over me wasn’t going to satisfy him.
I had embarrassed him. I had shown him that I wasn’t a weakling like before, that I had found something inside myself that was stronger than any hold he had over me.
But how could I get out of this situation?
How could I save myself and my child?
His hand clenched in my hair and I cried out, feeling the burn on my scalp. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered, propelling me forward. “Take me to your bedroom.”
“No!” I screamed, hoping that someone was still alive in the house and would hear me struggling. I doubted that was the case, as they would have come running at the sound of the gunshots, but I had to try. Pulling against the hold on my hair, I tried to block out the pain, to untangle his hand there, my foot stomping on his.
“Fucking bitch,” he growled, wrapping his arm tightly around my neck and pressing the gun to my temple. “Cease your struggling, or I will fucking shoot you!”