“You’ll see,” she says, standing. “Before we go though, you need to tie him up. I don’t need him coming after us.” She pulls some rope out of her bag. “This was for you, but it looks like we’re going to use it on him instead,” she says, throwing the rope at me. I catch it midair and look at Asher, trying to find a way to get out of this. “Come on, come on. We don’t have all day.” She motions to him with her gun. I walk slowly towards Asher. I don’t want to do this. Tears start to fill my eyes. I can’t tie him up.
I shake my head. “I can’t.” I sobbed, stopping a few feet from where he’s sitting.
“Either you tie him up or I’ll shoot him.”
I started sobbing. My breath hitches. “Baby,” Asher whispers, his hands start to come towards me. The gun goes off. “Keep your hands where I can see them,” my mom yells as I scream. Asher placed his hands back on his head with a look of pure rage on his face.
“Tie his hands behind his back and to his ankles. Do it now or I shoot him.”
“I'm so sorry,” I cry as Asher places his hands behind his back.
“Be strong, baby, for both of us,” he whispers, and I know he’s talking about our daughter.
“I will, I promise,” I whisper. I don’t want her to know that I'm pregnant. The day I started wearing the pregnancy pants I bought from Target, my baby bump showed up. Normally, I would wear something more form fitting to show it off. Thankfully, today I have on an oversized tee and leggings because we were lounging around the house. I worked on tying his arms behind his back then he lay with his chest to the couch and I tied his hands to his ankles. I am glad that he has on sweats and a long sleeve shirt so the rope doesn’t rub his skin. When I finish, my mom walks over to the couch and tests the knot I tied.
“Let’s go,” she says, waving the gun in the direction of the door. My brain starts to panic. Asher’s house is in the country. Who knows where his dad is or any of the other officers that work in the area. I have no idea how long it would take until someone shows up, but I can hear Beast scratching at the back door, trying to get in. I wish that I wouldn’t have locked him out there. “Come on. We need to go. You already held me up by not running to the car when I told you Chris was in the hospital.”
“I need shoes,” I tell her, hoping that it will buy me some time.
“I saw flip-flops outside the front door. You can wear those.”
“What are we going to be doing?”
“I'm not going to tell you again. Get in the car.”
“Okay,” I say calmly. I could tell that she was starting to panic. We walk outside and Beast runs around the corner of the house. He jumps through the air, landing right in the middle of my mom’s chest. The gun in her hand went off right before it flew through the air.
“Holy crap,” I yell, running for the gun. My mom is yelling for Beast to get off her. I fall to the ground, landing on my hip. I feel pain shoot up my side. I’ve got my finger around the trigger of the gun just in time to see my mom grab a hold of Beast’s mouth and start to pull his jaw apart. “Let go of my f**king dog!” I scream at the top of my lungs while trying to stand. I aim a warning shot near where she is lying on the ground. Her hands fly above her head. Beast stands above her, growling down into her face.
“November!” Asher yells from inside the house. I can hear the worry in his voice and I know that he wants me in there, but I can’t leave my mom alone until Asher’s dad shows up.
“I'm okay! We’re okay!” I yell back, taking a shaky breath. The sound of a car coming up the drive is music to my ears. I watched Mr. James pull over the hill in his police cruiser, and for the first time since my mom showed up, I can feel that knot in my stomach disappear.
“No, No, No, No,” she starts chanting, her head thrashing back and forth on the ground. I can hear Asher yelling from inside the house and know that I need to go to him.
“Are you okay?” Mr. James asks, running up with his gun drawn and pointed at my mom.
“Yeah,” I say shakily. “Asher’s inside. He’s tied up. She made me tie him up,” I cry. The gun in my hand starts shaking. It feels like it weighs a hundred pounds.
Mr. James’ face is soft and full of worry when he holds out his hand to me. “Give me the gun, darlin’, and go untie my boy,” he says quietly. I hand him the gun and start stumbling my way into the house. My hip is killing me from where I fell on it. I open the door and see Asher on his knees. He has gotten the rope off of one of his ankles. His eyes come to me and he falls backwards onto the floor.
“Fuck,” he roars and I run over to him. I realize it would be easier to untie him if I had a knife, so I stumble into the kitchen then back to him. He rolls to his side and I cut the rope around his wrist. Before I can do anything else, his arms are around me. I didn’t even realize that I’m crying until he starts wiping away the tears running down my face. “Breathe, baby,” he whispers, rocking me back and forth. One hand is on the back of my head, holding me to his chest, and the other is on my stomach where our daughter is.
“I—was—s-s-so scared.” I sob. “Be...Beeasst saved me again.”
“Shhhh, it’s okay. You’re safe.” He repeats those words over and over into my ear.
I take my face out of Asher’s chest as Mr. James walks in with another officer. “We have her in th—” He looks down at us and his face pales. “Call a f**king ambulance!” he shouts over his shoulder. I look down and see that Asher’s sweats have blood on them.