So Cold

35: Ash

Liam's POV

A shot of a gun shook my ears, my head snapping in the direction where the shot came from. My eyes widened as I saw Jason with a gun in his hands, his eyes wide as he watched Victor collapse to the ground in utter pain, clutching his leg desperately in his large hands. Victor snarled, his hands too busy clutching at his limb to fight back.

Travis, I believe, swiftly fished out a pocket knife fom his back pocket, flicking out the silver and sharp blade as he made his way to me. Almost too many questions clouded my thoughts, my eyes flickering around the room as Travis cut his way through the thick rope - finding no time to untie the gnarly knots. The rope gradually began to loosen around my suffocated and swelling wrists, my feet struggling in the rope that were still agonizingly tied tightly in as well.

Victor made eye contact with me, his eyes growing darker the longer he stared at me with burning anger beneath them. My jaw clenched, my own eyes beginning to look at him in a dark manner, the same burning anger taking ahold of my emotions. The resentful feeling in the pit of my stomach only grew as the sluggish seconds passed by. The anger within me only began to grow as one of his rattling hands reached to his pocket, patting for the gun until he was able to wrap his long digits around the handle, a finger hovering over the trigger.

Despite the fact that I knew my own life was in danger, I didn't care quite frankly. All that concerned me was the safety of Louis, Harry, Kyla, and Sam. I wouldn't care if I was lit on fire. I would still be forcing myself to suck up the pain and to push myself on until the four of them were out of harm's way. I didn't care if I was slowly being cut up with a sharp knife. I would go through all of the possible pain just to make sure they're healthy and breathing.

"Get your slimy hands off of them before you regret helping them in the first place," Victor sneers, his top lip curling. "I'm going to make sure you both regret what you're doing."

Travis and Jason dropped the sharp knives, the blades clinking to the hard floor. Their shaking hands slowly raising to their heads, her palms folding on the back of their heads. Their eyes locked on Victor, showing more white than the color of their iris'. Victor's nostrils flared, his nose scrunching in disgust as if he smelled something absolutely terrible.

"The both of you are fucking betrayers, you know that? You're disgusting to humanity," Victor sneered. Look who's talking. They're not the ones who were beating Louis to a pulp and now beating us up until we're almost in the condition as him - unable to stand or simply lift a finger.

Jason takes a shaky breath in, letting it out with another shiver. "This isn't right," he takes a stand. "Aren't you tired of being kicked around by Phoenix?" His eyes desperately searched Victor's as he tried to reason.

Victor, however, rolled his eyes dramatically. "This is my job," he snapped, "it's either I sit out on the streets of New York, or I can actually get money. I chose to do the closer thing related to living, so here I am. Back away from them slowly, or I will shoot you both in the head." Victor's glare looked venomous, his jaw clenching over and over again as he tried to keep himself composed.

Jason and Travis kept their arms up in the air, carefully watching Victor as his gun remained pointed at his workers. Eventually they stood in front of the door, barely trembling with fear. It was clear that they both were mentally seeking a method to get out of harm's way.

"It's good to know that you both can actually listen from time to time," Victor commented bitterly. "Now, I want you both to leave the room and close the door behind you. Look for the first aid kit and slide it to me ASAP. If you're not back within two minutes then you can kiss your lives goodbye."

Jason and Travis exchanged a tentative look before briskly nodding toward Victor and they both began to make their way out of the room. My hands were free from the terrible, suffocating grip from the rope, but I kept my hands behind the chair to have Victor assume that I was still tied and unable to move.