Ruby Laswell x Ghost (Vol. 2-4) Shattered Souls/Bandaged Bruises/Sinful Souls

7.

"Where are they?!" A baton hits the back of my neck, causing me to lurch forward. I feel a stinging pain radiate down from my neck to my spine, and my head spins.

"Not here, Asshole. I'm alone." I look up, smirking at Shao through my dark curtain of hair. His teeth grits as he clenched his jaw, looking to his men who bore batons along with AR-15s.

Shao sighs, kneeling down and looking at me level in the face. The baton meets under my chin, forcefully lifting my face up.

"You're lying." He says.

"And if I am?" I raise my eyebrows.

"I know you're here for your friends. But I'm afraid to say you came here for nothing." He laughs manically, standing up and stretching. "Your friends, well.. I hate to say it but they're smart. They escaped. Especially the one with the dumb hat. But I planted the hat here, seeing it had a chip inside of the seam."

My heart clenched. They were okay, but now we weren't. Fuck me.

"I came here alone." I perk up, trying to remain a confident expression.

"You lie good, Laswell." I look down at the ground. That was an ancient name to me now. I just have to say nothing beyond this point, I'm digging myself deeper and deeper by the minute. Ghost and Soap will bust me out sooner or later. I just needed to stall.

"What do you want." I look up, trying to keep a stern eye contact while my head aches from the blunt force trauma.

"I want you and your team, dead. I know my idiot brother, Tao sent you- it may have taken me a while to figure it out, but once I did I knew it would only be a matter of time." So Tao was this brother. That made sense with the rhyme scheme of the names.

"You're going to terrorize the U.S.! For what?!" I yell back. I couldn't not let my anger take over my senses.

Shao turns to me, laughing slowly. "Because you have something I want."

"And what's that?"

"Intel. Chinese documents, vital records that could benefit our communist country." He kneels down again, looking me in the eyes. "And the only way to do that is to burn it all to the ground. I'm tired of you thieves."

I grit my teeth, trying to inhale deeper breaths. I didn't know how to respond- there was no way tu talk down a war criminal, let alone a terrorist.

"Sir." A guard walks into the room, bearing a heavy gun. Shao looks to the guard, then two more guards follow behind. With two familiar people. Same bags over their heads.

"We found them lurking in the attic." The soldiers shove Ghost and Soap forward, their bags sliding off of their head. They both had welts on their faces, fresh red coming from the cuts.

Ghost jerks his body side to side, and Soap falls against the ground limp but alert. "I'm going to kill—" Ghost starts to speak, but catches my presence as he stares at Shao.

Then Ghost looks directly to me, his eyes widening. "Don't hurt her." Ghost commands.

Soap looks to me, his eyes gaining a sudden panic as well.

"Shit," Soap hisses.

I bite my the inside of my lip as I stare at both of the boys. I could already taste the metal playing on my tongue. We always get out of this somehow. I try to communicate with Ghost with my eyes to remain calm, but I know all he could see at the moment was his rage and possible scenarios that don't play out in his favor.

"He hurt you." Ghost says lowly as he examines the matching welts on my face.

I shake my head slowly, trying to get him to shut up.

"Let her go," Ghost looks to Shao, his tone lowering. He was suppressing a lot of anger.

"Can't do that, Mr. Riley." Shao walks over and kneels down in front of the two, smirking. "I've been onto you for months." Shao puts a foot onto Ghost's hand, and I tense up as I watch Ghost suppress the pain.

"And you." He looks over to Soap, who shakes his head like an innocent civilian.

"You're going to regret this," Soap says.

Suddenly, Shao stands up and walks over to me, nodding to a guard behind him. My hair is suddenly pulled back, I gasp as my neck is exposures, looking up at the ceiling. My chest tightens with fear as I close my eyes as I feel cold and sharp metal rest against my skin.

"No!" I hear Ghost yell.

"What the fuck!" Soap yells. I hear them rustle against the guard's grips, but it obviously fails.

"I'll hurt her again if you don't call it all off." Shao warns.

"Ghost, don't—" I attempt to choke out a few words, and the knife is pressed against my neck more causing a slight burning pain with the feeling of liquid slowly dripping down.

"I'm going to kill you, you hear?!" Ghost yells.

"You can't kill her!" Soap yells.

I look at Shao from the corner of my eye, as he turns to Ghost and Soap.

"And why is that?" He asks.

"Because shes fucking pregnant." Ghost shakily says.

My head is released, sending me forward into the ground face first. I feel my body weak, unable to gain a sense of control or balance back.

"You're lying." One of the guards say.

"He's not." I say, lifting myself up. "I just found out."

A moment of heavy silence falls over the room, and all I could do was maintain eye contact with Soap and Ghost. This was the most terrified I've seen them. And I hated to admit, but I was scared too.

Then, laughter. We all look to Shao, who waves around his knife.

"You think I give a fuck about a fetus?!" He kneels down, looking me in the eyes. Then, over my head. I look to Ghost, who begins to try and squirm out of his binds while the guards were distracted.

"Sir, I-"

"Kill it." He smiles. "Kill it and her."