Chapter 42
Chapter 42
“I will win; it is simply a matter of time. That child is ours, and when I find the little beast, I will make sure to sell her to the vilest people so that you will spend the rest of your miserable life realising that it was you that should have had her fate,” Ms Carter yells as she pulls a knife from behind her back.
As I look at the knife that she is holding in her hand, I know that there was only going to be one of us leaving this area, and for my daughter, it is going to be me.
“Bring it bitch but remember this. You will never have my daughter, and by the end of this nightmare of a day, I will guarantee that you will be the one who will be sad and miserable.”
“DIE!” she screams as she races towards me. I watch as the knife rises and swipes towards my face. I duck backwards and kick my leg out towards her, catching her on the left side. She grunts but doesn’t stop her forward momentum.
We continue, she swipes, I dodge, and either kick or punch back. There are a couple of times where her knife grazes my upper arm and the side of my neck, but there is no way I will let her take my daughter.
“JUST DIE BITCH!” Ms carter screams again as she fakes left and then right and ends up headbutting me in the forehead. I stagger back and groan as I try to come to my senses. Ms. Carter races at me again while I am still seeing the damn Tweety Bird flying around, and I don’t fully see her next attack. One minute, I am gathering my senses; the next, I am on my back with my face under the water.
The cold water brings me back to my senses and I thrust my hips up and dislodge her before grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and punching her not once, not twice but three times in the face as hard as I possibly can I take sick satisfaction in the blood that squirts from her nose and her lip splits. I push her back under the water and hold her as she feebly tries to fight me off. Just as her arms begin to lose their fight, I raise her from the water so that she can take a breath before doing it again and again. I am lost in my need to protect Senna that I don’t realise when someone grabs my shoulder.
“Enough, Alba,” I hear from a great distance.
Warm hands wrench me backwards, breathing hard and shaking, trying to stop the fight response and my desperate need to protect. As I hear Ms. Carter gasping for breath, I look over and see her white face.
“Your… your luck that Lachy is here to protect you bitch because if I ever see you again, I am going to put you six feet under. Lachy, I swear that if you lose her or if she manages to get away, I will also be on my shit list.”
The only response that I get is coughing and gasping. As I struggle to stand, I growl and kick water at her as I take off into an unsteady run to get back to Senna.
“Alba, Tristan already has her stop,” Lachy calls. I stagger to a stop and turn to look at Lachy as he zip-ties Ms Carter’s hands and feet, then duct tapes her mouth shut.
“What tell me that I am wrong? You want to listen to her bitch and moan the whole way back, because I don’t” Lachy and I walk into the woods back towards the house the whole way he either asks if I am ok or jostles Ms Carter to stop her incessant grumbling behind the tape.
“Stop,” I say as I walk behind Lachy and punch Ms Carter in the face to knock her out. Lachy lets out a loud bark of laughter before we carry on.
“Just over the next ridge, there we will be able to see the house,” Lachy says as we continue to move forward, we do so at a faster pace.
“How did you find us?”
“After you left and took off, which by the way is super stupid and Tristan isn’t going to be happy about it, so expect a lecture. We used the car's GPS to locate you. When we got here, it was a little bit harder, but thankfully, we weren’t far behind.”
“I hope Senna is ok?” I mutter as we finally crest the top of the ridge. As I see the house down below, I don’t wait for Lachy but take off in an unsteady run.
“Hey! Wait for me. Don’t leave me with this,” Lachy calls, coming down the hill at a slight jog.
I don’t answer as I travel the uneven ground, wanting to get back to Senna as quickly as possible. As I head into the last thicket of trees before the house, something off to the left makes a large noise in the otherwise quiet night.
I come to a complete stop as I turn back and watch as Lachy is about thirty meters from me. I raise my finger to my mouth, making the sign to be quiet, move slowly, and wait for Lachy to catch up, just as he is within ten meters of me, I feel the cold blade press up against my throat. I watch Lachy’s eyes go round almost comically before he dumps Ms Carter off the ground and moves into a fighting stance.
“What the hell do you want?” Lachy calls to the person behind me.
“What was promised, either the first or the last?” the person responds.
“What was promised?” Lachy calls again
“One of the other doesn’t matter which. While one has more value than the other, we are not picky.” The person calls back while pressing the blade tightly against my throat.
“And if we refuse?” Lachy calls.
“Then we take”
I look at Lachy and blink my eyes. I watch as he responds before slamming my already aching head back into the person behind me. I feel the slight pinch of the blade on my throat, but don’t hesitate for a second. I spin around and launch the heel of my hand up into my nose.
I feel Lachy brush past me and take the person that I was attacking to the ground. I hear flesh on flesh moments before darkness takes me.