Chapter 9 - The Lioness
I drove aggressively toward the decaying industrial district with a cold, terrifying, and absolute clarity settling deeply over my previously panicked mind.
I was no longer just a frightened, abused mother desperately running away from her wealthy, manipulative in-laws.
I was a fierce, unstoppable lioness who had been dangerously cornered, and I was fully prepared to brutally destroy anyone who dared to touch my cub.
I stealthily parked the rental car a full dark block away from the crumbling warehouse and silently walked the rest of the dangerous distance.
The massive, rusted metal doors of the building were slightly ajar, ominously revealing a cavernous, dimly lit space completely filled with empty shipping crates.
I tightly clutched the precious USB drive in my sweating left hand and cautiously stepped forward into the deep, echoing shadows.
Brenda was nervously standing alone in the absolute center of the massive room, clutching a crying Daisy very tightly by her fragile arm.
Daisy instantly cried out for me the very second she saw my familiar face emerge from the darkness.
I loudly ordered Brenda to let my child go immediately, proudly raising the USB drive high in the air so she could clearly see I had what she wanted.
Suddenly, the deafening, terrifying sound of heavily screeching tires violently echoed directly outside the warehouse walls.
Beatrice and Raymond aggressively burst through the metal doors, looking incredibly disheveled, heavily armed, and absolutely furious.
They had apparently used a tracking application on Brenda's phone to find her, completely furious that she had selfishly stolen their precious data drive for herself.
Raymond violently charged directly at me with a sickening yell, dangerously raising his heavy fist exactly just like he had back in the apartment.
Before he could even take another full step toward me, a deafening, explosive gunshot rang out incredibly loudly through the cavernous warehouse.
Every single person in the room instantly froze in absolute, paralyzing terror.
Four massive, heavily tattooed men slowly stepped out from the dark shadows of the upper metal walkway, securely holding modified automatic weapons.
These were clearly the incredibly dangerous, ruthless underground loan sharks that Mitchell had been desperately hiding from for months.
Their terrifying leader, a towering man with a horrible jagged scar across his face, slowly and menacingly walked down the rusty metal stairs.
He completely and utterly ignored a now-sobbing Brenda and a terrified Beatrice.
Instead, he slowly raised his smoking gun and pointed the cold barrel directly at my beating chest.
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He coldly told me that he didn't care about the cheap digital copy stored on my little plastic USB drive.
He violently demanded that I immediately hand over the original, physical gold bracelet to him, or he would joyfully execute all of us right here on the spot.
