AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Around us, I hear people yelling and screaming for him to put me down, but one by one, those voices begin to slowly fade away. I stare at his dark brown eyes, feeling utterly defenseless.
This man is going to kill me. I’m going to die before I even get to tell Cedrick how much I love him.
Someone comes into my line of vision, and I shift my focus to see that it’s a guard. Several, actually.
“Let her go!”
“Drop her right now!”
Their voices fill the air, and I look to the man. I can see the fury in his eyes, but there’s something else there, too. Fear.
“Back away!” he shouts, gripping me tighter.
At this point, I can barely breathe at all. I try struggling, but this only makes it worse. My vision starts to blur around the edges, and a ringing sound begins in my ears.
Suddenly, he lets go of his hold on my neck, and for a moment, I actually think I’ve gotten lucky and that he’s going to leave me alone. But the feeling of relief is short-lived as he spins me around and crushes me against his chest.
I’m facing away from him, and I can see all of the guards and a small crowd of people gathered behind them. Their faces reflect the fear that I’m feeling inside.
One of the guards steps forward, and I see his eyes widening just as I feel the cold steel press against my temple.
A gun.
“Don’t get any closer!” my captor yells.
Even though he’s no longer constricting my airway, I feel like I can’t breathe again. I hold perfectly still and squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to see what happens next, even though I know not seeing it won’t change anything.
“Please, let her go!”
As soon as I hear the voice, I’m sure that it’s a hallucination. It can’t be real, because how could he possibly be here?
But when I open my eyes, he is. It’s Cedrick, and he’s just a few feet away.
27
CEDRICK
As soon as I enter the market, I see them. A man holding Ellie against him, a gun to her head. Panic and desperation flood my senses, and I do the only thing I can think of, rushing forward and planting myself right in front of them.
“Let her go, now!”
The man looks me up and down and sneers. I’m angry that this man is holding a gun to the head of the woman I love, but more than that, I’m scared that he’s going to do something that cannot be taken back. And I’ll do anything to prevent that from happening.
I stare at her terrified face, trembling beneath his touch. My eyes drift down to her stomach. I had almost forgotten that he would be taking two lives, not one.
Police officers swarm the building and yell, guns drawn. The crowd lurches back from them, but I run as fast as I can toward them.
“That’s my wife,” I tell them.
One of the cops stares me down, while the other immediately jumps into action.
“Sir, we’re going to do everything we can. Please let us do our jobs.”
All I can think is, Then why are you all just standing here? My private guards catch up, offering help, and store security is recounting some of the events to one of the cops.
“Someone reported him pushing an elderly woman, and when we got here, he was already holding the girl.”
A young woman nearby approaches. “The woman, she tried to help the old lady. But the man got mad, and he grabbed her.”
