No, that wouldn’t work, one of his bodyguards would shoot me dead before I even got the shot lined up. And that was assuming I could actually hit Ray with my shot.
“What were you looking for in my office? You were in my office for a reason. Obliviously, you were looking for something, which leads me to think that you suspect something? Did you hear more than you let on to the other day?”
“You know well enough that there isn’t anything to find in there,” I said knowing I had just admitted to being in a place I shouldn’t have been.
But how much did he know?
Did he see me pack my go-bag?
Did he know that I had plans to run?
“What were you hoping to find in there? Did you really think I wouldn’t know you were in there?”
“Why me?” I asked in an attempt to stall him. Okay, and maybe I wanted to know the answer to that too. Was there something about me that just called out to these kinds of men? That said to life that I liked to dance with danger?
“Why you?” he asked like he couldn’t figure out how I didn’t know the answer to that.
“What is it about me? Why did you ask me out? Why did you ask me to move in here with you?”
“Because you’re stunning. Simply something I had to have.” He gave his answer with a hint of amusement playing in his eyes. “And you may not believe this, but I care about you.”
All I wanted to do was snort and roll my eyes at him, but I knew this wasn’t the time. So I held it back though it was extremely hard.
I walked around him, surprised that he let me. But it wasn’t like I was really going anywhere considering his men were blocking the only way out. It was is if they were all standing there in the front hall just waiting for me to go that way.
The condo was dimly lit, only the kitchen light and a floor lamp in the living room were on. As my eyes scanned the dark half of the room, I tried to remember if I had shut the lights off before we left. I was certain that I hadn’t had time and that Ray was in such a hurry to guide me out of the condo that I wasn’t even given the chance to worry with the lights. Maybe someone else had, though I didn’t see these guys as being big on saving electricity and the planet and all that.
I stopped and stared out the window just trying to get my head to come up with a plan. I felt Ray behind me and all I wanted to do was throw up.
“We can still make this work. This doesn’t have to be the end.” His tone was dark and sadistic. The end didn’t mean a break-up. It meant I’d be dead.
Either way, I wasn’t losing the little bit of soul I had left to this man.
“You killed a man! You lied to me! I don’t even know who you are!” I snapped as I whirled around to face him. My fists pounded on his chest but it did nothing. I was going to die and so there was no reason to keep pretending. I hadn’t fooled him. I’d made that one mistake of trying to find something on him and look where it got me.
The back of his hand met the side of my face with a force that nearly had me crumbling to my knees. I touched the throbbing spot to find it already hot.
He hit me.
He really just fucking hit me.
And then it was like I was caught between being in a state of shock and being angry. Suddenly, the vase to my left popped in my mind. I was pretty sure my hand was moving out to grab it with the thoughts of hitting him across the face much like he’d done to me.
“You shouldn’t ever hit a lady,” a voice came from behind him before my fingers could make contact with the vase. A strange voice, one that shouldn’t have been here in this condo.
A slightly muffled shot rang out before Ray could even turn around.
Then his body was dropping to the ground right in front of me.
I blinked.
And again.
There was no way this was real.
Ray’s body hit the floor and didn’t move, his eyes staring straight ahead with no kind of life in them.
One shot was all it took.
