I feel sick all over again.
I’m already shaking my head, fear and something dangerously close to hopelessness making my body shudder.
Kristine starts screaming again, her sobs high-pitched.
“Shut up!” Shane snaps at her. “I swear if Dad hadn’t found out about you and that stupid baby, you’d be dead by now.”
What the fuck?
“Well tough shit,” I shout, holding on to the anger at seeing a girl I grew up with suffering this cruelly instead of the danger I’m in. “Let me up, I can help her.”
They look at each other, trying to decode.
“Her water broke, you assholes! Do you want her to deliver that baby by herself on that dirty floor?” I seethe. “You are already going to kill me. There’s no way of escape now, untie me! It’s not like I can actually go anywhere.”
“What would it hurt?” Sean asks his brother. “If she can shut her up, why not?”
Shane takes out a switchblade and points it at me. “If you try anything, just know you won’t get far. There’s no chance of escape and when your fucking asshole Romeo shows up, Ice Queen, he’s going to fucking die. Just because he missed out on going to jail because of you, doesn’t mean he’s off the hook.”
“I just want to help her.”
Without another word, he snaps the cable ties off. As soon as my hands are free, I ignore the way he grazes my skin and quickly grab the sheet closest to me, wrapping it around my body.
“Hold on, K,” I murmur, biting through the pain in my body as I rush to her, dropping down beside her. “First we need to move you to somewhere dry.”
“No, I don’t think I can move… ah!” she screams.
“Shut her the fuck up!” Sean shouts, making me and Kristine jump.
Looking at her sweat dotted face, the situation becomes all too real. My heart starts pounding with the renewed vigor and unease, but I push it all away.
I ignore the fear that’s threatening to choke me alive and instead focus on breathing and expanding my lungs. As long as they are working, as long as there’s still life in me, then I can get out of here.
“You do know that they were never a thing, right? I bet you they were just fucking and it went wrong. Didn’t you hear about the whole kidnapping scandal?”
I freeze.
“Doesn’t matter. He’ll come for her.”
There’s a beat of silence. I strain to listen, maybe I can hear what they’re planning and try to sabotage it?
“You don’t know that, asshole. Fitz is smart. Smarter than you think.”
“Yeah? We’ll just have to wait and see about that, won’t we?”
“Bro…”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at her, that alone is my insurance but either way, we made a deal.”
“I don’t feel good about this, man.”
“Oh, grow a fucking pair, little brother. That bastard took our sister away from us, and now we have his whore. Fitz will rue the day he declared himself king over this fucking town.”
“If setting that car bomb didn’t have them charging for us, then what makes you think taking her will work? He doesn’t seem like he cares about this bitch all after that whole public kidnapping scandal.”
“Nah, she got that fucker off! We agreed to do this no matter what.”
“And who goes down when this goes south? Have you thought about that?”
“If we do our fucking jobs just right and make sure we taunt those dogs the right way, they’ll be the ones who fucking sink! What part of this easy plan aren’t you getting, Shane?”
Silence.
“That contract was subject on us getting Fitz. If that doesn’t work…”
He trails off and I almost gasp, but then Kristine screams, jerking me back to this ugly reality.
Kristine moans in pain on the floor, her contractions now faster and I quickly get up and rush to the nearest sheet. Grabbing it, I quickly rush back, adrenaline spiking in my system making everything else fade.
“Shh, Kristine,” I whisper, pulling her up as much as I can so I can cover her nakedness and move her away from the wet floor to somewhere dry. “We don’t want to attract their attention any more than this.”
“Listen, Ice Queen,” she says, tears streaming down her face. “That asshole just fucking beat you and you witnessed the shame of my fucking life but fuck, I can’t do this.”
Her eyes are glazed over with pain, making the bruises on her face that much more prominent. I can only imagine how I look. A shudder steams through me at the visual in my mind’s eye.
“No!” I whisper hotly. “I know this isn’t the ideal place or time to give birth, but this baby is coming, so you can’t say that.”
“This hurts!” she cries out. “It hurts so bad I want to die.”
I get up again, frantically looking around. My hands are shaking, my mind still groggy as I try to figure out what I need. I quickly grab another sheet and cover her with it. Then I look around and spot the bag of horrors Shane came in with.
I look for where those bastards might be, but I don’t see or hear them, so I quickly dash to the bag, without pausing to the think of the consequences. I don’t stop to breathe or even assess what’s in the bag. I just grab the kit with all the knives. I think I see another gun in there, but I don’t stay to find out as I hear voices coming.
I quickly rush back to Kristine, quickly wiping the rest of the vomit of my face but sure some is in my hair. When I get to her, my heart stops.
She’s bleeding out.
“Fuck.” I can feel myself sweating as fear frissons down my spine. This is definitely a bad sign. Women shouldn’t bleed when they give birth, right?
“Okay, we need to get this baby out fast.”
“You’re not cutting ne up with those knives and do some fucking grey’s Anatomy C-section on me on the floor of this dirty, creepy slaughterhouse, are you?”
I quickly lay out the knives but hope I won’t use them. “This isn’t Grey’s Anatomy, K. This is real.”
“Ah fuck,” she screams as another contractions grips her.
Her face pales some more and I feel sorry for her. I’m in pain, sure but I can only imagine what she’s going through.
“I can’t do this. I’m going to die.”
I maneuver to spread her legs some more. My hands immediately get coated in blood. I have no idea what to do here. I’ve read books about all sorts of child births, but my mind is foggy with all the drugs they shot up my system and the agony I’m trying to keep at bay.
“You’re not going to die,” I whisper. It’s cold and I know Kristine’s in pain, but one thing is certain, the baby is coming right now. “We just need to deliver this baby and out looks like I won’t have to cut you. You just have to push.”
She shakes her head, her hands hugging her midsection as she lies in a fetal position that breaks my heart.
“What’s taking so long back there?” Sean or Shane shouts and they start laughing. I hear the clinking of bottles and realize they’re drinking.
“Oh God, Mia. How are we going to do this?” Kristine moans, her eyes wide. “I can’t do this! I want… I want drugs. This is too much!”