Unlovable (50 page)

Zack was on heroin, and I was as good
as dead!

He walked over and yanked me upright
by my hair. With my ribs hurt too badly to stand erect, I hunched
over to one side to relieve the pain. He ran his perpetually sweaty
hands over my face and smiled a twisted sick grin.

“
Why are you helping him,
he’s a killer,” I said, buckling over in pain. Alan’s head snapped
in my direction.

“
I HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND MY
FAMILY!” Spittle flew from his mouth as he darted toward me. I
cringed back.

“
Hold on there, Alan,” Zack
said boldly. “You said if I helped you to get in here, I could have
first dibs on her before you killed her.” He wiped his nose on his
sleeve and continued.

“
I’m the one who told you
about the stupid little dog she loves so much, and I tracked it
down for you. I’m the one who’s been watching the house for the
past week, like you asked, learning Seth’s routine. Didn’t I warn
you there’d be an agent that you’d have to take care of before you
could get inside? And who called to let you know she was here
alone?”

Alan didn’t answer, instead he stomped
back over to a window, all the while his eyes stayed fixed on me.
Zack beamed proudly, as if his actions were a real
accomplishment.

“
Get a move on, her cop
boyfriend will be back soon, and I need to catch him unprepared.
Make sure you don’t kill her when you’re done either. I have a few
of my own plans for her,” he leered.

“
I can help you, I’ll have
her after we kill Seth,” Zack said, hopefully. “If you can just
give me a little stuff to keep me tied over until we’re done.” He
began clawing at his arms.

“
Zack, please don’t do
this,” I whispered. “This guy’s going to kill you when he’s done
using you. Seth can help get you into a treatment cen—”

“
SHUT UP!” Zack’s hand
ripped across my face, sending me to the floor again. A warm
trickle of blood ran down my lip, I wiped it away. He dropped down
on his knees and shoved his face into mine, glaring at me as if I
were some foul creature, but despite all his bravado, he failed to
hide the trepidation in his eyes. He was worried that I was
right.

“
Tell her, Alan, tell her
she’s a liar.” When Alan didn’t answer, Zack continued his demand.
“Tell her you’re not going to kill me!” The crack in his
disposition widened. He grabbed my hair and pulled me back up onto
my feet, shoving me hard against the counter. This time I heard my
ribs snap. A sharp pain cut through me, it was growing harder to
breathe without sending agonizing pain throughout my insides. Alan
walked over and put his hand on Zack’s upper back.

“
My dear boy, you are way
too much work.” He slid his thumb around to the front of Zack’s
neck, and with one swift motion, began crushing his airway. Zack
reached out to me, gasping for air.

“
Stop it!”

“
Have it your way, girlie,”
Alan said casually. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his
knife, and shoved it into Zack’s chest right over his heart, then
callously dropped Zack’s dead body to the floor.

“
Zack!” Before I could reach
his lifeless form, Alan grabbed my face and lifted me onto my
tiptoes; my lungs battered begged for air. Dragging his slimy mouth
along my neck he muttered, “I’ve waited so long to have you, I’m
afraid I’m not going to be able to control myself as long as I’d
hoped.”

He then stopped and pinched his eyes
shut before dropping me back to the ground. “No, Alan, you can wait
a bit longer for your revenge,” he counseled himself while stroking
my hair. “But maybe a little taste wouldn’t hurt.” He jerked my
face to his, dropping his foul lips to mine.

Something inside me snapped. If I was
going to die, I was going to go out fighting, so fight I did. I
raked my fingers over his face, digging up flesh, while forcing my
thumbs into his eyes, I brought my leg up between his, hard,
crushing his groin.

He stumbled and fell on top of me,
pinning my battered body to the ground. His weight added unwanted
pressure to my already tender ribs, and I screamed out.

However, Alan’s screams overshadowed
mine; he was in serious pain. I began scratching, biting, and
punching every inch of him I could make purchase with, holding
nothing back. Still reeling from my well-placed knee, he spewed out
a list of profanities a mile long as I broke free and forced my
broken body across the kitchen floor toward the gun. I was almost
to the drawer, when, from his prostate position, he hooked my foot,
dragging me back several feet.

I looked back at his sweaty face, now
scarred and bleeding thanks to my fingernails as he leered at me.
“You. Will. Pay. For. That.” Reaching into a pocket by his left
knee, he pulled out a syringe. “Let’s see how well you do with a
little Eightball coursing through your veins!” He bit the cap off
the needle with his teeth.

I remembered Seth telling me about
Eightball a few days ago. It was a mixture of heroin and crack. As
if one wasn’t enough! “Over my dead body,” I said.

“
Oh, not yet, girlie, but
it
will
take some
of the fight out of ya!”

With every bit of strengthen I had
left in me, I jerked my left foot free and sent it crashing into
his face. He rolled away moaning as blood splattered
everywhere.

Panting to keep my pain down to a
minimum, I inched back over to the cupboard and reached into the
secret compartment. Grabbing the cold steel gun, I contorted my
battered body sideways to find Alan leaning against the bar,
mopping up the blood from his face with his sleeve.

“
It’s a good thing I love a
fight, otherwise you’d be dead by now.” He took a step toward me,
and I held up the gun, it shook violently in my hand. “Forget it,
girlie, Zack’s already told me you can’t hit the broadside of a
barn with a cow.” His head rolled back in laughter.

“
I guess Zack made two
mistakes today.” Before I could pull the trigger, a figure passed
the window, drawing my attention away from Alan long enough for him
to kick the gun from my hand. It went sliding across the kitchen
floor.

“
It seems your boyfriend’s
back, so I guess I’ll be changing my plans a little. Too bad, this
was just getting interesting.” Dropping the syringe onto the
counter, he quickly tugged open his canvas bag and pulled out what
looked to be an extra-large handgun. He backed up to the door,
swiping at the blood still teeming down from his nose as he waited
for Seth to come inside.

Oh, no! It is not going down like
this!

“
Seth!” I screamed as the
door opened. “He has a gun!”

The force of the door had Alan flying
back to the wall. Regrettably, he was able to maintain his balance,
all the while holding onto the gun.

“
You move, and I kill your
little girlfriend,” Alan said, pointing the gun at me. Seth stood
motionless in the doorway.

“
Let her go, and you’ll be
allowed to live.”

He laughed. “I believe I’m holding all
the cards at the moment, pig." He glared hard at Seth. “And judging
by the way your girlfriend’s panting over there, she either has it
for me real bad, or her lungs are filling up with blood. I've
watched it happen time and time again at the hog farm. I'd guess
she has fifteen, maybe twenty, minutes before she’s dead.” Alan’s
eyes never left Seth as he spoke, it was obvious whom he saw as the
threat.

I used the opportunity to edge slowly
over and picked up the gun he'd kicked out of my hands. Seth seemed
to know what I was doing and kept Alan talking as I tucked it into
my sweatshirt pocket. I hurried back to my original position before
Alan noticed.

Seth took a step toward Alan. “You had
better stop,” Alan said, pulling the hammer back on the gun. Seth
stopped again. “It seems we’re at an impasse here, my friend. Put
the gun down. NOW!” Alan aimed his gun directly at my head, and
Seth dropped the gun, kicking it away.

“
On your knees.” Seth went
to his knees. “You got your cuffs on you?” He nodded. “Okay, cuff
yourself to the refrigerator door,” commanded Alan. “I’ll save the
cable ties for your girlfriend here.”

I had to shoot Alan now. Even if I
missed, it might be enough of a distraction for Seth to save
himself. I palmed the gun, placing my finger on the trigger. As I
flipped the safety off, Booker flew into the house with his handgun
pointed directly at Alan, who merely laughed.

“
Thanks for coming, you’ve
made this so much easier for me,” he said. “Nice little gun ya got
there. Mine’s bigger, and you know what they say about size
mattering.”

“
Yes, but if you know how to
use it, size don’t mean a thing. And I know how to use it,” he
added with a truly wicked grin. “Now, put the Lupara
down.”

“
Ah, you know your guns. I
suppose you also know that I can kill all three of you with only
one well-placed shot using this bad boy.” He reached into his bag,
keeping his eyes on Booker now that Seth was cuffed to the fridge
door. He pulled out a second Lupara and slithered closer to Seth.
“Imagine what I can do with two,” Alan said calmly.
Booker bit out a curse as he stepped toward
Alan.

“
No, Booker! He’ll kill Seth
before you can stop him. Please do as he says.” Booker ignored me
and continued advancing toward Alan. “Remember your promise,
Booker.”

“
I can do this, Maggie. It’s
what I’m trained for,” he said, his jaw tight.

“
Please,” I begged, forcing
myself up off the floor. “Please!”

“
Oh, how sweet, she’s
begging for her boyfriend’s life,” Alan said sarcastically. “Drop
the gun and kick it over here,” he instructed Booker. I looked at
Booker and could almost see his mind working as he tried to come up
with a way out of this scenario. Slowly, he set his gun down and
kicked it away. Alan stepped to the left of Seth as it came sliding
toward him.

It was my
opportune moment
.
I drew the gun out, quickly took aim, and forcing
my eyes to stay open, I pulled the trigger. Alan looked at me,
wide-eyed. With blood now streaming down his face and out his
mouth, he dropped to the floor, dead.

The force of the shot hammered me back
against the cupboards, and my world faded away as Seth’s name
escaped my lips.

37

“
She’s going to make a full
recovery, I promise.” I heard what sounded like Cole’s voice,
speaking. He added, “But it won’t happen overnight, she was a
mess.”

“
Thank you for the
compliment, Cole.” I slowly pried my eyes open. It took almost more
energy than I had. I was in a sterile hospital room with an IV
running into my arm, my ribs ached too. I reached up and felt a
tube nearly as big around as a garden hose coming out of my side,
and it hurt big time!

“
Maggie, how are you
feeling?” Seth’s hands caressed my forehead.

“
I’ve had better
days.”

“
You did it, you shot him
right between the eyes. He’s dead.” I didn’t have the heart to tell
him I’d aimed for Alan’s stomach. “You saved our lives.”

I shut my eyes, dearly wanting more
sleep.

“
Not bad, Magpie.” It was
Booker’s voice now. “Who would have thought you could make a shot
like that.” I slowly stuck out my tongue at him. He
chuckled.

“
Are you in pain?” Seth
asked.

“
I felt a lot worse back at
the house, I’m mostly tired now.”

“
That’s because you’re
heavily medicated.” I looked over at the IV pole as Cole injected
something into the tubing.

“
Is this going to give me
one of those headaches again?” I asked, grimacing.

“
No,” he laughed. “Maybe,”
he teased. I hope.

“
Is Fluffy…”

“
Yes, I’m sorry, Mags,” Seth
said squeezing my hand.

My poor sweet Fluffy was
dead.

“
You have three broken ribs,
one which perforated your lung, collapsing it. That tube you felt
coming out of your side is draining off the excess fluid. You also
have a small head fracture and multiple bruises. You took a real
beating,” Cole said gently.

“
You should have seen the
other guy,” I smiled.

“
What exactly happened to
his face?” Booker asked.

“
He attacked me so I fought
back. I scratched his face, and kicked him in the… ah.”

“
I think I get the picture.
You did good,” Booker grinned, giving me a gentle high-five. Seth
looked as if he wanted to throw up. I took his hand and pressed it
to my lips.

Booker’s smile turned mischievous.
“So, Magpie, I’m curious, what were you aiming for when you shot
him?”

“
His
stomach,” I grudgingly confessed. “And remember, Booker, curiosity
killed the cat.”
Obnoxious
goofball
. “And let me guess, the only
reason you so easily handed over your gun was because you had
another one hidden somewhere on you.”