Incandescent

“You bitch,” he spits outs, his hands coming out in front of him, trying to gain the upper hand. Holly’s whimpers echo out in to the night, but I can’t get my body to turn fast enough to see if she’s okay.

“I’m going to kill you like I should have done three years ago,” he spits, his face contorted in rage

Hot blood surges through my body, burning furiously in my veins. I release the hand from his hair, closing in for his eye, my thumb gouging out with all the strength I can muster. A painful force pushes me back, his knee coming to my stomach. My diaphragm contracts under the force and my knees buckle under the pressure, co

“You think you can overpower me, Kadence?”

A fistful of my hair brings me up to my grazed knees; bile rises up, as the pain is too much to bear. He grins, standing in front of my kneeling body. “Fuck, you’re pathetic,” he laughs as the upper side of his free hand co

“Fuck you, Zane,” I force out past the intense pain at my side and my chest, my voice scratchy from the strong force his hands had around my neck. His hand reaches the waist of his pants, pulling out a gun.

“With pleasure,” he sneers before bring the butt of his gun across the side of my face.

Everything goes black.

***

I wake to the soft cries of Holly across from me. It's dark but I can see the bright glow of the moon coming through a small window.

“Holly?” I croak out, my voice not my own.

“Kadence, thank God, you’re awake,” she cries harder. I try to sit up from the hard concrete floor, but my chest hurts too much. I take stock of my injuries. My face is throbbing, but not as bad as the soreness of my throat. My hands and knees sting, but it’s my chest that I’m feeling the worst pain.

“Something is wrong with my chest,” I croak out the words and try to still my erratic breathing.

“It’s okay, Kadence. Sy’s on his way.”

“Where are we?” I try to focus my eyes, but I can only make out shadows, my head throbbing.

“I don’t know, but Sy is go

“Are you hurt?” Shit, the last thing I ever want is Holly getting hurt because of me.

“I’m fine. I’m tied up, but I put up a good fight.” The proudness in her voice makes me smile on this totally messed up night.

“How long have we been here?”

“We’ve been here for an hour, but it’s been two hours since they put us in the van,” she tells me. Two hours. Oh God, there is no way anyone is going to find us.

The door on the far wall creaks open. My breathing stills as I wait for what, I’m not sure, but this can’t be good. The room is suddenly bathed in bright light, blinding me for a moment as Zane walks into the room.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” He walks up to where I’m lying on the hard cold floor. I look around; we must be in a shed.

“What the fuck do you want, Zane?” I ask, the wheeze of my chest burns after each word spoken. Even though he has the upper hand, I’m not going down without a fight.

Zane’s rough fingers clutch my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “Oh, Kadence, see what happens when you hang with biker scum? You start speaking like biker scum.” He shakes his head like a father disappointed in his daughter.

I shake my head out of his grasp, the movement sending an excruciating pain down the left side of my body. His hand reaches out, fisting my loose hair, bringing me up in one forceful jerk. I scream at the sting of my head and the shooting pain through my chest, my lungs struggling to seize some air. Bile surges up my throat at the sheer pain. Forcing it down, I tell myself not to break. How could he be doing this? You think you know someone, think you love them... I shared my bed for three years with this man, shared my dreams, my body, my life, but I don’t know him at all.

“I want your boyfriend out of the picture, baby.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why? You used to love it. Loved it when I was fucking you hard. Maybe we could go another round, for old time’s sake.”

I whimper at the thought, knowing he probably will, but I would rather die than have him inside of me.

“Don’t fucking touch her, asshole,” Holly yells out.

“Don’t worry, Holly. You can watch, then you’ll be next.”

“Don’t,” I plead with him. “You can have me, but please don’t touch her,” I say, giving myself to him. I couldn’t bear to know he touched her. Fuck, this situation is just getting worse. I don’t know how we are going to get out of it.

“Don’t sound so disgusted by it, Kadence. I’ll make sure you enjoy it.”

“You’re a piece of shit, asshole,” I say, trying to calm my panic. I know I shouldn’t be goading him, but disgust courses through me, and I can’t hold my tongue. I won’t allow him to break me.

“You’re right, babe,” he agrees, a smile now replacing his disappointed scowl. He looks over to where Holly sits up against the wall. The same guy she fought with earlier stands above her, a gun pointed at her head.

“Zane, this has nothing to do with Holly.” I try to hide the fear in my voice, but think I fail when he looks back at me.

“Oh, I know.” He smiles his evil smile. “This is all about you and that asshole you’ve been seeing. He needs to be gone and what better way to make him listen.”

“This won’t change anything, Zane. He’ll still fight you every step of the way,” I try to get him to see. “Hurting me or killing me won’t get him to step down.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. I set it up. Make it look like that the Mayhems did this and all I’ll have to do is sit back and watch the fucking show.” He laughs like he has completely lost his mind.

“You’re crazy,” I tell him, knowing there is no way we are getting out of this; the man has gone nuts.

“I’ll tell you what’s crazy. Gu

I don’t answer his question, afraid of the outcome, afraid of his reaction.

“ANSWER ME, YOU WHORE!” he screams, striking me across the face with his gun again. The black stars are back, and I fight desperately to push them away. I can’t pass out again. I can’t leave Holly alone.

“Yes, Zane,” I answer, looking him straight in the eye. He nods, turning his body toward Holly's direction. The loud bang rings in my ears, my eyes glued to Holly’s form in front of me, red blood seeping from the bullet hole in her stomach. Her dazed stare looks back at me.

“Holly!” I scream, trying to stand. Oh, God, Holly. I try to move to her, to break free. Oh, God, no, no, no.

“Don’t, Kadence, or she gets one in the head.” Zane forces me back to my knees.

I try to fight the internal battle of wanting to fight, but his grip is painfully tight in my hair.

“I hate you,” I spit out past the tears falling, knowing Holly is so close to me, yet I can’t get to her. He just shot her. What’s going to happen to me?

“Oh, Kadence, I hate you too. Didn’t you know? That’s why I left you in the house to burn,” he confesses, smiling down at me. I cry harder as the sounds of Holly’s gasps come from the side.

“Which is why I can’t wait to end this bullshit once and for all.” I don’t see the movement in Zane’s hand until a small black barrel stares at me two inches from my face. I briefly see the outline of his finger, lightly touching the trigger. The darkness of that small black hole drags my eyes away. I want to fight him, reach up, and push it out of his hands so I can go to Holly.