Aaliyah's eyes fixated on the spot and her lips quivered with raw fear as a dozen possibilities ran through her perplexed mind.
"Nathan," she breathed and Lucas panicked at once, throwing himself through the door.
"Your psycho ex-husband?" Lucas asked oblivious of what she had sensed until a peal of sickly dry throat laughter burst from a corner of the room.
"More like husband," Nathan said. The laughter faded and introduced a vicious snarl.
Lucas spun around at once, finding the source of the noise from the room and encountering a most angry demeanor on the man's face.
"You know, for someone who should know better, you throw yourself into assumptions too much," Nathan said dryly.
"Shut up, man. Not one more word from you," Lucas yelled at him.
"Oh. I would have thought you'd want to know what happened to her... what's her name?" Nathan said and feigned forgetfulness, tapping his forehead for remembrance.
"What? Who?" Lucas cried, stealing a glance back at Aaliyah to make sure she was alright.
"Uh, Samantha," Nathan replied and grinned with wicked satisfaction.
"What? You hit Samantha?" Lucas blurted once and then it hit him. "It was you!"
Nathan effected a nod at once like one who took pride in their sinister work.
"You crazy motherfucker!" Lucas yelled and lunged at him with all of the violence he could muster.
Nathan laughed at how well the bait worked, counting three seconds before Lucas was within range. Blinded by rage, Lucas threw a hand and his entire body followed the brute force behind his fist. He didn't see it coming. Neither did Aaliyah.
Only Nathan did.
Before Aaliyah could blink, Nathan drew his gun. She gasped in shock. No! But then Nathan cracked Lucas across the top of the head with the butt of the gun, and Lucas fell to the floor in a heap. Aaliyah let out a mechanical shriek—Lucas hadn't been shot, but he was unconscious, and she had to help.
"Lucas!" she screamed helplessly as she raced to his side. He was face down, motionless even as she knelt next to him and shook him roughly. With shaking fingers, she reached up to Lucas's neck and felt for a pulse. Faint but beating.
Just then, Nathan grabbed her by the nape of her neck and hauled her upright. "Get up." With his free hand, he motioned to one of the empty chairs at the kitchen table with his pistol. "Sit."
Trembling from head to toe, Aaliyah obediently lowered herself into the wooden chair, wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this situation, or if she would even make it out alive.
Nathan holstered his pistol and took a seat across from her before pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"How did you find me?" she asked, unable to keep the tremble in her voice from seeping through. She had a feeling she knew, but she wanted to hear it from him.
He chuckled, the sound making the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Her senses were screaming at her that she needed to get away from this man quickly.
"A very helpful woman named Deborah," he answered. "She was kind enough to divulge your location. Evidently, she has it out for you, Angel."
I knew it. That crazy bitch!
"What she failed to mention was that you're pregnant." Nathan's eyes narrowed into angry slits at the sight of her swollen belly. "With a child that isn't your husband's."
YOU ARE READING
SECOND CHANCES (ORIGINAL WORK)
Romance[COMPLETED] When Angeline married Nathan Snyder, it was supposed to give her the perfect life. Her dream was shattered the first time her husband laid a hand on her, showing her that the life she'd married into was going to be anything but perfect...
