I tried to not dignify Hollis's response with a further reply, but I just couldn’t contain myself.
"I should probably call him back then. Maybe there's more he wants to say to me other than squeak and spin in circles." Hollis scowled, "If he's smart enough, he wouldn't bother calling you again. But of course not. He would rather I spoon the idea into him." I shook my head, laughing. "Oh my God, Hollis. What do you want to do to him?" He eyed me, "I won't kill or send people after him, if that's what you're thinking." He replied. Then he changed the topic to someone else. "I got them to bring your friend back here. Since I'll be away until Wednesday, I want you to be comfortable. Alessia will be here twenty-four-seven. The security is tight-lid. If you need anything while I'm away, don't hesitate to let me know. If you can't reach me, call Castello Maxine. Their contact numbers are saved in your phone.Hugh seemed very relaxed while speaking, making me wonder why. "Hugh you’re scaring me," I admitted to his hearing, my voice slightly shaky. He shifted from his initial spot. "I'm trying not to give our guard any reason to suspect a thing." He replied calmly. "You should do the same.I nodded and flashed a smile that was in no way close to my heart. "We have to leave tonight," Hugh thought out loud. I adjusted in my seat, startled at his words. "We’re not going anywhere.""You need to pack a bag. We have to leave tonight. One of the night guards usually falls asleep against the tree. We’ll sneak past him when he does and follow the road from the woods and flag someone down on the highway. We’ll have to hitch a ride out of here. It's for your own safety.""We’re not going anywhere tonight," I repeated. "This is ridiculous. You’re upset and paranoid. Everything will be better when you take time to relax. I've told you that I don't need saving and since
Castello walked over from the couch and grabbed himself a bowl of cereal as he kept filling me with stories of Hollis's childhood. When he got back, he looked at me and probably noticed something was off. "What’s the matter with you?" He asked me with a concerned tone. "You don't appreciate that I'm here?"I shrugged, "I don't appreciate being sent a babysitter, yeah. But I really love that you are here." I replied honestly. "Thank God." He said in-between a mouthful of cereal. "I'll keep you entertained all through. You'll hardly notice your husband's absence." He told me.I smiled. "I'm definitely holding you to that." I replied. "So tell me, you were telling me something about my husband.""Yeah." He nodded. "He's really the bravest man I know. I've learnt a whole lot from him." He said. "You've spent a couple of months with him amazing."He got me there. I nodded. "That, he is." I'm not even gonna lie. Castello smiled. "Anyway, some of the guards a
Hollis swore successively and pleaded, "Ugo please get out. Your fingerprint has been registered. Press it on the scanner below the dining table. Drag Castel with you! What the fuck!" He screamed and the line went dead. I looked at the phone and handed it over to Castello. He examined it. "Battery’s fucking dead. I forgot to charge it, " he confessed and put the useless phone back in his pocket. He tapped the scanner under the table and started barking instructions. "Step into the basement, it will lead you to a long walkway that goes straight up." He pushed chips, biscuits and two cans of water into a bag for me."Follow the pathway straight ahead. Once you come to the end of the road, you'll see a drainage cover above. Push it open and head straight. Do not deviate. Keep straight and in twenty or forty minutes max, you'll come to a brown cabin with a dark roof and pine trees behind. Scan your finger on the scanner under the doormat. That should take you inside
Gunfire suddenly erupted at the back of the crowd, and I saw three of Amory's men go down with a splat. The guard who told me about Hugh's whereabouts had snuck out behind them, taking three men down before getting shot himself. While Amory's men had been distracted by the guard, Castello cocked his fist back and punched Amory right on the nose. Amory fell back like a rag doll. He slid to the floor and his head hit the ground with a thud. One of his men ran to his side but he shoved him away. Disoriented, he wobbled to a sitting position, his nose bleeding, "Fuckin kill him," he ordered pinching his nose with two fingers. Three of his men raised their weapons and, in unison, fired shots at Castello. Castello went limp to the floor. At that moment, I felt like I'd been knocked out of my body. What did I just see? It's not possible. My vision blurred, but my eyes stayed on Castello. I willed him to get back up, to fight back, to run. But he wasn’t moving. Blood soaked up the f
Branches slashed me in the face, and I pummeled full speed into a few tree trunks. I couldn’t see more than two feet in front of me, but I saw the flight lights getting closer, so I didn’t stop. I kept running, often tripping over fallen logs and bushes and skeletons. My legs were getting severely scratched and bruised. My hands were tattered. The adrenaline was pumping too fast for me to feel much, but after a while, my burning lungs were also starting to plot against me. Though my mind continued to speed through, my body was slowly giving up. When my shoulder hit an unseen tree limb, I fell backwards to the ground, and the back of my head hit the hard ground. I forced myself to get up but just fell forward on my hands and couldn’t go on anymore. The forest was dark, the moon was unable to do much for me at this point because it was covered by tree branches. So, it was reflecting off the treetops. Slowly, the torchlights started diminishing. I heard footsteps stomping f
Next, I started feeling the cold through my body. By the time we reached the cabin Castello described for me, my teeth were chattering, and my naked feet and fingers were burning. Hollis carried me toward the building. There was chaos around the property. A couple of his men were there; some were manning the cabin while others seemed to be walking around the property, surveying the land, looking for clues or other stuff, I had no idea. I concentrated on how good it was to hear Hollis's voice again. He carried me into the cabin and immediately into an empty room not giving me time to glance around the space. The bedroom was small but comfortable and most importantly, warm. Hollis released me from his back and made me sit on the mattress. "I need you to take a minute, and then we'll be out of here." He explained as he brought out a thermometer to get my temperature. In the nightmarish haze I was in, I held my arm down to prevent the thermometer from falling off. Then I got up a
I could feel the throbbing in my bruised and bloodied legs. I could also feel the fear and the pain that was lingering deep, slowly rising to the surface. I wrapped myself in the towel that Hollis had left for me and walked out to the small living room where he was standing at the edge deep in a phone conversation. His expression was dead serious, and I knew not to disturb him. I walked into the bedroom, he had already set out some clothes on the bed for me. Like a robot, I dressed myself. I soon heard the sound of the shower and I knew Hollis had gone to wash up.The clothes I had on smelled like him. By the time I was completely dressed, he was out of the shower, dressed already in jeans; his upper body was shirtless. He looked miserable and I could feel my drowned emotions already bubbling up. I strolled back to the living room, there was a heater present, so I felt it was best to stay there and get myself warmed up. I watched Hollis walk to the stove where the kettle was now b
I had no idea where I was or what time it was when I woke up again. Disoriented, I glanced around the room, looking for a clock, and then, I suddenly recalled the events of the previous day. Disarrayed images of what had happened started filtering through in pieces. Gunfire, dead bodies, skeletons, Castello. I gulped to force back down the knot that was growing in my throat and got up. From the windows, I could see that the sun was up and that Hollis wasn't home, a little panic took over me. I shuffled over to the living room, just as he walked through the door, grocery bags in hand. "The grocery store didn’t have much, but I got what I could." He announced, breathless. Placing the bags on the table, he rushed over to me and shocked me with a hug that lasted for a while. He cradled my face in his hands and surveyed it with worry, passing his thumbs over my puffy and scratched cheeks. I forced a cheering smile. "Good morning," he whispered, kissing me on the