Until November (Until, #1)(72)

“No,” I whisper again, moving down the hall so I can talk without my mother knowing. “You said they have my signature?” I ask, making sure I heard him correctly.

“Yes.” He pauses and I can hear papers shuffling in the background. “I double checked when I got the papers.”

“Oh my God,” I mumble into the phone, realizing why my mother is really here. “She’s here right now,” I say quietly, more to myself than to Mr. Stevenson.

“She’s at your house?”

“Yes,” I whisper.

“I'm calling James. Keep her there,” he says, hanging up.

“Okay,” I say to dead air on the phone. I look down the hall, trying to come up with a plan to keep my mom here until Asher’s dad arrives. I consider going outside and slashing her tires, but figure that might be a little extreme. Then, I thought about sicking Beast on her, but if she hurt my dog, I would be really upset. So, after a few more non options passed through my head, I decide to just invite her in and ask her if she would like something to drink. I leave the hallway.

When I reach the kitchen, I can see over the Island that Asher is sitting on the couch with his hands resting on top of his head. My mom is sitting on the coffee table in front of him. “I guess we weren’t on the same wave length after all,” I mumble to myself. Asher’s eyes come to me as soon as my feet hit the tile floor in the kitchen. He shakes his head. I narrow my eyes. My mom looks at me, smiles, and I see she has a gun in her hand pointed at Asher.

“What are you doing?” I scream as I start running into the living room.

“Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot him,” she says and I stop at the edge of the living room. My heart is pounding as if it’s going to jump out of my chest. I look at Asher. His eyes are on me and he looks worried. His eyes drop to my stomach and they close, but not before I see pain flash across them.

“As I was telling your boyfriend here—”

“Fiancé.” Asher growls, glaring at my mom. I almost laugh. Only he would stop a crazy person with a gun to clarify our relationship status.

“As I was telling your fiancé,” my mom says, glaring back at Asher. Then she looks to where I'm standing. “You need to come with me.”

“Where?” I ask even though I know where she wants us to go. I just need to stall for time.

“You’ll see,” she says, standing. “Before we go though, you need to tie him up. I don’t need him coming after us.” She pulls some rope out of her bag. “This was for you, but it looks like we’re going to use it on him instead,” she says, throwing the rope at me. I catch it midair and look at Asher, trying to find a way to get out of this. “Come on, come on. We don’t have all day.” She motions to him with her gun. I walk slowly towards Asher. I don’t want to do this. Tears start to fill my eyes. I can’t tie him up.

I shake my head. “I can’t.” I sobbed, stopping a few feet from where he’s sitting.

“Either you tie him up or I’ll shoot him.”

I started sobbing. My breath hitches. “Baby,” Asher whispers, his hands start to come towards me. The gun goes off. “Keep your hands where I can see them,” my mom yells as I scream. Asher placed his hands back on his head with a look of pure rage on his face.

“Tie his hands behind his back and to his ankles. Do it now or I shoot him.”

“I'm so sorry,” I cry as Asher places his hands behind his back.

“Be strong, baby, for both of us,” he whispers, and I know he’s talking about our daughter.

“I will, I promise,” I whisper. I don’t want her to know that I'm pregnant. The day I started wearing the pregnancy pants I bought from Target, my baby bump showed up. Normally, I would wear something more form fitting to show it off. Thankfully, today I have on an oversized tee and leggings because we were lounging around the house. I worked on tying his arms behind his back then he lay with his chest to the couch and I tied his hands to his ankles. I am glad that he has on sweats and a long sleeve shirt so the rope doesn’t rub his skin. When I finish, my mom walks over to the couch and tests the knot I tied.

“Let’s go,” she says, waving the gun in the direction of the door. My brain starts to panic. Asher’s house is in the country. Who knows where his dad is or any of the other officers that work in the area. I have no idea how long it would take until someone shows up, but I can hear Beast scratching at the back door, trying to get in. I wish that I wouldn’t have locked him out there. “Come on. We need to go. You already held me up by not running to the car when I told you Chris was in the hospital.”

“I need shoes,” I tell her, hoping that it will buy me some time.

“I saw flip-flops outside the front door. You can wear those.”

“What are we going to be doing?”

“I'm not going to tell you again. Get in the car.”

“Okay,” I say calmly. I could tell that she was starting to panic. We walk outside and Beast runs around the corner of the house. He jumps through the air, landing right in the middle of my mom’s chest. The gun in her hand went off right before it flew through the air.

“Holy crap,” I yell, running for the gun. My mom is yelling for Beast to get off her. I fall to the ground, landing on my hip. I feel pain shoot up my side. I’ve got my finger around the trigger of the gun just in time to see my mom grab a hold of Beast’s mouth and start to pull his jaw apart. “Let go of my f*cking dog!” I scream at the top of my lungs while trying to stand. I aim a warning shot near where she is lying on the ground. Her hands fly above her head. Beast stands above her, growling down into her face.