“Stop,” I scream. “Please!”
A rough hand reaches out and closes itself around my neck. He squeezes just enough so that I can’t breathe.
“What’s happening, Holly?” Ian asks. I try to tell him, but it’s impossible. All I manage is a squeak. The man shakes me, shoving my head in to the wall behind me. My ears ring, and everything gets really blurry, but I manage to keep hold of my consciousness. He lets go, and I suck in a desperate breath.
The man moves behind Mindy. He lifts her hips, takes the bat, and shoves it inside of her. Her screams are deafening. My stomach churns at the sight. I can’t take watching this anymore.
I throw the phone down and shove at the guy beside me. This is too much. They’re going to kill her. I have to do something to at least distract them. The man beside me pushes me back into the wall and onto my butt. I hit the brick and scream out as the pain shoots up my spine. The brick. If I can get a hold on it, maybe I can do something to help instead of just sitting here and doing nothing.
“Keep her in line!” The man with the bat shouts. His eyes are increasingly wild, and he’s taking on even jerkier movements. He pulls the bat out and throws it across the room. It hits the wall. A Streaks of blood splatter across the paint. Mindy’s cries quiet, and her body goes still. She just kind of stops everything except for shallow breathing. He hurt her, and I did nothing to stop it.
I did nothing.
The man with the gun cocks it and shoves it into my cheek. His friend grabs Mindy by her hair again and forces her onto her knees. He stands before her and unzips his jeans. Her face is scratched up from the pen cup, tiny streaks of blood drying in place. Her arms are bright red from carpet burn. I don’t dare look down at her naked lower half. I can’t go there. This is bad enough. But bright red streaks draw my attention to her exposed thighs. The front of the man’s pants are splattered in blood, and his bright red hand stains her blonde hair.
He pulls himself out of his fly and leads her face toward it. With one hand around her neck and the other at the back of her head, he forces her to take him in. Her nails dig into his thighs as she tears at his flesh, but he doesn’t stop.
“And don’t bite him, or I’ll blow a hole in your friend’s face,” the man with the gun says. Mindy’s eyes turn my way, and she bursts out into tears again, but the man redirects her head and slams himself into her mouth. It happens twice more before her body involuntarily seizes and she hunches forward as she chokes on him. Vomit pours from her mouth, but still he doesn’t stop. He slams in again and again, not giving her a chance to recover. She gasps for air, but more vomit falls out. Her throat closes up, and her body shakes violently. He’s assaulted her in every way possible and it’s in this moment that I don’t give a fuck if they kill us anymore. In fact, I hope they do. I don’t want to live in a world where I have to have seen this happen.
It’s painful, what he’s doing to her—making her choke on her own vomit around his dick. I grip the brick under my ass and eye the man with the gun.
“Take me,” I say. “Just stop hurting her.” Tears fall down my cheeks, and my chest rises and falls in a frenzied state. I move the brick to my side opposite him. “Please, take me. Hurt me, just stop! Stop! Please!”
He moves the gun and reaches down for his zipper. I lift the brick and slam it inside the side of his face. He falls back and drops the gun. With unsteady feet and shaking arms, I climb on top of him and throw the brick into his face one more time.
The door to the office bursts open with such speed that it hits the wall behind it and bounces off. A gun goes off, but I can’t tell from where. A second later, the man in front of Mindy lets go of her head. She pulls back and falls to her side as he crumples to the floor. Vomit and saliva pour out of her mouth. Her body shakes and she tries to expel the rest of the contents onto the carpet.
The man beneath me has stopped moving, though his chest rises and falls with shallow breaths. Grady and Duke rush into the room with their guns drawn. The moment I see him, I fall apart all over again. Sobs rack my body and I let out a scream so violent it tears at my throat on its way out. Grady doesn’t move. He just stares at me in abject horror. His mouth turns down and his eyes are wide.
The man beneath me twitches. His arm moves toward the gun. I take my eyes off Grady and look at the man, whose face is covered in blood and caved in on one side. He’s alive. I can’t.
I can’t let him go. He doesn’t deserve to live.