The Purest Hook (Second Circle Tattoos #3)(89)

“What plans? I don’t understand? Are you going to kidnap us? Kill us?” she asked. She knew tears wouldn’t help, but futility overwhelmed her. She couldn’t see a way out of the mess she was in, and the thought crushed what was left of her fighting spirit.

“When your boyfriend assaulted me in the alley, I contacted Sam with plans to sue his f*cking ass, but Sam offered me a surprising deal instead.”

“Arnie. Enough!” Sam shouted. It made her jump and Petal started to scream in her arms.

“What does it matter if she knows? With the money you paid me, we’ll be out of state and locked down before anyone can do anything about it.”

Pixie let the weight of Arnie’s words settle. Sam was paying Arnie to make her disappear. “Am I really that big of a threat to you? It will kill him if you hurt either of us. And if you let Arnie take me, are you really going to sit there with Petal and wait for Dred to get back? And say what? I came over and found her using so I kicked her out, and like a good girl she left?”

“Listen, you stupid bitch,” Arnie shouted, moving right up against her, the gun pressed up against her cheek. “Hand. Sam. The baby.”

Pixie sobbed, kissed Petal on the top of her head, which smelled of lavender and soap from her bath. Little beads of sweat were forming on Sam’s brow. He wasn’t comfortable at all. Arnie on the other hand looked nonplussed. If she had any chance of getting out of this, there was only one person she needed to convince. “He’s going to know it’s you, Sam,” she cried. “You honestly think he’s going to walk in and believe your bullshit story?”

“Shut up,” Sam snapped as he reached forward and attempted to take Petal, but missed her body and ended up pulling her by the arm. Petal screamed out in pain, her shoulder joint wrenched so awkwardly it looked dislocated.

“Leave her alone!” Pixie screamed. “Don’t hurt her.” Pixie let go and Sam took her away.

She reached for Petal, but Arnie had his arm around her waist. Tears of frustration began to fall. She kicked her legs and dug her fingernails into Arnie’s forearms earning nothing more than a grunt of pain. Being barefoot, her feet were of little use against him. He pressed the gun back against her cheek, the cold, hard metal pressing roughly into her skin.

“I know what you need, Sarah-Jane,” he said as his fingers tightened around her ribcage. “You need something to take the edge off.”

He was going to give her drugs. Drugs that would numb her, take her away. The man who started her addiction in the first place would desecrate a year of getting clean, years of being sober.

She thought of her friends. Of Trent and Cujo and the kindness they showed her. Of Dred’s confidence in her to remain clean after everything he had gone through with his mom. Of her sponsor. Of Lia. Even Petal, who was screaming in Sam’s arms. She needed to keep her wits about her.

“No,” Pixie shouted, knowing full well he had her at a huge size advantage. “Never.” The thought of being shot paled in comparison with the fear of becoming addicted again. That was the kind of hell she could only go through once.

Pixie screamed as loud as she could, a piercing scream right against Arnie’s ear. Immediately he yelled in pain and released her to cover his ear with his hand. She hurriedly crawled out of his reach and moved toward Sam. Scrambling to her feet, she continued to scream and shout for help, praying that one of her neighbors would call the police, or building security, or hell, try to take down the door with a baseball bat.

She was nearly to Petal and could see the shock on Sam’s face. Whatever plan they’d had when they walked into the apartment had changed.

“Please, Sam,” she begged. “Don’t do this. Help me get Petal out of here.”

Sam looked at her, sadness creeping into his eyes, replacing the fear she had seen earlier. “It’s best for Dred this way,” he said, but uncertainty tainted his words.

“Don’t let him hurt me, Sam,” she cried. “Dred’ll know. He’ll know it’s you.”

Sam looked behind her. Hope replaced panic as she stretched out her arm, reaching for him. Between the two of them, they could get away from Arnie. But at the exact moment the tips of her fingers crossed his, a look horror washed across Sam’s face.

“Arnie, no!” he yelled.

And then her world went black.

*

Dred heard the scream from the end of the hallway. The gut-wrenching sound of Pixie yelling No would echo through his memory for the rest of his life. His heart hadn’t beat since the moment he’d listened to Pixie’s ice-cold gasp on his message that Arnie was at her door. As soon as he heard the words, he was off running, yelling to Stu who was leaning against the wall taking a smoke break.

He’d sprinted across the street, dodging cars that honked as he ran in front of them. Never in all of his experiences had he been so terrified. The only thing that mattered was getting to them.

My girls are in trouble.

A frigid anger unlike anything he’d ever known pulsed through him. It kept him calm enough to remember to tell the concierge to give his brothers permission to follow him up the stairs, to call the police, and to shut down the building as he burst through the door and ran through the lobby.

Thankfully, at the moment he’d tried to decide which would be faster, the stairs or elevator, the elevator pinged open.