During breakfast, my husband threw scalding hot coffee in my face because I refused to give my bank card to his sister. He simply said, “You either obey or you leave.” I went to the hospital, kept the medical report, and when I came back, I left my wedding ring on the table... never imagining what he would find afterward.

The massive tactical mercenary stepped slowly into the bright clearing, keeping his smoking weapon aimed squarely at Derek’s chest.

Derek collapsed onto the wet concrete, clutching his bleeding shoulder and gasping for air in pure shock.

Skylar remained frozen on the ground, entirely unsure if the mercenary was about to turn the gun on her next.

The man ignored her completely, walking straight up to Derek and pressing the hot barrel of the pistol against his forehead.

He coldly informed Derek that the cartel did not appreciate being lied to, nor did they appreciate his sloppy attempts to frame his innocent family.

The syndicate had heavily monitored Derek’s communications and knew perfectly well that he was the one stealing their laundered cash.

The mercenary ordered Derek to transfer the missing five million dollars back into the cartel’s offshore accounts immediately, or he would die on the spot.

Derek wept pathetically, begging for his life and swearing that he no longer had access to the encrypted financial ledgers.

He pointed a trembling, bloody finger directly at Skylar, screaming that she had stolen the only copies of the digital keys.

The mercenary slowly turned his intimidating gaze toward Skylar, his dark eyes void of any human empathy.

He demanded that she hand over the external hard drives right now in exchange for a quick, painless death.

Skylar knew that if she surrendered the drives, both she and Suzanne would be executed in this abandoned shipyard without a second thought.

She slowly reached her hand into her soaked purse, pretending to search for the electronic devices he demanded.

Her fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of the high-voltage stun gun instead of the hard drives.

She looked directly into the mercenary's cold eyes and told him that she had actually mailed the drives to the FBI three hours ago.

The man hesitated for a mere fraction of a second, completely caught off guard by her bold, unexpected bluff.

Skylar used that tiny window of distraction to thrust the stun gun forward, driving the metal prongs directly into the mercenary's thigh.

She pulled the trigger, sending fifty thousand volts of electricity surging violently through his massive, muscular frame.

The man convulsed and dropped his pistol, crashing heavily onto the wet concrete beside the bleeding Derek.

Skylar did not waste a single second celebrating her temporary victory over the dangerous assassin.

She sprinted toward the shipping container, grabbed a discarded pocket knife from the floor, and rapidly cut the thick ropes binding Suzanne’s wrists.

Suzanne collapsed into Skylar’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably and begging for forgiveness for all her past greed and cruelty.