“My name is Dane Foster,” I said in a menacing voice. “I’m not any kin to your sick ass. Does it make you feel like a man to beat on old women and young boys, Darien?” I didn’t lower the gun, regardless of the fact he was holding a hostage. Darien was wily. I wasn’t about to underestimate him. I shifted the barrel to his forehead and dared him to come any closer.
“I beat your ass pretty good too, Dane. Don’t you forget it. Now, you’re gonna let these nice little kids go off and enjoy their vacation. You only live once, but this one might not make it if you don’t move fast and do as I tell you. Get over there and tell them you were just fooling around. They’ll understand. They’re jackass college kids.”
“What makes you think I won’t blast your face off right now?” I said, cocking the gun.
“Oh,” said Darien, “just the fact that that gun doesn’t have any bullets in it.” He smiled devilishly as he tightened his arm. “Now, move. You’re wasting air, and this guy has very little of that left.”
I looked skyward in disbelief at the fates. I dropped the gun and made a lunge for Darien, hoping to disengage him from the hostage. He willingly shoved the boy forward, and the college student fell flat on his face. Hanna raced over to help him up. Instead of lingering, the boy ran across the deck and stumbled back onto the Red Fire.
“No!” yelled Hanna.
“Get that engine going!” the boy screamed.
One of his friends asked, “What’s goin’ on?”
“Call the Coast Guard. He tried to kill me! They’re dangerous.”
It was the last thing I heard them say before the speedboat engine roared to life and they maneuvered away from the yacht.
“Wait!” wailed Hanna helplessly.
“I told you to get off the yacht!” I shouted at her. I clutched at my head, fingers combing through my hair. “I wanted you to get to safety! Why did you stay? God damn it, Hanna! Why didn’t you leave when I told you to?”
“I couldn’t leave you, Dane. I couldn’t,” she sobbed. She threw herself against my body, and I folded my arms around her as I desperately tried to come up with another plan. I watched our rescue boat race off and felt like my hope was sailing away from me. I held her close, her trembling shoulders shaking like a leaf. My lips dropped to her forehead.
“It’s okay,” I murmured, feeling anything but. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Don’t cry.”
“Touching,” spat Darien.
I turned around. I pushed Hanna behind me to put her out of harm’s way. Darien was now holding the gun, pointing it directly at my chest. I chuckled. “I thought you said it didn’t have any bullets.”
He grinned like the Cheshire cat and waved the gun around. “I lied.”
I nodded. “I figured as much.”
I took a wary step back.
Sissy came out and stood beside her husband, looking, for all the world, proud of him. “Like I said…Darien’s got it all figured out.”
“Does he? And, what’s he gonna barter with when he gets to that cartel and doesn’t have the drugs or the money? Has he figured that out too?”
Sissy’s confidence wavered, and she glanced nervously at Darien.
“We could get rid of the girl to teach him a lesson,” she suggested, nodding at Hanna.
I reached behind me and squeezed Hanna’s hand.
“Sounds like a good idea,” said Darien, chortling with evil mirth. He leaned over and kissed my mother. I wondered what it was like, kissing the devil. “How do you like the sound of that, huh, Dane? What if we knock off your girlfriend, here, and let you suffer? I tell you what, what if I sample a taste before I blast her face off—isn’t that your phrasing? Did I get it right? Blast her face off?”
“You disgust me,” I responded.
“Don’t talk to your father like that,” Sissy said sternly.
I looked at her face, made ugly by the words coming out of her mouth. Hanna pushed past me and glared at her. “He’s not his father! And you? You’re not a mother. You’re a weak-willed husk of what used to be a woman. I can’t believe you gave birth to a man like Dane!”
“Well, I did!” my mother fired back with more force than I had ever seen her muster. “I did give birth to him, and I raised him! While his real father ran off and left me to fend for myself. You weren’t there! You don’t know what it was like being nineteen years old and taking care of a baby with everybody lookin’ at you like you was some kinda home-wrecker for falling in love! So don’t tell me about myself, missy. I know what I done and why I done it! This man here is the only father Dane knew growing up, and then Cornelius came and took that away, too! I don’t get to keep nothin’! You hear me? But I’m keepin’ my man. I’m standing by Darien until I breathe my last breath, so help me God!”
My eyes swung back to Darien as he prepared to fire a shot at Hanna for getting my mother upset, but I was expecting him to. I reached into the back waistband of my jeans and pulled out his knife. My training stood me in good stead when, with a deft flick of my fingers, the blade flew through the air straight and true, sinking into his upper left chest with the thud of a punctured watermelon.
“Darien!” Sissy screamed. She dropped to her knees at his side when all six feet of him crashed to the deck like a falling tree.
I stepped over her and glared down at the one person who had caused me the most heartache and despair, more than anyone should have had to go through, the man who had turned my own mother against me. How long would it take to undo her brainwashing? “Or I could stand by and watch as you breathe your last breath.” It’s what everything inside me wanted to do.
End of Book 2
Hello Readers!
Whew! That was a lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed Dane Book 2 and as usual don’t be afraid to chime in with your opinions about the story. You can message me through Facebook or my website if you wish.
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Dane Book 3
The Finale
Releasing April 10th
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Other Works from Avery Phillips
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Table of Contents
HEALING
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
Dane - Book 2: A Foster Family Saga Page 11
