Marked

Chapter Nine

She stumbled away, now dizzy from the force of the impact, her hands struggling to catch on to a railing for balance.

She took in the figure in front of her, dressed all in black, expect for one shocking smear of white that was his hair.

Gabe.

He stood a few feet away, cradling his bloody nose in one hand while spitting out a string of profanities.

"I knew it!" Rachel gasped. "I knew you weren't who you said you were! Nicolas sent you, didn't he? Didn't he!?"

"You just had to make this difficult, didn't you?" He sneered. Rachel backed away from him, trying desperately to stop the world from spinning. "Oh, well." Gabe flipped out a gun from the back of his waistband and pointed it straight at Rachel.

"He said that I had to bring you in alive. He said nothing about being unharmed."

"But...what about Simone?" She grasped stupidly.

"What about her?" Gabe asked, shrugging one shoulder.

"My God, you were just using her...to get closer to me."

"Well that was a minor inconvenience, actually. The plan was to make you fall in love with me but that wasn't very realistic with that Mexican dude in the way so I had to improvise a little." He shrugged again. "Pretty genius, wasn't it?"

"You're sick." She spat.

"Come on, Rachel, let's not make this any more difficult than it needs to be. Just come with me and we'll call it a night. I promise you won't be hurt and you'll be with your dad by morning, with all this far, far behind you."

"You know I won't go with you, not willingly."

Gabe waved his gun in the air. "The way I see it your options are pretty limited right now. So let's all just be reasonable and get out of here. I've even got an aircraft ready for us. You know, you really should thank me. I'm getting you off this godforsaken ship before it gets torn to pieces by the outsiders."

"Screw you." Rachel spat. "You won't shoot me. You can't shoot me or Nicolas will have you killed. But if you stop this now, if you stop this right now, I might still be able to save you. I won't say anything and you can leave here with your life, at the very least."

Gabe snickered. "You're cute but it won't work with me. You really think I'll trade everything that Nicolas has offered me for bringing you back to the capital for a life out in the wild and on the run? Thanks but no thanks. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let's get going, shall we?"

"I'm going to go back inside now." Rachel said, straightening her spine and locking her jaw in defiance. "And if you try to stop me, you'll be found out and killed. So leave now while you still have the chance." The dizziness was gone now and she could think more clearly. It might not have been the smartest thing to strike him with her skull but she hadn't exactly had time to plan it out in her head.

Gabe sighed. "If you run, you'll just make it worse."

Rachel didn't reply. Instead, she tore herself away from the railing and ran towards the ramp. But Gabe reached her just in time to grab her ankle, making her lose her balance while the metal of the ramp rushed toward her face.

The side of her cheek slammed painfully into the freezing metal. She managed to get a scream out, a clear plea for help, and prayed to God that someone would hear it.

Her breath left clouds of mist in the air as she struggled to draw air into her lungs. Gabe dragged her towards him and clamped his hands against her mouth making it all the more difficult to breathe.