IRVING STREET. She turns sharp left at a junction
into a deserted street with a dilapidated children’s playground on one side
and a large concrete parking lot flanked by a row of squat, empty brick
buildings on the other. Elizabeth pulls into the parking lot and stops outside
the last of the brick units. She turns to me. “Showtime,” she murmurs. My
scalp prickles as fear and adrenaline course through my body.
“You don’t ha一ve to do this,” I whisper back. Her mouth flattens into a grim line,
and she climbs out of the car . This is for Mia. This is for Mia. I quickly pray,
Please let her be okay, please let her be okay.
“Get out,” Elizabeth snaps, yanking the rear passenger door open. Shit.
As I clamber out, my legs are shaking so hard I wonder if I can stand. The
cool late-afternoon breeze carries the scent of the coming fall and the chalky,
dusty smell of derelict buildings.
“Well, lookie here.” Jack emerges from a small, boarded-up doorway on the
left of the building. His hair is short. He’s removed his earrings and he’s
wearing a suit. A suit? He ambles toward me, oozing arrogance and hate.
My heart rate spikes.
“Where’s Mia?” I stammer, my mouth so dry I can hardly form the words.
“First things first, bitch,” Jack sneers, coming to a halt in front of 425 | P a g e
Fifty Shades Freed
me. I can practically taste his contempt. “The money?”
Elizabeth is checking the bags in the trunk.
“There’s a hell of a lot of cash here,” she says in awe, zipping and unzipping
each bag.
“And her cell?”
“In the trash.”
“Good,” Jack snarls, and from nowhere he lashes out, backhanding me hard
across the face. The ferocious, unprovoked blow knocks me to the ground,
and my head bounces with a sickening thud off the concrete. Pain explodes
in my head, my eyes fill with tears, and my vision blurs as the shock of the
impact resonates, unleashing agony that pulses through my skull.
I scream a silent cry of suffering and shocked terror. Oh no— Little Blip. Jack
follows through with a swift,
本章未完，点击下一页继续阅读。