“I’m glad you’re okay, Jas,” she replied. “Good night.”
I hung up the phone and just stood there smiling to myself in the dark for a moment. I was thankful for my friends and grateful that they cared about me. And for the way my guys cared about me. And my mom...
A wave of emotions hit me as I started moving back toward the bed. Because yeah, I was a lucky woman to have all of those amazing people in my life. Even my uncle, for all the shit he’d put me through, had still gone out in the middle of a storm to search for me when he learned I was in danger.
I’d taken all of them for granted at one point or another in my life, but not anymore. This trip had changed me. Surviving last night changed me.
Micah and Axel changed me.
A noise behind me and a stream of light coming in from the hallway caught my attention. I turned to see my bedroom door slowly opening, but the person standing there was definitely not my mom.
“Uncle Jeff?” I didn’t know whether to be angry or worried that he’d decided to walk into my room without even knocking. “What are you—oh my God!”
“Not your uncle, my love.” In spite of the term of endearment, Randy’s tone was as cold as his eyes. “I hate to be the one to tell you, but he’s dead.”
“What? I—”
“Actually, no,” he interrupted, taking another step into my room and lifting the shotgun I hadn’t noticed until that moment. “I don’t hate that he’s dead. He was trying to keep us apart, so I had to kill him. I’m sure you understand, right?”
I stumbled back across the room, barely able to keep myself upright as I slumped against the wall. I needed to get away from him, but it seemed like my whole body had already given up. Then another thought hit me.
“What about my mom? I swear to God, if you hurt her...”
“Relax, my pet,” he snickered. “So feisty. I don’t like it when you threaten me. Your mom is fine. She’s a little... tied up right now.”
Thank God. As long as she was still alive, I still had a reason to fight him. I glanced over at the bed and remembered two more reasons to fight.
Randy followed my gaze and made an ugly noise as he flipped the light switch on. “Those sons of bitches are in here with you? Are you fucking kidding me, Jasmine?”
In an instant, he’d gone from speaking quietly to full-on yelling and waving his shotgun around wildly, pointing it at my guys first and then swinging it back to aim at me.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Micah and Axel bolt upright on the bed. “Put the gun down, Randy,” Micah said, his voice surprisingly calm.
“Your problem is with us,” Axel added. “Not with Jasmine. Leave her out of this.”
“You’re right about that,” Randy sneered. “I do have a problem with the two of you. Maybe you guys aren’t as stupid as you look after all.”
With Randy’s attention focused on the guys, I started to inch toward the door but stopped myself just as quickly. There was no way I would get past him and his shotgun. I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do.
“Don’t fucking move.” Randy’s eyes narrowed as he glanced back at me. “Haven’t you already caused enough problems? I don’t want you to move. I don’t want you to speak. All I want is for you to stand there and beg for forgiveness while I splatter these boys’ brains against that back wall.”
My stomach clenched so tightly that I nearly doubled over as fear and anger and nausea surged through me all at once.
I saw Micah nudge Axel with his foot and realized the same thing that must have occurred to him—as long as crazy-ass Randy was fixated on me, they might have a chance to rush him.
“Please don’t hurt them,” I pleaded, mostly because I meant it, but also to hold Randy’s attention. “Please, can we talk? Me and you? I’ll go back to that cabin with you, and nobody has to know anything.”
There was no way in hell I’d voluntarily go anywhere with him, but it didn’t matter. He might have believed it, and I only needed to buy a little more time and hope that Micah and Axel would take it from there.
“See?” Randy’s lips curled up into a sadistic smile. “You’re already getting the hang of it. I knew you’d start to see things my way once you realized how serious I was about having you all to myself.”
“So you’ll let them go?” I asked. “You’ll leave everyone else alone and just take me with you?”
Yeah, I was definitely going to throw up if I had to keep pretending that I wanted to ever be alone with that psycho again. Even worse, I was running out of ways to stall. Either he was going to snatch me up and drag me out of the room, or he was going to start shooting. I wanted to consider either option.