“We have orders to take the girl. Now, we can make this hard or we can make this easy. It’s your choice,” one man says, and the other man continues to stay silent.
“What the fuck do you want with her? She has nothing to do with any of this.” Jared’s voice shakes, and I can feel his body tense as I clutch his leather jacket.
“This war is far from over; you made that pretty damn clear. Now you can give us the girl or we can just take her.” His menacing voice echoes in the forest.
“Over my dead fucking body.”
“Okay, then, big man. You asked for it.” The horrible man raises his gun towards Jared and everything happens so fast.
Shots are fired and I’m tossed at least five feet away. I scramble in back of a tree and see Jared covered in dirt and bleeding from his arm. He’s groaning at the edge of the cliff, and I just about lose my mind.
“Erica, run!” he groans.
“Oh, hell no!” I reply.
“Please stop! I will go with you willingly. Just don’t hurt him, please.”
“Sorry darlin orders were to finish this bitch off.”
One man walks over to where Jared is and it looks like he’s about to kick him off the cliff.
“No!” I scream, and jump onto the man’s back.
“Get the fuck off me!” he hollers, and I continue to squeeze his neck with my arms. Seconds later I am being ripped off of him by the other man, who is still silent.
“Let go of me!” I scream.
Jared is now up, and kicking the other man in the stomach. He grabs the gun and shoots him point blank in the head.
The other man turns abruptly at the sound of the gun going off and aims it right at Jared. I slam my body into him as hard as I can. The gun goes off, but misses Jared.
This guy is quicker than I thought, because now he has me on the ground with a gun pointed at my head.
“She is coming with me, dead or alive. But she is coming.” His voice sounds familiar, and a tingly horrifying feeling climbs up my spine. I start to feel lightheaded when I notice his eyes.
They’re the same as Jared’s.
“Oh my god,” I whisper. “It’s you, isn’t it? Tony?” Tears start to slide down my face.
He sighs and takes his mask off.
“Tony?! What the fuck, man!” Jared yells, and I can see the panic and confusion take over.
“Why?” I croak.
“Listen, I will make sure she’s safe. I just need her to come with me. You don’t understand.”
“What the fuck is there to understand?” Jared spits.
“I promise I’ll bring her back, you just have to trust me. I borrowed some money from the Irish. I know I fucked up! Shit, Erica, I’m so sorry. They’re going to kill me.”
“How the fuck could you do this? It’s Erica! You are willing to risk her life for your own?” Jared barks.
“No! I don’t know, man. They want her, I don’t know why. And I need my debt paid. Fuck!” he roars, and his eyes look like he’s on something.
“Fuck, Tony; are you doing drugs again? Dammit!” Jared grabs him by his shirt and slams him against a tree. I can’t believe Tony was going to take me.
“I’m too far gone now,” Tony says solemnly.