“Just have a good time. I’ll see you tonight.” East ends the call and I lay my cell phone in my lap debating on texting Andi to see if she wants to come over tomorrow and help me decorate for Christmas. The passenger side and rear driver’s side doors open at the same time and two masked men enter my vehicle.
My finger hovers over the call button to redial East. “Don’t be stupid.” The man in the passenger side grabs my cell phone before I can make a move. The man behind me presses something to the back of my head that I can merely guess is a gun. Pulse hammering in my ears I struggle to breathe.
“Drive to your mother’s house,” the second man instructs.
I am too scared to ask questions or to attempt to run.
Chapter 25
Wylla Mae
As I’m driving the man in the passenger seat calls someone. “Yeah, I’ve got her. We’ll be there soon.”
What the serious fuck. Did my mother put them up to this? What the hell is happening? I want to ask questions but I’m afraid one wrong word or move could set these fuckers off. The drive to my mom’s house is short. I put the jeep in park and shut off the engine. The dude in the back exits the vehicle and opens the driver’s side door. “Don’t try anything stupid. I will shoot you. Get out and walk to the front door. I mean it. You run and you’ll die.” Tears threaten to fall but I bite them back. I have to be strong for my baby. For East.
I get out and act as I’m told. Both men walk on either side of me, escorting me to the front door. The man to my right doesn’t knock he opens the door and pulls me through. I gasp, putting a palm to my mouth when I see my mother on her knees bound at the wrists behind her back and gagged with Lynn standing over her holding a gun.
“Oh good. Look, Alexa. Your cunt daughter made it after all. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree did it. Both of you fucking men who didn’t belong to you.”
“You’re crazy.” The moment the words leave my mouth a large hand slaps me across the face with a deafening thwack that cracks through the room. My head whips to the side and I taste blood on my lips.
“No one told you to speak,” a feral voice growls in my ear.
“Tie her up. Just like the mom,” Lynn demands.
“When do we get our money. We already offed that other guy for you.”
“When the job is done. Now shut up and do what I’m paying you for.”
Oh. My. God. They’re going to kill us.
“We want half now.”
“I will get it to you once you finish the job.”
“We need to see the money.”
“You messed that up didn’t you. Nickel almost told East about the baby,” she hisses. “Now execute this and don’t fuck it up this time, and I’ll give you that bonus we talked about.”
“East will never forgive you if you hurt the baby I’m carrying.”
“I thought I told you to gag the bitch,” Lynn whines.
One of the men grabs my jaw with more force than necessary and squeezes. I press my lips together as he goes to shove his fingers into my mouth, and I bite down clamping my teeth on his skin as hard as I can refusing to let go even when I taste blood. I pray he isn’t diseased, but I can’t worry about that right now. A fist connects with my middle and I open my mouth dropping to my knees, holding my stomach.
“Fuck this.” I look up and the other man has his gun trained on me.
“No, you fool. Not yet. We need it to look like her mother killed her then herself.”
“Why the hell would she do that?”
“Because Alexa had East first and she’s jealous that he’s with Wylla Mae. And when they’re gone and out of my way, he’ll move on with me and my baby.”
They start arguing. “Thought this bitch is a problem for that other lady.”
“She is but this gets them both out of the way.”
I look to my mom and notice she’s doing some weird thing with her arms and the pointy corner on the end table. I fell when I was three and cut my eyebrow on that table. Mom spits the gag out quietly. I cut my gaze back to the men as one of them grabs me and starts binding my hands together with duct tape.