Marked

Chapter Nine

"Well now you've done it. I really didn't want to do this, but now, well now you leave me no choice." He climbed on top of her, straddling her arms with his thighs and effectively trapping her. With one hand still firmly clamped against her mouth, he fumbled at the front of his jeans with the other.

Rachel's eyes widened and she screamed louder but any sound she made was muffled by his palm. For one terrifying moment she thought he might try to force himself on her, until he produced a pouch from his jeans, uncovered what was inside with a messy flick of his fingers and revealed a capped needle.

He ripped the cap off with his teeth, spat it out and brought the syringe down towards her neck. But she bucked her hips with enough force to make him drop the needle, buying her a few more precious seconds. He cursed and squeezed her more tightly. She heard footsteps echo on the ramp behind her and craned her neck painfully in time to see Simone bounding down the runway, waving a bottle of white liquor in her hands.

She froze when she saw them, stopping two yards away, a mortified expression on her face.

"What the hell? Gabe, what are you doing!?"

Rachel tried to tell her to run but all that came out was a garbled cry. Her eyes flitted back down to the metal gun shining under the moonlight, resting a few inches from Gabe's thigh and just out of Simone's sight.

"It's not what you think—she was having another one of those panic attacks, the ones we heard about. I was trying to calm her down."

"By holding her down like an animal?" Simone's eyes fell down to his hand over her mouth, took in the syringe and the terrified look in Rachel's eyes.

"Get away from her. Get away from her right now."

"Babe, it's not what you think. Let's all just calm down. This is one big misunderstanding."

"Now!" Simone shouted. Rachel could see the tears building in Simone's eyes just as clearly as she could see the cold calculation in Gabe's eyes. He was going to hurt Simone.

"All this time..." Simone whispered. "It was all a lie. You used me!"

When Gabe failed to release Rachel right away, Simone slammed the liquor bottle against the railing of the ramp, causing it to shatter and leave behind a huge shard of glass that she clutched in her hand as if it were a life line.

Gabe moved back slowly, releasing Rachel's mouth and arms. For a moment, Rachel was too stunned to speak until he dove for the gun. She sat up with blinding speed and rammed her palm into his throat. He gurgled and tipped forward, landing close to Simone's feet.

But he didn't let that stop him. Still coughing and dry-heaving, he turned around and backhanded Rachel, sending her crashing into the edge of the railing, her head slamming against a metal pole. That's when Simone's enraged cry filled the air and she rushed at him, the glass shard pointed at his throat.

Now that he'd gotten a moment to compose himself, Gabe easily overpowered Simone, standing and catching her arm while it was still coming down in an arch to strike him. He twisted, causing her to cry out and the glass to fall from her hand.

It slipped through the cracks in the metal mesh beneath them, spiraling down into the ocean. Simone struggled against his hold while he pushed her against the railing, his hands viciously strangling her throat.

That's when Rachel remembered the gun. She dove for it and fumbled with the safety while wobbling onto her feet.

"Let her go or I'll shoot."

Gabe still clutched Simone's throat but he paused long enough to look over one shoulder, his face uninterested, as if she were just some minor annoyance he had to deal with.

Rachel's hands were shaking, unable to force herself to pull the trigger. Taking a life was no easy thing, but she couldn't let him kill Simone no matter what the cost was to her sanity. Her best friend was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks and pooling against Gabe's palms.

Rachel suspected Simone was crying from the pain as much as she was from his betrayal.

"Let her go! Let her go now!"

"You won't do it. You're not strong enough to kill anyone else. You already did it once and look what it did to you. You're weak and pathetic and I really don't understand why Nicolas wants you back when you're nothing but an idiot who will never be useful against his enemies. You're useless."

Simone kneed Gabe in the groin and he doubled over at the waist in pain. She tore away from him but her leg got tangled with his as he struck her across the face and the next moment her back collided with the railing. In that moment, Rachel saw that the force was too great for her to stop. Simone's body flew over the side, her hands reaching for the railing but catching onto nothing and her eyes—Rachel would never forget the look in her eyes- the moment she realized there was no one there to save her.

"No!" The cry ripped through Rachel's throat, leaving her feeling raw and bloody, even if she wasn't physically wounded. Gabe wiped a strand of saliva from his mouth and turned back to her with a smirk.

"See what you caused? I told you to come willingly."

Rachel shot him.

Three gunshots pierced the tranquility of the ocean night, one after the other in rapid succession. Two hit him in the chest and the other hit him in the neck where his flesh exploded and pieces of his bones flung out with the exiting bullet.

He tumbled backwards, dead before his body had even hit the floor.