J & P Book 1 - Say You Need Me

Chapter 14

Author's note: this chapter includes extreme gun violence and references to serious sexual assaults

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"No! NO! What have you done to him?"

Jenny screamed at the man, who was swiftly putting his gun in his jacket pocket. "Paul... PAUL!"

She knelt down on the ground, where Paul was lying still, a gunshot wound in his left arm. "You shot him. I'll kill you. I'll kill you!"

"How?" asked the masked man, bluntly.

Jenny did not know. She paused. "I'm phoning the police!"

"You won't phone anyone. If you try, I'll shoot you, too."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"We had a deal. You broke it," he said, sounding exactly as he had on the telephone. "Your own fault. Now, I think I might shoot you, too."

"Let me explain!"

"Okay. Hope it's not too much of a long story."

Jenny knelt down next to Paul. His handsome face, with closed eyes, stared up at her helplessly. He appeared to be lifeless, but Jenny could feel a pulse, faintly in his neck. He needed help.

"Please, please let me ring for an ambulance first." Jenny felt for her mobile phone with her trembling hand.

"You must think I'm stupid. I'll ring for the ambulance. Give me that phone."

Jenny held her phone out; the man snatched it out of her hand. He is stupid, she thought to herself as she watched him dial 999. When the emergency services got here, his number would be up. Perhaps he was planning to leave Paul here, alone. Jenny could not bear that. He needed someone, even though he was unconscious. Or perhaps he had just come to scare them, and would depart alone. Jenny prayed this would be what would happen.

Still, she wondered if they could escape now, while he was distracted. She decided that it would probably be best to wait until the ambulance, and she prayed, the police arrived. She didn't want to move Paul. He was critical.

Paul had not done anything to deserve this. He had suffered enough over the past few years, and now it had all taken a turn for the worse. What if he died as a result of his injuries? Jenny could not bear the thought, and knew that if the worst happened, it would ruin her entire life. She had found that somebody. She was not about to let him go.

At first she thought she had imagined it, but she thought she saw Paul moving slightly. Holding his limp hand, she looked at the wound. Blood was pouring out of it. Thank God it was in his arm, not his body. But it could still prove fatal.

"Paul?" she said, tenderly.

"Jen?" was the whispered reply, very weak. She felt his hand tighten its grip on hers. She burst into tears. There was no way she was going to leave him. Not ever.

The man threw Jenny's phone to the ground. "Okay Jenny, I've got all evening to listen to your pathetic little excuses."

"What have you done with Claire?" hissed Jenny.

"Never mind that, what have you done with the rest of my money?"

"Someone must have stolen it from the case!"

"You expect me to believe that? Who was it?"

"I don't know," said Jenny, moving away, still not letting go of Paul's hand. "Let us go! It's not our fault!"

"If I get some more hostages," sniggered the kidnapper, "I can get some more money! You two just got up my nose. Sickly sweet little romance. I've been tracking it, you know. I thought, aw! Have I caused this? Have I brought these two together? And I felt ill. So then I thought, yeah, put a stop to that, two more hostages."