The Criminal Diaries

      Two days later. Using the fact that she got some free time, Raquelle joined Helene with pleasure for a walk together. The girl spent some time running and playing with Sammy in the spacious area that is placed far from the busy city and grass grows on. They are kind of relaxed now because nothing bad has happened to them over the past week. That’s why they do not think about anything bad, while they make the dog run after the ball or bring them a stick. Sometimes the friends stop to have some rest and drink water from their bottles, while the restless retriever plays on his own, paying attention to a fly that goes by him and starting to chase it everywhere.       After giving Sammy some time to have a rest when he is tired, Helene and Raquelle leave this place and start going slowly and straightly on the asphalt path, enjoying the nice murmur of the river that is flowing not far from them and watching those who are sitting on the wooden benches they see on their way. The sweeping sticks of high trees do not let the hot shoots of the sun burn the skin, and a strong, warm wind does not let anyone get sweaty and lets people get cool a little when they need it. However, the girls decide to help themselves a little more by buying a glass of vanilla ice cream from a street seller and are now eating it with pleasure.       “Yeah, playing with Sammy could surely be a full-time workout,” Raquelle says with a slight smile. “If you wanna sit on the grass, he won’t let you do. He’ll make you get up and run after him.”       “That’s why I see no meaning in buying a gym membership,” Helene notices, holding a waffle glass of vanilla ice in one hand and a leash in another hand as she leads Sammy after herself. “Sammy gives me such intense workouts that my body hurts.”       “He’s a kid yet, I would say. He's got a lot of energy, he’s interested in everything, he can’t stay in the same place…”       “When I wanted to get a dog, I didn’t think I’d be so tired after playing with it.”       “But it’s good for our men!” Raquelle laughs shyly. “They’re all restless, and games with Sammy are a wonderful way to spend their energy.”       “Well, I’m not a sporty girl!” Helene exhales sharply. “I’ve never been serious about workouts at a gym class, and I ain’t gonna do.”       “Daniel and you are the same at it. He also hates workouts and curses everything in the world when the men manage to take him to the gym class.”       “Nobody can take me there for sure. Even Natalia, our friend, who is obsessed with sports. I don’t even wanna start it. I can only find some exercises on the Internet and do them at home.”       “What about your body?”       “I’ve got a good one. I don’t weigh much, I’ve got a waist, my thighs are beautiful, my breasts are good. Everything’s fine!”       “Confidence is good. But as we know, perfection doesn’t have limits.”       “I am beautiful anyway!” Helene says with her head proudly raised. “I am happy with everything. Moreover, I’m not a lover of unhealthy food and prefer to eat something healthy. Though I don’t refuse to please myself if I really want it.”       “I support you fully.”       “The most important thing is to keep yourself in good shape. I have no problems with it. Sammy doesn’t let me relax and lie under the sun for some time.”       Sammy barks quietly as he glances at Helene.       “The most important thing is that you love yourself,” Raquelle replies with a shy smile. “And that Peter admires you.”       “He likes everything. If it’s so, why should I change something about me?”       “Hey, how are you doing there? Does he still look at you badly?”       “Nope, Peter has lately been very nice to me. He no longer starts scandals, blaming me for betraying and lying insolently.”       “M-m-m, awesome…”       “I think he started to understand he wasn’t right. Moreover, nobody has given him any proof of my fault. So, Rose started to suspect that someone wanted to fool him.”       “It seems like Daniel washed his brain hard since Rose started to change his attitude toward you after their fight. Pete thought a little and understood that his friend could be right.”       “I wish it were true.” Helene sighs heavily. “Though I’m afraid that this case will not end so easily. Marcus could go much further and blame me for something that can make Pete mad.”       “I hope Rose won’t believe it if Marcus doesn’t show any proof. He should understand that you can’t prove anything by just saying something.”       “Oh, I dunno, Raquelle. But I am seriously worried about this situation. I’m afraid to lose Peter so badly because of the slander of that awful man.”       “While he’s more or less quiet, you can tell him everything that happened between us in our school years. Since the blond cares about it so much.”       “I’ve been thinking about it. I’d rather let Pete know everything from me than someone who would do their best to turn him against me.”       “I understand that it’s hurtful for all of us to think about it. But if you want to save your relationship and whitewash yourself somehow, you must tell him the truth. To end all of this once and forever.”       “Yeah, but I don’t know when to do it. And how.”       “In the nearest time. Hide nothing, speak all the truth. And if Peet wants, the girls and I can confirm everything and remind him that our conflict has already been solved.”       “I’m afraid he’ll leave me after he knows everything. I did something much more awful than bullying you and Rochester. Pete will no longer think I’m perfect.”       “If he loves you, he’ll forgive you early or late. He’ll understand that it doesn’t have to do with him. That our conflict is our conflict. And what’s happening between you and him is a different story.”       “I think I should’ve confessed everything in the beginning when we became friends. Pete knew nothing about me and thought I was sweet and innocent. Though it’s not the truth.”       “Everyone’s got sins. I can’t be called holy, either. Can’t remember how many times I’ve made mistakes.”       “I know, but still…”       “Now you can still change the situation and prevent Marcus from separating you from Peter. Tell him all the truth before that man tells his version and makes you a mean and nasty bitch.”       “I will do this, I promise,” Helene promises confidently. “I just need time to get ready.”       “It may last forever.”       “No, I won’t delay it. I…” Helene swallows nervously. “I’ll tell him everything at our next meeting.”       “Next meeting?”       “Yes! I shall do this! I promise. He’ll know everything. I’ll no longer be silent.”       “Will you really do this?”       “Yes, Raquelle, I will. It’s really time to end this. I’m not sure if it can be good for me, but… Anyway, honesty is much better. Peter himself prefers to be honest rather than lie all the time. So, I need to admit that I’m far from perfection.”       “You can do this, Helene,” Raquelle encourages with a slight smile, hugging Helene around the shoulders. “Just do this and give him time to think about everything and accept it all.”       “Yeah…” Helene sighs heavily. “It seems like it’s my time to pay for the mistakes of my past. For behaving bad toward innocent people.”       “Karma finds everyone early or late. I think Ashley also paid a lot for harming everyone. Grandpa Frederick says life itself will give everyone what they deserve. God sees everything and has decided what people should pay for.”       “At least I hope my friends won’t turn their backs on me.”       “Your friends will get it. At least, the girls and I will always be near and will never reproach you for what happened.”       Sammy barks quietly two times.       “And Sammy doesn’t care what you did.” Raquelle pets Sammy’s head. “He loves you for just existing and giving him your love and care.”       “I wish Pete loved me for what I am now,” Helene sighs with sadness in her eyes. “Didn’t make conclusions about what I am by what happened many years ago.”       “He’d hardly fret and fume if he didn’t love you.”       “I know. He told me that.”       “Really?”       “We recently talked about this situation openly. Rose said what he was worried about, and I recalled that my heart was broken after all his charges and words about his wish to end our relationship.”       “That’s good you’re two open for a dialogue. It’s important to be able to talk about your problems and not keep them inside when you’re in a relationship. If you’re not happy with something, you should say it quietly and find a solution.”       “I’m ready for anything for him to feel good. Ready to sacrifice my personal interests for him.”       “No, you don’t have to,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “Agreeing with everything someone says is wrong. The one who always has an opinion about something is much better for people than the one who bends under everyone and goes with the flow.”       “I know.”       “A smart person wouldn’t agree with everything without getting deeper into this thing. Especially if they find something that they think is wrong.”       “Peter is a man. He’s a leader and decides everything.”       “It doesn’t deprive you of the right to tell your opinion. And Peter can’t decide anything without asking you and taking a note about your point of view.”       “Anyway, I completely understand that we should solve this problem together.”       “I’ve already said what you should do. And I hope you’ll keep your promise to open all the cards.”       “I will.”       “I hope.”       Sammy barks quietly two times, getting the attention from Helene and Raquelle, who pet his head or yank him softly by the ears. The girls keep walking down the tiny asphalt path in a slow step, meeting a young girl with a little dog, which the retriever pays attention to immediately, wagging his tail amicably and starting to bark at it quietly. While it tries to say something to him in its dog’s language.       “By the way, I was shocked when I read the article about Marcus, the link to which Terrence sent,” Helene confesses.       “I don’t doubt that Peter is chased by Marcus, who’s killed hundreds of innocent people,” Raquelle says confidently.       “I was wondering why this name seemed so familiar to me. I was sure that I’d heard it before, but I couldn’t remember where.”       “I thought so. But two days ago, Terrence, Edward, Natalia, and I recalled that story and spent much time talking about it. I mean… I recalled it, but the guys joined.”       “Grandma and Grandpa were scared to death and didn’t let me go alone at all. They never allowed me to go anywhere alone. They were obsessed with the thought that I’d be killed if I wasn’t under their view. Though they went with me everywhere anyway, even when I was in high school. Even when I went to the university.”       “And my grandpa patronized me too hard,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “He didn’t let me go alone.”       “At first, I wasn’t too happy, but then I realized they were right when I met that man face to face.”       “Really?” Raquelle opens her eyes widely. “You? Met Marcus?”       “Yup. We were at one shop. It happened that I lost my grandpa and grandma. I was distracted by something, and they didn’t even notice that I disappeared. And while I was walking in the shop and looking for them, one man came to me and started to call me with him, saying he had tons of candies, kitties, puppies, and something like that.”       “Wow, my gosh…”       “I quickly recognized him as Marcus, whom everyone talked about, and understood I was about to get in trouble. I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran away. Grandpa was coming to me. I ran to him, hugged him tightly, and started to cry, saying I was really scared. And when I calmed down a little, I told them Marcus wanted to take me away.”       “Didn’t he run away after you?”       “Nope, and it’s strange. But I think he just didn’t risk. There were some people around. And many more people ran after I screamed.”       “My God, you can’t even imagine how lucky you were!” Raquelle exhales sharply, putting her hand on her forehead. “If you’d agreed to go with him, you would’ve died.”       “Just recalled the words of my grandma and grandpa about not being allowed to talk to strangers, take something from them, or go with them. Whatever they offer you. Of course, looking at puppies that I loved so much was a real temptation, but something clicked in my mind in time.”       “Listen, if you’ve already run into Marcus in your childhood, does he remember you now?”       “Do you think that’s really Marcus?”       “No doubt. At least, the murderer is now supposed to be the same age as Marcus – fifty-seven.”       “Have you ever run into Marcus?”       “Nope, thank God. Though when I ran away from home after the news about my parents’ death, Grandpa thought he killed me ‘cause a girl, who looked similar to me by description, died on that day.”       “Interesting… He’s killed so many people. And many people have tried to run away from him. How many people have been lucky enough to save themselves.”       “But I wouldn’t be surprised if he remembered you.”       “But now? Marcus didn’t know my name! And I’m no longer the baby that he met!”       “It doesn't mean you don’t have familiar features anymore. Yes, you’re an adult girl now, but you still have something you had in your young age.”       “I don’t know, friend. Anyway, we have to be much more careful. He wanna kill Peter for a reason, he may kill all of us just for fun. For another note in the diary that the article talked about.”       “But due to his old age, Marcus doesn’t do bad tricks by himself and uses his friends.”       “Who cares? He is still responsible for it!”       “When Mr. Johnson comes back to the city, we will tell him everything we’ve found out immediately.”       “And what do we do before?”       “We’ll try to be careful.” Raquelle swallows nervously. “Honestly, I’m starting to get a bad presentiment. As if something horrible is gonna happen soon after a long calm.”       “I’m worried about it, too. Marcus is now quiet on purpose.”       “Yes, Peter hasn’t left his home and has been recovering after all those horrible tortures for one week. But today, he had to get out ‘cause Jessica called him and asked him to help her replace the faucet in the bathroom.”       “I’m still horrified by all his stories about those tortures,” Raquelle sighs heavily. “I’m horrified by everything that’s lately happened to him.”       “Thank God, Pete managed to get out of the place where they brought him. Otherwise, he would’ve been dead.”       “If only they didn’t take the second attempt to knock him out and drive him somewhere much further.”       “Don’t exclude it.”       At this moment, Sammy barks with great pity, distracting from sniffing the asphalt with his nose.       “They won’t calm down ‘till they kill him,” Helene adds with sadness in her eyes. “Until they turn him against the men, the girls, and me.”       “That’s what scares me. I’m afraid that we’ll be able to do nothing.”       “At least, now we know who we have to deal with. One of the most dangerous and bloodthirsty criminals of the twentieth century.”       “And I’m sure that Marcus is gonna choose the wildest way of killing, knowing all of this. His victims weren’t just stabbed with a knife or killed with a pistol. They were literally burned or dismembered.”       “I wish we hadn't let it happen.”       “How?” Helene throws her hands up.       “We’ll be waiting for the moment when we can talk to Mr. Johnson.”       “As if he can do something.”       “But knowing the criminal’s name and his past sins, it would be much easier to find Marcus.”       “By the way, it’s surprising that man didn’t think of changing his name so nobody thought of anything suspicious.”       “Agree, he didn’t definitely think about it. And he kinda helped us identify the one who is chasing Peter.”       “My gosh, I don’t understand how the police let such a horrible criminal run? He committed tens of crimes per day! Before the eyes of people sometimes! Right before the police! But Marcus remained unpunished, even though he should’ve been executed.”       “You’re right! But I’m sure that he won’t run away this time. He will pay for all the attacks on Peter and you and all the crimes he committed twenty years ago.”       “How many innocent victims should there be for him to get what he deserved?”       “Don’t worry, friend, it’s gonna be okay,” Raquelle assures quietly, hugging Helene around the shoulders.       “Everything is getting worse so far.”       “Anyway, let’s just be very careful and show up somewhere if we can. I think you should come back home before Marcus’s accomplice doesn’t get out of nowhere.”       “You’re right, we'd better get out of here,” Helene agrees with anxiety in his soul. “Although there are people here, I don’t feel quiet.”       “We’ve walked and played with Sammy enough, and you don’t need to go to work today. So, you can spend some time with Mrs. Marshall.”       “Won’t you go home?”       “I need to go somewhere for my business a little later. It’s not critical, but I’d like to solve this question as soon as possible to forget it once and forever.”       “That’s bad you aren’t in a car, and I don’t drive today.”       “It’s okay, we’ll come to the road and try to catch a taxi. But if we don’t do this, I’ll call it on my phone or the app. And then we’ll go somewhere and wait.”       “Oh, where could Sammy and I go? Dogs aren’t allowed to go anywhere.”       “Don’t worry, sweetie, it’s gonna be okay.”       Sammy barks confidently two times, and Raquelle pets his head with a slight smile. By this moment, Helene and she come to the more popular place where there are one-floor buildings with some small shops where they sell everything. They can see many clean wooden benches and trash cans placed literally everywhere. A little further, there is a pedestrian crossing that people cross when it’s the green light, while transports stop on the road with two strips in both directions.       The retriever gets pleasure from examining everything that surrounds him with his eyes. Again, he meets two or three sympathetic dogs, for which he shows off somehow, wagging his puffy tail proudly. But his attempt to make an acquaintance with someone meets a failure because their owners do not rush to spend time on it and go to do their business in a quick step. And seeing that Sammy is upset, Helene and Raquelle encourage him with a sweet smile and pet and scratch his hair with pleasure, knowing that he loves it so much.       “Don’t worry, Sammy, you’ll have a chance to meet a beautiful doggy and make as many friends as your owner has,” Raquelle encourages.       “By the way, one colleague of mine asked me if we could think about Sammy and her doggy making babies,” Helene confesses with a mysterious smile. “She even suggested that she pay me some money.”       “Really?”       “She’s also got a golden retriever, a girl. She’s almost the same age as Sammy. My colleague really liked my dog when I showed her a photo and said it would be great to match them. She wants her dog to give birth to puppies and sell them when they turn three months.”       “M-m-m, I think it’s a wonderful idea!” Raquelle nods in approval. “I’m sure Sammy will quickly befriend that doggy and make charming puppies with her.”       “I think we could try. I wouldn’t mind getting some money, and Sammy is fretting and fuming and wanna find a friend for him.”       “First, just introduce Sammy to that dog and then see how it goes. What if they don’t get along and kill each other on the first meeting.”       “I haven’t given my answer to my colleague yet, but I’ll say I agree when I go to work. And my grandma doesn’t mind it and thinks everyone would get a benefit from it.”       “I support you completely.”       Sammy barks loudly and confidently in approval.       “Sammy especially agrees.”       “Aw, Sammy, my little hooligan!” Helene smiles widely, yanking Sammy by his ears, while he jumps on the walk two times. “Long-eared hooligan!”       Raquelle laughs shyly when Sammy snuggles his nose in the hand of Helene, who slaps him slightly on his nose with her finger. The girls, who have already eaten their ice cream, come to the place where there is only ground with high trees with swapping sticks that is fenced with a metallic fence. Also, there are several shops located separately from one another and one small café where, as they can see it through the glass, there is a short queue. Nevertheless, there are fewer people here and fewer transports than before, even though the road is one-sided, and a pedestrian crossing is a little further.       “M-m-m, I don’t know what about you, but I’m not done with just once ice cream,” Raquelle says thoughtfully.       “I’d love to drink something,” Helene confesses. “That’s a shame they don’t sell drinks in the place where we bought ice cream. I should always drink something after I eat something.”       “I’m sure they have something fresh available.” Raquelle glances at the café on the other side of the road. “Though we’d have to stand in the queue.”       “It’s fine. And then we can try to catch a taxi and go home.”       “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for me here. Sammy won’t be allowed to go there.”       “It’s okay, I can wait for you.”       “Okay, deal.”       “You can buy any drink. Honestly, I don’t care. The important thing is it’s cold.”       “I will go inside and check out the menu. Find out what they have there.”       “Sammy and I will be waiting for you here.”       “Not sure if I’ll come back soon, but I’ll try.”       Raquelle turns around, comes to the pedestrian crossing, and looks at all the sides multiple times before she quickly goes to another side, being super careful due to the traffic light that does not work here. Then the girl starts going straight to the café, taking her cell phone from her bag, and answering the call from someone who just called her.       Helene keeps standing in the same place and sighs heavily with sadness in her eyes, thinking about something not very nice. Seeing this, Sammy tries to comfort her with a quiet bark, touching tenderly the leg of his owner, who smiles at him a little falsely and pets his head.       “It’s okay, my boy,” Helene says quietly. “I’m just sad.”       Sammy whines with pity as if he shows his sympathy to Helene, while the girl sits on one of the benches that she sees not far from him.       “Even if Peter treats me much better now, it doesn’t mean the worst things are over. Those people could shower me with much more dirt. Say what’s the truth and what I would never do in my life.”       Helene swallows nervously.       “And I still don’t understand if they’re bluffing when they talk about someone who can reveal me. I’ve never met them, and they’ve never said anything about them. I have no guesses who it could be. Though… If it’s so, it’s supposed to be someone from my school. Because… All my secrets are related to school years.”       Sammy makes a quiet sound as he looks at his owner.       “It would be bad if Ashley or one of her friends wanted to do this to me. So to say, use the chance to take revenge on me for betraying her. She ruined the lives of Cameron and Rochester, but she didn’t ruin mine. And meeting Marcus and his friends is such a wonderful chance to do a dirty trick on me.”       Helene sighs heavily.       “Though, what am I talking about? It’s been nobody the hell knows how much time since I graduated from school! Everyone lives their lives, and they have forgotten what happened many years ago. And I would forget everything, too… If I didn’t meet my, so to speak, victims. If I didn’t have to pretend that I didn’t do anything bad.”       At first, Sammy touches Helene’s leg softly, but then he puts his face on her lap.       “Anyway, Raquelle’s right,” Helene says confidently, petting Sammy’s head. “I should tell Peter the truth about our school conflict. I must not let Marcus or one of his accomplices do it. If he wanna know the truth, he will know it. Before those scums wanna lie and blame me for something else that would be a lie.”       Helene tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.       “Yes, I will. I’ll tell Pete. No matter how it’s gonna impact our relationship. Even if he leaves me. Even if my secrets don’t have to do with him. Even if I’d prefer to die than betray him, frame him, or hurt him. All I should do is tell him everything, and then God will decide. If I deserve the forgiveness, my man’s gonna be with me. If I don’t, this is the karma for all my past actions.”       Sammy barks quietly but confidently as if he says, “Don’t worry, my owner, it’s gonna be okay! Just tell your boyfriend the truth. And then something will happen.”       “Do you think it won’t be bad for me? Do you think I have a little chance to save my relationship with the blond if I tell him the truth?”       Sammy barks confidently two times in approval.       “Oh, your owner is such an idiot, Sammy…” Helene sighs disappointedly. “Just an idiot… Why didn’t I wanna listen to my grandma and grandma when they swore at me for all my tricks? They were nothing to me back then! I just did all the orders of Ashley, thinking she was my friend and believing naively that she answered me back. I thought that was how I could deserve her trust and love. Though when I needed my friends’ help, she got out. I got help from those whom I expected nothing from. Anna, for example. She was one of those who were near and deserved to be called my close friend.”       Helene swallows nervously.       “Thank God, the situation of the bullying didn’t have to do with her because she was younger and didn’t study with us. Even if Seymour knew everything and wasn’t happy with what I was doing. Nevertheless, we kept talking. We were very close, we were literally the best friends. And with her, I always felt very comfortable. Much better than with Ashley and those social butterflies that followed her everywhere.”       Sammy barks quietly, and Helene flashes a slight smile.       “Who knows… Since the girls forgave me for that nightmare, Peter would probably pity me and wouldn’t love to end our relationship. And he wouldn’t believe anything Marcus would love to say about me in the future. So that the guys wouldn’t make him sure that I couldn’t do that.”       Helene sighs quietly again and keeps petting Sammy’s head and scratching his hair with the thought that it calms her down, while the dog presses himself to her and shows his unconditional support in any situation. And while she is petting the dog, she does not notice that a man is coming to her slowly but confidently. He watched her from afar before, but he decided to come after the girl stayed alone, sat down on the bench, and got busy with her thoughts. When he is very close to Marshall, the stranger asks with a sly smile:       “So what, beauty, are you lost? I can help you!”       Helene gets up sharply from the bench with a quiet cry, turns on the stranger, and gets sharply from horror when she recognizes him as Luther – the one who strangled her first and then threw her in the water when she was unconscious.       “Y-y-you?” Helene pronounces in a shaking voice with widely open eyes. “Ag-g-gain?”       “M-m-m, so, you remember me,” Luther crosses his arms over his chest with a smug smile, ignoring the fact that Sammy starts growing at him. “It’s mutual, babe. I can’t still our last meeting, either.”       “What do you want from me this time? Are you going to try to kill me again?”       “No, come on! Nobody is going to kill you so far. Marcus banned us from doing this. Because he wants to kill you personally. To get much pleasure.”       “Yeah, I’ve understood that he really likes it. He likes torturing innocent people and making them suffer.”       “M-m-m, as I understand, your sweetheart told you and his friends about how the guys and I had fun and made Marcus’ mood much better,” Luther puts his hands on his hips.       “We were horrified by what you did to him!” Helene exclaims. “Peter came to us with tons of bruises and blood, could barely move, and moaned from pain in his whole body.”       “We also hit him a little with an electric gun. By the way, he turned out to be a tough guy. We thought he’d beg us for mercy and ask us to stop. But no, Rose was silent so hard. Until he passed out after a long and powerful wave.”       “How do you all dare to attack the helpless man all together? You tied the poor guy up and almost made him meat!”       “Your doggy would love that big piece of meat. Yeah, mangy?”       In reply to this, Sammy starts barking with a stronger aggression, literally killing the one who almost killed both of his close people before his eyes, with his furious glance.       “Growl as much as you want, buddy. It will not help you. Just like it didn’t help you when we hit Rose on the head, put his body in the truck, and drove him to the place we needed.”       “And left my dog all alone!” Helene throws excitedly.       “We did. But it seems like this bastard was fucking lucky. Someone found him and gave him to you.”       “Luckily!”       “Sorry, we hoped everyone would give a fuck about him. That he wouldn't survive on the streets alone and would eventually die of coldness, hunger, and fear.”       “You all will pay a high cost if something happens to him,” Helene threatens with a finger. “I swear I will not close my eyes to this!”       “Ah, dolly, don’t threaten me with your thin finger with a long nail.”       “I’d tear anyone for my dog!”       “Don’t make me laugh, Marshall, I’m begging you!” Luther laughs contemptuously. “You’re a coward! You are a girl! A weak girl who can’t resist a man.”       “Not true, I can do a lot!” Helene protests in a shaking voice.       “Aha, I saw it all the last time. You resisted a little, showed me your bad skills in sports, lost your voice, and lost.”       “If I have to protect myself, I am ready!”       “So, girl, are you scared?”       Luther comes close to Helene, setting his icy look into her scared, widely open eyes, feeling well the girl’s loud, heavy breath.       “This time, Rose is not near. Your dog can’t run after him and bring him here. Just like he did when I knocked you out. And your friend, who got out somewhere to my happiness, can do nothing even if she screams at the top of her lungs and begs me to let you go.”       “Don’t dare to do anything to her!’ Helene hisses through her teeth. “Don’t dare to touch my friend even with a finger.”       “Don’t worry, Marshall, we do not care about that gal. And even if she is screaming, it’s going to be super easy to hit her on the head with something heavy to knock the gal out and deal with you without problems.”       “Us?” Helene frowns strongly. “What do you mean, ‘us’?”       “We mean us, cutie!” the low voice pronounces behind the back of Helene, who turns sharply on the second stranger.       “Oh, my gosh…” Helene whispers under her nose, getting much paler from horror, and looking at Luther or the one who came to her secretly, with no sounds.       “Oh, look, Ron, the baby is so scared…” Luther laughs. “She is shaking in fear.”       “Yeah, the gal doesn’t know what’s waiting for her,” Ronald smiles mysteriously, putting his hands on his hips. “She doesn’t even guess she met all her close people for the last time.”       “W-w-what?” Helene feels that her heart misses a beat, and it’s getting kind of harder to breathe. “What do you want to do? What does it mean?”       “This time, you will not run away from us,” Ronald says confidently. “Nobody will save you.”       “No, p-p-please, don’t do this… Don’t do this… Pity me… Please…”       “Why are you so nervous, baby? As if we’re going to put you under the same torture as Rose.”       When Ronald reaches out his hand to caress Helene’s cheek with the back of his hand, she gets back sharply, right to Luther, who squeezes tightly her thin forearms.       “Or maybe, we will…” Luther purrs with a sly smile. “If you’re behaving badly… A powerful hit with the electric gun would surely cool you down.”       “Let me go!” Helene demands, trying to get out of Luther’s grip with no success. “Let me go! What are you doing? Stop it now!”       Sammy starts barking deafeningly and growling at Ronald and Luther, who close all the ways that Helene could use to run away from them as far as possible.       “It’s okay, it will be easy to deal with you,” Ronald says with his head proudly raised. “You ain’t a man and wouldn’t make tornado kicks and flips and wash your hands with blood, trying to hit your opponent in the face.”       “Help me!” Helene shouts. “Someone, help me! Please, help me!”       “Hey, hey, quiet, babe, quiet,” Luther pronounces quietly, closing Helene’s mouth with his hand tightly. “Don’t bother people. They’ve got so many things to do, but you distract them.”       While Helene whines with pity and tries to break free and run away with no success, Sammy keeps barking at the offenders of his owner. And after his attempt to grab Luther by the leg, Ronald pushes the dog rudely by the collar aside and hits him with his foot, saying:       “Hey, freak, get the fuck out of here now!”       “M-m-m-m!” Helene moans much louder, telling not to get closer to Sammy whining and twirling in a ball in pain.       “Finally, we will have much more fun with you,” Luther says in a much lower voice and runs his hand slowly over Helene’s belly, while she gets tears in her widely open eyes. “And nobody will disrupt us. No Rose will prevent such a grandiose party.”       “Yea-a-a-ah, you, hellcat, are really sexy,” Ronald smiles smugly, looking at Helene from head to foot with his rating, eating eyes that make her feel uncomfortable. Oh, the men and I are gonna get so much pleasure! We’re gonna fuck you so hard!”       “P-p-please, don’t do this…” Helene begs in despair with tears in her eyes when Luther moves his hand off her mouth and squeezes her throat tightly. “P-p-please…”       “You got out of home at the wrong time,” Luther notices. “You went to the place that is very good for us because we could do what we want right here.”       “I don’t want this… Please, pity me…”       “You will not be able to change your fate, Helene Marshall. Marcus is gonna kill you even earlier than your sweetheart. To drive him crazy.”       “But I’m personally not sure he will spend too much time suffering after he knows all your dirty secrets,” Ronald adds. “Why would he the fuck care about what’s happening to one bitch?”       “Whatever you tell him, it’s gonna be an insolent lie!” Helene states.       “Of course, we will exaggerate and lie a little. But we aren’t going to tell him all the lies. And you know what we know about.”       “I’ll tell him everything! Immediately! Today! At our next meeting!”       “Sorry, shorty, but it’s too late to make full confessions,” Ronald smiles innocently. “You’ll have no more chance to try to whitewash yourself.”       “I will tell him everything, you’ll see it! I’m no longer going to be silent and bring the situation to the moment when Peter hears it all from third parties.”       “You will not, Marshall. From this moment on, you’ll never see Rose, his friends, your charming friends, and this smelly dog anymore,” Luther says confidently. “The dog will have to accept the fact that he is going to have a new owner soon. In case he doesn’t die of grief. Though these assholes are fucking corrupted: they’d consider the devil their owner for a piece of meat.”       “Oh, no! I will not give up on you so easily! Since I have nobody to protect me, I will be fighting on my own.”       Applying much effort, Helene manages to get out of Luther’s grip and run some distance away from him and Ronald. But at this moment, the girl runs into a large man, who showed up literally out of nowhere, with her back.       “M-m, where are you going, baby?” the stranger crosses his arms over his chest. “Are you going to leave? Don’t ya wanna join our little party?”       “Please, leave me alone,” Helene begs excitedly, looking at the three men with widely open eyes full of horror and fear with the thought that every single muscle cramps from strong tension. “I don’t know what you want from me…”       “Don’t let her go, Darren!” Luther exclaims. “David, watch her, too!”       “Where would this chick go?” Darren smirks evilly, grabbing Helene’s forearms tightly and turning her on Luther and Ronald. “She has no place to run, and her dog will do nothing to us.”       “In the case of the gal, we will not make the mistakes we made when we let Rose escape,” David adds, standing next to Darren with his head proudly raised. “We learned from everything we didn’t think about. Though I doubt that we’ll have to apply much effort to take Marshall, seat her in the car, and drive her to the place where Marcus is supposed to come soon.”       “My God, please, help me, I’m begging you!” Helene begs in despair silently, holding her breath unconsciously and feeling dizzy for a moment. “I can’t deal with them by myself! There are too many of them, but I'm too weak. I’m in trouble. They’re gonna grab me if nobody comes to help.”       “Exactly!” Luther agrees. “So, shorty, don’t even hope that you will deceive your fate the way Rose did it.”       “Though his time will come soon, early or late,” Ronald promises. “Marcus isn’t gonna pity him. And his friends will die if they don’t stop meddling in this case.”       “What did Peter do if Marcus is doing all of this to him?” Helene wonders loudly. “Why are you doing this to him?”       “Trust us, Marshall, he’s got a real reason for that,” David assures. “Rose made the mistake that our lord would never forgive him for. The mistake, which is the reason why the whole life of the innocent man went wrong.”       “I’d bet if he’s really innocent!”       “He’s an angel for everyone who knows him!” Darren exclaims. “And we consider him a wonderful man, who we owe a lot to.”       “Leave Peter, the men, and me alone!” Helene demands determinedly, trying so hard to get out of David’s grip, while he is holding her tightly under her arm. “We didn’t do anything to Marcus. And if he’s going crazy at his old age, he should go to the doctor.”       Helene screams along with Sammy’s deafening bark when Luther slaps her in the face as strongly as he can.       “Hey, shorty, if you open your fucking mouth and insult Marcus again, I swear we will get all your brains out,” Luther threatens in a low, rude voice. “We will beat you, asshole, stronger than Rose. So you whine louder than this fucking cowardly dog.”       Sammy growling aggressively barks loudly, standing in a fighting position and not stopping to look at Helene’s offenders.       “Relax, dog, you’re able to do nothing to protect your owner. Just like you could not save her sweetheart.”       “Oh, don’t pay attention to him!” Darren waves his hand with his head proudly raised. “The dog can only bark. But if he wanna bite one of our arms, we can just push him aside with a foot.”       “Please, don’t do anything bad to me…” Helene begs with pity in her eyes and sniffs quietly. “Let me go… For God’s sake…”       “No, Helene, nobody will let you go,” Ronald says with a sly smile, running his thumb over Helene’s shaking lips and raising her face by the chin. “You will do anything we tell you.”       “Don’t worry, you’re gonna have so much to do before it’s time of your tragic death,” Darren adds. “For example, we’re going to have a lot of fun with you and get you down on your knees so you suck all of us hard.”       “No, please, don’t do this!” Helene closes her ears with her hands as she shakes her head sharply. “I wanna hear nothing about it!”       “I would’ve had much more fun with you on that day when you were unconscious,” Luther confesses, squeezing Helene’s jaw with his fingers. “I did want to take my pants down and get my dick into your ass. But my plans were ruined by this fucking dog that brought Rose with him.”       “By the way, Luther always tells us that you’ve got gorgeous boobs,” David says thoughtfully and glances at Helene’s breasts to rate them. “At first sight, they’re really lush. Not two pimples, not the udder. That’s what I love.”       “Stop it, please!” Helene begs loudly and desperately. “Stop it!”       “Don’t worry, Marshall, Marcus allowed us to fuck you as much as we want,” Ronald states. “Like, do what you want to her, but don’t kill her before you get a sign.”       “Since he doesn’t want to kill Rose and you immediately, the men and I have a lot of time to have enough fun,” Darren adds. “By far not one time. M-m-m…”       “No, please, don’t…” Helene begs in a shaking voice and sniffs loudly. “I don’t want…”       “Relax, Marshall, nobody will save you anymore,” Luther replies. “Rose is not near, and your friend got out as well as Perkins left his friend alone. And even if she sees something, she will hardly decide to meddle. She will be scared. If that gal is smart, she will understand she will not 100% deal with four men.”       “So, shorty, you shut up now, wipe your tears, and go with us quietly,” Ronald adds. “Get into the car and don’t play on our nerves as we are on the way to the destination.”       “No!” Helene cries. “No, I will not go anywhere with you!”       “Nobody asks you, babe,” David smiles slyly and squeezes Helene’s jaw with his fingers. “We have an order to bring you to Marcus. And we will do this in any way.”       “You will not make me, scums! I will not go anywhere with you! NOWHERE, HEAR ME!”       After she barely pushes Darren and David, who are holding her, off herself, Helene wants to run away from here as far as possible, but she is immediately caught by Ronald, who puts his arms around her waist from behind. Then the girl gets a strong slap in the face that makes her fall to the ground with a loud squeak, while Sammy comes to her and starts snuggling his nose in her burning cheek.       “Don’t make us enraged, you, undeveloped shorty,” Darren hisses through his teeth and squeezes Helene’s throat tightly with one hand, not letting her breathe. “DON’T MAKE US DISOBEY MARCUS’ ORDER!”       Sammy sinks his teeth into Darren’s arm with an aggressive bark and starts pulling it from side to side. While the man winces strongly and shouts in pain, Luther comes to the dog and pushes him off his friend with a powerful hit of his foot on the retriever’s stomach with an irritated growl.       “Ar-r-r, fucking piece of shit!” Darren swears, rubbing the painful area energetically.       “Shut up, fucking dog!” Ronald demands rudely, grabbing the leash that is still tied up to Sammy’s collar with both hands and holding the dog that is barking and growling so hard. “SHUT UP, I SAID!”       “You will do nothing to us, smelly piece of shit!” Luther says with a sly smile, takes a small knife from the pocket of his waistcoat, and puts it against the throat of Helene, who is still sitting on the ground and crying quietly from hopelessness. “Your owner will die, no matter if you want it or not.”       Sammy starts thrilling with a much louder bark when Luther pulls Helene by the hair painfully, leans her head back sharply, and puts the blade of the knife that shines under the light much closer to her throat, making the girl shake much more strongly with the thought that her heart beating fast is about to get out of her chest.       “No, no, please, no, please, for God’s sake!” Helene jabs in a high, loud voice. “No-o-o-o-o!”       “Don’t waste your strength, dolly, it will not help you anyway,” David advises, squats down, and runs his hand over Helene’s knees, while she shakes sharply and presses them to herself. “Don’t rack your cords. We advise you to shut the fuck up, don’t get anyone’s attention on you, and just get into the car with us.”       “Whatever you do, your fate is sad,” Darren says confidently. “Since we were so lucky to meet you here, our lord is going to be very happy to meet you.”       “NO!” Helene squeaks. “I WILL NOT GO ANYWHERE! NO! I WILL NOT GO! NO WAY! YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME!”       “Oh, what a naive girl…” Luther sneers evilly, makes Helene get up on her feet by force, still keeping the knife against her throat, and presses her tightly to himself after he puts his free hand on her belly. “She thinks we’ll let her go if she screams and begs.”       “Pity me, I’m negging you…”       “Nothing personal, dolly, we’re just doing what Marcus wants,” Ronald smiles innocently, still holding the barking Sammy by the leash. “And using the chance to have some fun with a young, beautiful girl.”       “Marcus called you our reward for being loyal to him,” Luther confesses. “He said, ‘If you, guys, manage to catch the gal, she will be all yours.’”       “And such a sexy reward is really worth all the efforts,” David smiles smugly.       “I don’t want to die…” Helene pronounces quietly and makes a quiet sob. “I wanna live…”       “You will live,” Darren assures. “Until you please all of us by sucking us hard and spreading your legs widely. Until Marcus gives an order to get rid of you.”       “NO, PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS! I DON’T WANT! LET ME GO! I DON’T WANT THIS! I DON’T WANT!”       “FUCK, SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH DOWN!” Ronald explodes, running to Helene and giving her a strong slap in both of her cheeks, while she cries bitterly. “SHUT UP, BITCH! DON’T IRRITATE US!”       “I will not let you catch me so easily! I WILL NOT! I WILL BE FIGHTING UNTIL THE LAST BREATH!”       Helene hits Luther, who is holding her, on his ankle with her heel and tries to run away from him and his friends as far and fast as possible. But since she is much weaker physically than the four men, the criminals catch the girl quickly enough, and David strikes her down with a powerful hit of his feet on the small of her back. When she falls to the ground with squeaks, she has to fight off Luther, who attacks her with fists and manages to give her multiple slaps in the face. Meanwhile, Ronald uses a chokehold on her from behind and squeezes her neck in his elbow, not letting his victim breathe and ignoring the aggressive and demanding bark of Sammy, who tries to save his owner again and again but gets painful hits on his stomach or head all the time.       “Fuck, I am fucking done with this fucking dog,” David growls irritably, pushing Sammy off himself with his feet and making him whine again.       “He’s hurt!” Helene pronounces by force, slapping Ronald on his arm strongly and coughing at times. “Stop beating him…”       “He is not the fuck hurt, he is just pretending!” Darren roars. “Dogs are worthless pieces of shit that can only eat, sleep, and shit!”       “Not true!”       “So, as I understand, will you not go with us at your wish?” David concludes       “NEVER!” Helene shouts.       “Anyway, we aren’t going to spend several hours dealing with you. You are not able to.”       “Exactly, of course, you love showing your claws, but you have no strength to use them,” Luther adds. “Besides, you are a fucking coward. Just like Rose. Who, however, hides it so hard to look sassy. But Marcus, the guys, and I do know he peed his pants on the day Darren attacked him after the show.”       “For a wish to live, I will find the strength to fight,” Helene says determinedly. “I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON YOU WHILE I’M ALIVE!”       Helene magically gets out of Ronald’s grip and runs a few meters away. But the criminals catch her again and, getting literally red from anger and hate that cloud their minds more and more, beat the unprotected, weak girl all together, while she cannot resist the four tough men and just screams heartbreakingly every time they give her a hit. In the end, she gets a couple of bruises on her body that starts hurting from the pain that gets through it, starts crying bitterly, feels that her heart is beating like crazy, and she has no hope for salvation or help.       Sammy cannot deal with so many people, who do not miss a chance to give him a couple of strong hits again. It’s possible to say that the dog even starts to feel scared of those who seem horrible to him. He associates them with hellish pain that they give him again and again, every time he tries to protect his owner, her boyfriend, and all their friends. This is the reason the retriever starts to twirl in a ball more and more at some moment and stays aside for a bigger part of the time. However, he braces himself by force every time he hears Helene’s deafening shouts and sees the tears in her eyes, and tries so hard to save her. But sadly, forces are unequal in this battle. And luck is definitely not on the side of Helene and Sammy.       “STOP, I’M BEGGING YOU!” Helene screams heartbreakingly and bends her back sharply after Luther hits her in the spine with his foot. “IT HURTS! NO! STOP!”       “Shut up, bitch!” David roars and slaps Helene in the face. “You will go with us anyway!”       “And every time you show off, scream, and try to fool us, we will be beating you cruelly,” Ronald threatens.       “NO-O-O-O-O-O!”       When Helene closes her face with her hands with defeating shouts, puts her head on her shoulder, and twirls into a ball, Sammy covers her with himself with an aggressive bark, showing his sharp teeth and letting the criminals know he will not let them keep mocking his owner like this.       “Hey, dog, get out of here to the fuck!” Darren demands rudely and kicks Sammy out with a gesture. “GET OUT OF HERE! GET AWAY FROM HER! GET OFF HER, I SAID!”       “Oh, oh, oh, we’re so scared of your growl,” Luther throws with a contemptuous laugh, standing next to David, Darren, and Ronald, at whom Sammy is barking three times harder. “And the view of your sharp teeth makes us pee our pants.”       Sammy growls at the four men with a stronger aggression, keeping his eye on the offenders of his owner shaking from fear and getting up to her feet with tears in her eyes and pain in her whole body.       “You better go aside if you don’t want to die,” Luther demands in a low voice, squeezes the knife tightly in his hand, and points it at Sammy. “I swear, shit, I will personally stab you if you don’t do what you are told.”       “He is stupid, it’s clear!” Ronald crosses his arms over his chest with an evil smirk. “He’s got much less brain than a snail or amoeba.”       “But he is as arrogant as Rose,” David notices. “He is fucking cowardly, but he acts like a fucking Superman.”       “Run, Sammy!” Helene jabs loudly. “Now!”       Helene tries to run away from her offenders as far as possible again. While Sammy follows her right with the leash on his collar, the criminals rush into a chase after them, not doubting that they will catch the runaway girl. David manages to catch her by the hair and pull her sharply towards himself, and fights her hand in hand for some time, surpassing the girl in strength. At some moment, he pushes the girl rudely away from himself with a sly smile. Barely keeping her balance not to fall to the ground, Marshall feels that she runs into someone’s wide chest with her back. When she moves sharply her wet, widely open eyes back, she sees that the fifth stranger has shown up out of nowhere. With a bun of dark, long hair on his head. He looks amazingly calm at first sight and looks at the brunette with his head proudly raised.       “Hello, Helene,” the stranger smiles slyly. “Bye, Helene.”       Not hesitating for a second, the man gets the thin needle determinedly into the neck of Helene – the area with the thinnest skin. The pain that suddenly gets into her, the girl shakes sharply with a quiet cry, while the criminal gets the needle deeper and deeper under her skin and presses the piston with two fingers to inject the unknown transparent liquid into his victim’s organism. When the man injects everything, he gets the needle out sharply, and the girl puts her hand on the injected area, panicking at the thought of what this liquid may do to her.       “You’re in time, Elijah,” Luther smiles slyly. “The gal didn’t wanna go with us.”       “I thought so,” Elijah replies with his head proudly raised. “Marcus did the right thing by getting this thing for us.”       “What did you do to me?” Helene wonders loudly. “WHAT DID YOU INJECT? WHAT IS THAT?”       “Quiet, quiet, girl.” Elijah strokes the cheek of Helene breathing heavily with the back of his hand. “It’s not mortal. Just a sedative. I gave you an injection so you could sleep a little and let us do our business quietly.”       “No…” Helene shakes her head sharply. “No, please, no…”       “This thing is gonna work in two minutes.” Elijah glances at the watch on his hand. “But it’s okay, we will wait for you to lose consciousness.”       “We initially wanted just to hit you on the head, as well as Rose,” Luther confesses. “But Marcus decided that a girl would probably die after such a powerful hit. So, we decided just to inject a sedative into you.”       “Scums…” Helene screams in a heartbreaking way. “SCUMS! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!”       Helene starts beating her offenders on their chests with her hands clenched into small fists, while they do not react to her actions and just laugh evilly or try to pull the girl aside.       “I CURSE ALL OF YOU! YOU AND YOUR FUCKING MARCUS! HE RUINED OUR LIVES! EVERYTHING’D BEEN FINE BEFORE YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!”       “Now you’ve surely lost, Helene Marshall,” Elijah says. “Of course, you fought well. I personally appreciated it. But when you fall asleep, we will drive you where you will be waiting for your death.”       “NO-O-O-O-O!”       Helene grabs her hair tightly with a heavy breath, looking around with widely open eyes, while Sammy puts his tail between his legs and whines with pity in his eyes as if he understands what is going to happen now.       “So, until the injection works, I have time to smoke a cigarette,” Ronald says confidently, taking a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his light coat.       “Oh, gimme a cigarette!” David says, reaching out his hand to Ronald.       “Hey, men, gimme me a lighter!” Darren says, clicking his lighter. “It seems like my lighter is dead now.”       At the bottom of her heart, Helene understands that this is really the end, but she protests so hard and refuses to accept her loss. She even wants to believe that Elijah injected something like a placebo or just water to scare her because nothing happens to her condition. Though her heart works at maximum capacity, her throat is dry, her hands are sweaty, and she feels dizzy due to the lack of air caused by the strong panic attack.       “No, no, it can’t be the truth!” Helene thinks desperately. “I can’t lose. I must fight! If I pass out now, they’ll take me away. Raquelle will be able to do nothing even if she’s hiding somewhere now. And Sammy won’t be able to fight all these people. God, please, save me… I don’t wanna die, I don’t… I wish someone had saved me… Please, God…”       Obsessed with panic and fear, Helene glances at her offenders with a scare, while they seem absolutely relaxed and talk about something, and three of them start pulling in a cigarette’s smoke with no rush, with a blissful smile. Even if she completely understands how stupid this thing is, the girl turns around sharply and starts running as fast as she can in the direction her eyes look. Sammy runs after her immediately with a loud bark, and the men do not rush to catch her this time, and just smirk quietly in reply to her act.       “Run, shorty, run,” Luther smiles slyly. “You will not run away too far.”       “She will fall after she runs two meters,” Darren adds. “The injection will start working. And she will be able to do nothing.”       “So what, men, let’s walk a little?” Elijah suggests with a mysterious smile. “Breathe in the fresh air, talk, and smoke?”       “My pleasure,” David nods confidently. “Let’s not stop watching her.”       “When she is out, we will pack her and drive to the right place,” Ronald says.       “If the dog lets us do it,” Elijah throws gloomily.       “If he doesn’t get off the gal, he will pay a high cost for this,” Luther says rudely. “He will not just stay alone, he will be lying and dying. I will do this for him with no problems.”       While the criminals go straight in a quiet step and talk about their next actions, Helene manages to run far away from them along with Sammy that does not leave her behind at all. At some moment, she turns to the right and runs a little more before she starts choking from a lack of air and tiredness. Stopping, the girl looks around with a heavy breath and leans on her knees with her hands, exhaling silently at the thought that the men’s company left her alone, while the dog runs around her with a whine full of pity and snuggles his nose in everything he sees as if he asks her how she is feeling.       “I’m okay, baby,” Helene pronounces quietly. “Okay. Don’t worry. And it seems like we left them behind.”       Petting Sammy’s head, Helene starts just going straight in a slow step and covers the area, in which Elijah made an injection, with her hand again.       “Thank God, Raquelle isn’t with me now. Otherwise, these scums wouldn’t pity her. And I really hope she won’t meddle even if she sees what’s happening. But I don’t know if she’s still at the café now.”       After passing some distance, Helene starts to feel a little dizzy, which is the reason why she almost loses her balance. Putting her hand on her forehead and shaking her head sharply, the girl looks at what surrounds her and understands that everything gets blurry before her eyes.       “Listen, Sammy, I don’t feel good…” Helene pronounces quietly and starts breathing heavily enough, with the hope that it can help her mind get a little clearer. “I feel dizzy… Everything kinda gets blurry…”       Understanding that something is wrong, Sammy whines with great pity and barks quietly as if he says, “No, no, Helene, please, hold on, stay with me! Breathe deeper, it’s gonna be okay, I’m here!”       “Damn, they really injected something into me…” Helene puts her hand on the heart that is beating too fast. “I’m about to faint now…”       After looking around again, Helene comes to the high fence in a slow step and leans on it with her hand. At some moment, she swallows nervously with a sense of slight nausea in her throat and the thought that she kind of lacks air due to the invisible power squeezing her chest tightly.       “No, God, please…” Helene whispers under her nose. “Not this… I can’t lose… I can’t let them take me out…”       Holding the fence tightly, Helene keeps moving straight with the sense of dizziness that gets stronger every second. Everything gets blurry before her eyes, and all the sounds reach her ears literally through the deaf wall. Though she understands that the excited Sammy runs around her and snuggles her nose into her hand or her leg, not knowing how to help his owner and who to ask for help, seeing that there is nobody around, to his sadness.       “We’ve gotta get out of here…” Helene says quietly. “As far as possible… Until they catch us… We’ve gotta hide…”       But Helene’s condition gets worse and worse every second, and she can barely stand on her feet and is less able to resist the invisible thing that drags her into its tight hug so hard. Breathing deeply does not help her feel much better. Moreover, she has to apply much effort to pump some air into her lungs. And she cannot swallow a lump in her throat. No matter how hard the girl resists, the unknown liquid injected into her organism is much stronger and does not leave her any chance.       At some moment, Helene breathing heavily falls to the ground like a stone since her weak legs cannot hold her weight, and her fingers do not obey her and are no longer able to squeeze the metallic beam of the fence. Sammy runs to his owner with a whine full of pity and snuggles his nose in her face and licks it, while she is lying on her side powerlessly and looking into the distance with dead eyes, with a feeling that she is losing her strength.       “I can’t, Sammy…” Helene pronounces in a shaking whisper. “Can’t… I feel too bad… I’m weak…”       Sammy barks heartbreakingly and shakes Helene’s hand with his paw, begging her so hard to get up before the criminals find them and use the situation.       “I’m sorry, my boy…” Helene sniffs her nose quietly. “I can’t… It’s much stronger than me…”       And while Sammy is running in circles around Helene being half-unconscious and having no strength just to sit up, Luther, Ronald, Darren, Elijah, and David come to them quietly and imposingly and look at each other with a sly smile and their heads proudly raised.       “The thing’s working,” Ronald notices confidently, shaking the ash off his cigarette with a proud look.       “Awesome, we didn’t even have to work hard!” Luther exclaims. “The gal resisted a little and calmed down.”       “She wouldn’t make tornado kicks and wash her hands in blood, hitting us on the faces,” David sneers evilly, throwing a little piece of the cigarette on the ground with contempt and stepping on it with his foot. “The only thing she could do was beg us to pity her, let her go, and make us ashamed. And ask her sweetheart to help, of course.”       “Please…” Helene whispers as she shakes in fear, while her clouded eyes are set on the men, whose faces seem blurry now. “Stop…”       “Don’t worry, baby, it’s not death yet,” Luther assures and comes to Helene determinedly. “It’s just a short sleep. A deep sleep when you don’t remember and understand anything.”       “I don’t wanna die… Please…”       “I can’t wait to feel your tender mouth caress my dick, driving me crazy. Can’t wait to see you naked and enjoy your gorgeous body.”       With these words, Luther squats down in front of Helene lying on the ground powerlessly, and runs his hand over her thigh. And when Sammy runs to him to attack him, Ronald just pushes him off with his foot before he also gets down to his knees in front of the girl and strokes her cheek.       “If you behave well, we’ll be tender and nice to you,” Ronald promises. “Getting fucked won’t be painful to you. But in the opposite case, your whole body will burn from a hellish pain.”       “Please, stop torturing me…” Helene begs in despair, being so weak that she cannot even move Darren’s hand off when he runs it underneath her top and strokes her naked belly. “I’m begging…”       “Quiet, quiet, dolly, relax,” David advises and moves some strands of hair off Helene’s face. “Breathe deeply and close your eyes. You will not run away anywhere now.”       “Peter… Peter, help… Please… I need you…”       “Sorry, cutie, but your Peter is not near,” Darren upsets. “And he will no longer see you. I mean, he will see. Your corpse. Before he dies himself.”       Helene starts crying bitterly, not being able to hold herself down and being in a hopeless situation when she feels like a little, unprotected girl, who wants to find her parents and press herself to them tightly. Well… In this case, she wants to press herself against her beloved grandmother. Who will have to know about the current situation if she does not find a way to get out of this trouble. And she will likely not do this.       “Sh-h-h, quiet, babe, quiet…” Luther calms down, stroking Helene’s head. “Nothing will help you anymore.”       Luther moves his eyes to Sammy barking loudly and growling.       “Even this fucking dog THAT MAKES ME FEEL A FUCKING HEADACHE!”       “Fuck, strangle this piece of shit now!” Ronald explodes. “I AM DONE WITH HIS BARKING AND WHINING!”       “GET OFF, WE SAID!” Darren roars, pushing Sammy aside as strongly as possible and throwing a little rock at him so that it gets into his nose. “SHUT UP, FUCKING DOG! SHUT UP!”       Doing all these things, the criminals make Sammy so enraged that he stops holding himself down and releases such strong aggression that he did not show even when he participated in the operation of getting Norman and Julian Potter arrested. First, the dog growls at the men aggressively, showing his sharp teeth, but then he attacks Luther sharply, sinking his teeth tightly into his arm and making him scream loudly in pain.       “A-A-A-A, FUCK, IT HURTS!” Luther screams, shaking his arm with the hope of setting it free. “LET ME GO! LET ME GO, A-A-A-A! GUYS, DO SOMETHING! HE IS ABOUT TO BITE MY FUCKING ARM!”       “Ar-r-r, he’s holding you so tightly that I can’t the fuck pull him off,” Elijah growls irritably, trying so hard to pull Sammy away from Luther. “Fuck, fuck… And he’s heavy… Ar-r-r-r…”       “Get the fuck off us, piece of shit!” David roars, throwing rocks aggressively at Sammy that cannot be stopped by anything this time. “GET OFF, I SAID!”       David provokes Sammy by making him sink his teeth into his arm and squeeze it as tightly as possible, not paying attention to the fact that the others try so hard to pull him away from him.       “A-a-a-a, I’m done with this bastard!” Darren growls irritably, hits Sammy in his stomach with his foot, and falls to the ground when the dog attacks him. “AH, FUCK! IT HURTS! LET ME GO!”       “FUCK, IDIOTS, PULL HIM AWAY FROM ME!” Ronald shouts when Sammy attacks him. “A-A-A-A! IT HURTS!”       “Pray that the dog doesn’t have any illness,” Elijah throws gloomily, looking at the scar that Sammy left on his hand with his sharp claws. “That he doesn’t have any rabies or any other shit.”       “Ar-r-r-r, we’ve wasted three times more time on this bastard than Rose and all his pals,” Ronald throws aggressively, trying to pull Sammy away from Elijah. “If not for him, we would’ve packed the gal a long time ago.”       “I have an idea of how to end all of this quickly,” Luther says with a sly smile. “What to do for this dog not to bother us anymore.”       With these words, Luther takes the knife from the pocket on his waistcoat and squeezes it with his fingers, while Sammy is holding David’s hand tightly and not even thinking of letting it go.       “No…” Helene begs quietly, opening her eyes widely. “Please, don’t do this…”       “A-a-a-a, this asshole is gonna make us disabled now,” Darren throws rudely, shaking his arm that Sammy sank his teeth into. “GET OFF ME, BASTARD! A-A-A-A-A! GET OFF, I SAID!”       “You’re dead, fucking piece of shit!” Luther blunts under his nose in a rude, low voice. “Now I shall turn you into a big piece of meat that would be good as food for other animals.”       Not wasting time, Luther comes to Sammy determinedly and gets the knife sharply into the dog’s stomach.       “NO-O-O-O-O!” Helene suddenly screams as she opens her eyes widely, lying powerlessly. “SAMMY!”       Sharp pain gets through Sammy’s body, and it’s the reason why he lets go of Darren’s arm immediately and starts whining heartbreakingly, looking at Luther smiling slyly with eyes full of pity.       “So what, asshole, you got it?” Luther asks and twists the knife slowly, giving Sammy much more pain and making him whine much louder, with greater pity. “You deserve it, asshole!”       “No, please…” Helene chokes on tears. “My doggy… My baby… Don’t hurt him…”       “You can say goodbye to your piece of shit, Marshall,” Elijah says with his head proudly raised, squeezing the wound on his arm. “The dog will finally die.”       “NO-O-O-O-O-O!”       “Get it, bastard, get it!” Luther roars and gets the knife in a couple of other areas on Sammy’s stomach. “Die, bastard! DIE! DIE!”       And when Luther gets the knife with a bright red blade out, Sammy falls to the ground with a whine full of pity, while his wounds start bleeding strongly, depriving the dog of strength.       “S-s-sammy…” Helene pronounces in a shaking voice, reaching out her hand to Sammy lying not far from her, and sniffs quietly. “M-m-my boy…”       In reply, Sammy whines with great pity as if he apologizes to Helene for not being able to save her since there are too many criminals, one of whom gave him a knife wound.       “Oh, I think we got away from it…” David rubs his forehead.       “We should’ve stabbed this asshole earlier!” Ronald throws coldly.       “Indeed, why didn’t we think about it before?” Darren wonders. “We should’ve stabbed him on the day Marcus met Rose and left him there. He would’ve died for one or two hours.”       “It’s alright, the important thing is that we got rid of him now,” David notices with a little heavy breath.       “There’s a first aid kit in the car – we’ve gotta disinfect our wounds,” Elijah insists. “And then it would be great to pass all the necessary samples.”       “Ar-r-r, I hate dogs!” Luther hisses through his teeth. “I do hate these fucking pieces of shit. I HATE!”       Luther hits his foot against the back of Sammy that makes a heartbreaking moan that is close to a shout.       “No, Sammy, please…” Helene begs in despair, touching Sammy’s paw softly. “Please, don’t die… Hold on… For God’s sake… Hold on…”       Sammy whines quietly and, overcoming the hellish pain, moves closer to Helene, who is breathing heavily at this moment and lying motionless on the ground with no strength, with a sense of strong dizziness.       “I’m sorry…” Helene sobs quietly. “I can’t help you… I feel too bad…”       “Fuck, I can’t wait for the gal to pass out,” Darren says excitedly, looking around nervously. “We’ve gotta get out of here before someone comes here. Before someone calls the cops.”       “Yeah, can’t wait…” Ronald agrees, shifting nervously from one foot to another. “Maybe the dose is too little? Maybe, we should’ve injected much more?”       ‘It’s under control, men,” Elijah replies quietly. “The gal is about to knock out.”       Elijah glances at Helene, who tries to sit up by force with no success.       “She can’t sit up now. She wants, but she doesn’t have any strength anymore.”       “Scums…” Helene pronounces quietly, trying just to tear her head off the ground. “Bastards… If my dog dies… You will pay me for this…”       “You have less and less time to say goodbye to him, beautiful,” David notices. “Because the dog will die, and we will take you with you when you pass out.”       “I curse all of you…” Helene starts breathing much more heavily with the thought that she lacks air. “Cads… I curse you all, hear me! I hate you! You and your fucking Marcus! I hate you… Hate…”       Sammy makes another moan full of pity, lying on his side half-unconscious and not even trying to move or get up, while a strong flow is getting out of the wound on his stomach.       “Sammy, my love…” Helene pronounces quietly, excitedly, looking at Sammy with tears in her eyes, while his face seems blurry to her. “I love you… Very, very much… Sammy… Sammy…”       While Sammy whines in pain with pity, Helene struggles with a strong wish to close her eyes for a few seconds, even if everything is unclear and turns into blurred circles before her eyes, and all the sounds around her are kind of deaf and can barely be recognized. Her sense of nausea gets stronger, she feels a strong dizziness, and her body is so weak that even moving is a hard thing for her. And in the end, the girl loses this unequal battle when she sets her dead eyes into the distance and closes her eyes slowly, powerlessly with a moan that can be barely heard, letting the infinite darkness take her in its arms. And Sammy’s quiet, heartbreaking whine is the last thing she remembers before this happens.       All this time, Luther, Ronald, David, Darren, and Elijah have been standing near and just watching what’s happening and waiting for the moment when Helene loses consciousness. They sneer quietly at the sight of the wounded Sammy that whines with pity. And when they see the deathly pale girl close her eyes and stop moving, the men look at each other as if they ask if the injection worked. Then Elijah comes to her very carefully, squats down, and looks carefully at her face, moving a couple of strands of hair off it.       “It’s fine, the girl has passed out,” Elijah says. “She’s unconscious.”       “Finally…” Luther wipes invisible drops of sweat off his forehead.       “She’s alive, I hope?” Darren expresses anxiety.       “Yeah, the pulse is weak, but she has,” Elijah nods confidently, putting two fingers on the curve of Helene’s neck, on which he feels a weak heartbeat, and brings his hand to her nose. “She’s breathing…”       “Marcus said she’d be sleeping for several hours thanks to this thing,” David recalls, stroking his chin.       “We’ve got enough time to drive her to the right place and tell Marcus we’ve completed the mission successfully,” Ronald smiles slyly.       “Yeah, let’s get out of here quickly before someone comes here,” Elijah suggests. “And we will leave the dog here so the boy dies.”       “We’ve gotta bring the car here to pack the cutie quickly,” Luther says thoughtfully, coming closer to the unconscious Helene, running his hand slowly over her thigh, and clapping slightly on it. “And I would caress her a little…”       “I brought the car here while you tried to deal with her!”       Elijah points at the cheap black car placed not far from them.       “And we can now have fun with the gal at any time. And nobody will stop us.”       “Yeah, this cutie is ours now…” Ronald purrs with a smug smile, squatting down and running his hand over Helene’s pale cheek. “We did what Marcus wanted. Of course, we’re sorry for the girl, but an order is an order, we can’t change anything.”       “If it’s so, she’s gonna be our greatest trophy,” David says confidently, running his thumb over Helene’s lips. “She’s gonna entertain us until death.”       “Oh, looking at her, I feel it’s hard in my pants,” Darren shakes slightly, running his hand over Helene’s breasts and squeezing them slightly. “And I feel dizzy when I think about my dick in her mouth.”       “Yea-a-a-a-ah…” Luther, Ronald, Darren, and David pronounce with a blissful smile. “The hellcat is sexy…”       “Hey, men, wipe your saliva off and shake up!” Elijah pronounces determinedly, clapping Ronald and Luther on the shoulder. “We’ve gotta get out of here now! We can’t stay here anymore!”       “Yeah, Hartley, you’re right…” Ronald coughs quickly. “We’ve gotta get out…”       “It’s alright, we’ll have many chances to fuck this gorgeous cat,” Luther replies with a mysterious smile and runs his hand over Helene’s belly after he rolls her body carefully onto her back and raises her top slightly. “We will drive Marshall to the place where nobody can find her.”       “Hey, hello, male with spermotoxicosis, get up now!” Elijah orders and gets up quickly. “Put the gal in the truck just in case and get in the car now.”       “Okay, we’ll leave her bag here,” David says confidently, taking Helene’s bag and throwing it at Sammy that is bleeding and whining from pain and powerlessness. “So, the dog can call the cops. Or Rose. To make him happy, so to say.”       “Check her pockets – what if she’s got a phone!”       “No, it’s clean!” Darren announces after checking the pockets on Helene’s denim shorts. “She’s got a phone in her bag, I guess.”       “Excellent, then! Get your asses now, take the girl, and carry her in the car.”       While Sammy whines heartbreakingly and barks quietly, the criminals get up quickly before his eyes, and Luther and Ronald easily take the unconscious Helene under her arms and by her feet and come quickly to the car they need, while the others follow them.       “The girl is as light as fuck!” Ronald exclaims.       “Aha, unlike that bastard Rose,” Luther agrees. “We barely carried his body.”       “And she’s also short… It’s gonna be fucking funny and easy with her.”       “My gut tells me she’s fucking good at spreading her legs and sucking dicks.”       “We will check it out.”       Elijah opens the trunk of the car quickly, takes some things out of it to free some space, and makes a gesture to say that the victim can be placed here. Luther takes Helene’s soft body in his arms and puts her in the truck, where there is so much space that she would be able to be there with no problems. After looking at her with a primitive passion, David closes the door of the truck. Then they give each other a five with a sly smile and glance at Sammy barking desperately, trying so hard to get up on his feet and attack them, but falling to the ground due to the strong weakness and pain in his whole body.       With a sense of superiority, the five men wave their hands at the doggy with an evil smile and start to get into the car: while Elijah is in the driver’s seat and starts the motor with a key, the others sit in the passenger seats and the backseats. A few seconds later, the car makes a quiet squeak of wheels, and it seems like someone decided to turn on the radio and make it louder, judging by the sounds spread out of the open windows. And their track disappears after the criminals turn on the left, ignoring the fact that they almost hit a young man who definitely rushes somewhere since he is running wild to do his business and crossing the road in the wrong place.       Again, the criminals leave Sammy all alone in the large city. But this time, they also wounded him seriously. The dog whines desperately and barks quietly, expressing his pain from the wound and disappointment in himself since he could not save his owner, who has been taken away nobody knows where. Blood is getting out of his open wound fast, and he has no strength to get up or even move. He is unable to run after the car and let Helene know that he would not leave her. The girl’s bag lying not far from him reminds him of her. The retriever glances at it with wet eyes full of pain and makes a heartbreaking moan that is close to a whine, lying on his side powerlessly and looking at everything he sees with dead eyes. No car has driven here, no people have passed by here over all this time. There is nobody whom he could ask for help in saving the girl, who is now in mortal danger. Who would not be found as well as nobody would have found Peter if he had not been lucky to escape.       Maybe Sammy would keep lying on the ground, bleeding, and starting to lose consciousness little by little. But at some moment, a gray car released many, many years ago goes by with nothing remarkable. The dog sees it stops two meters away from him, and then the old gray-haired, modestly dressed woman and a dark-haired man at the age of forty wearing a simple t-shirt and knee-length pants. It seems like they saw Sammy from afar and decided to find out what happened since they are coming to him determinedly and looking at him with pity in their widely open eyes.       “My God, doggy…” the old woman horrifies, closing her mouth with her hand. “You’re in blood…”       “Buddy, what happened to you?” the woman wonders, squatting down in front of Sammy and starting to look at his wound. “Holy cow… You’re wounded…”       “Holy Mother, they are real monsters! They wounded the poor doggy and left it here to die!”       “You’re right!” the man strokes the head of the whining Sammy. “How could they do this to the animal?”       “Quiet, quiet, doggy, don’t whine,” the woman pronounces softly, barely touching Sammy’s ears. “We want to help you. We don’t mean to hurt you.”       “Seems like he’s not a stray dog!” the man notices, taking the pendant on Sammy’s collar. “He’s got some contacts on his collar.”       “That’s its owner, I guess.”       “I see the contact of a certain Helene Marshall. Her mobile number and address.”       “Isn’t that the girl who has been put in the truck by five men in an unconscious condition?”       “That’s her, likely.”       “Jesus Christ! Those cads kidnap people in the daylight! What we’ve come to!”       Sammy makes a quiet, heartbreaking bark and shakes slightly in pain that gets through his body every time he barely moves.       “My God, what do we do now?” the woman wonders. “We’ve gotta call the police! It seems like the girl’s been kidnapped, and the dog has been left here to die!”       “You’re right, Mom,” the woman agrees. “But first, we must drive the dog to the vet clinic. He’s lost too much blood already.”       “Oh, oh, Holy Mother, how do scums actually live in this world? Kidnap the young girl and wound the dog! I just can’t get it all!!”       “You memorized those scums?”       “Only the one to have a bun on his head. I don’t remember the others.”       “But I memorized them well. And I wrote down the number of the car.”       “We can describe them to the police.”       “Yeah, but let’s talk about it later. First, we must help the dog.”       And while the unknown man and the woman examine Sammy and talk about what they can do to help him, several people leave the café located a few meters away from here. Including Raquelle, who was there all the time and did not notice anything that happened. But when she goes outside and looks around, she frowns slightly because she does not see Helene, who actually promised to wait for her not far from her. The girl looks around again and passes some distance, looking into the distance with the hope that her friend could go somewhere. But these searches do not lead to any results.       “It’s weird, where is she?” Raquelle asks herself. “She was kinda here…”       Not thinking too much, Raquelle decides to call Helene on her cell phone. The girl turns on the other side and, going straight in a slow step, sets her eyes on the screen of her smartphone that she takes from her bag and looks for the number she needs. But at some moment, the girl distracts herself, looks around again, and sees the old woman and the man at the age of forty talking about something and bending over the golden retriever lying on the ground on the opposite side. At first, Raquelle does not pay too much attention to this, but then she looks better and feels that her heart stops at the thought that it’s Sammy.       “Oh, my God…” Raquelle pronounces in a little shaking voice and opens widely her eyes full of horror. “Sammy… My God! Sammy!”       Putting her smartphone in the bag, Raquelle rushes to the automobile road, looks around quickly, and crosses it after she sees there is no car coming. And she runs fast to Sammy lying on the ground and falls to her knees in front of him.       “Sammy!” Raquelle pronounces excitedly and pets Sammy’s head tenderly. “My gosh… Boy, what happened to you?”       “He's seriously wounded,” the old woman says. “He must be rushed to the vet clinic.”       “Oh, God…” Raquelle closes her mouth with her hand when she moves her half-wet eyes to Sammy’s bleeding wounds. “Sammy, how? My God…”       “How could they do this to the animal?” the man wonders.       “Hold on, baby, hold on…” Raquelle strokes Sammy’s head with her shaking hand, and he snuggles his nose in her hand with a quiet whine. “It’s gonna be okay. I will not leave you.”       “Excuse me, girl, who are you?” the old woman frowns slightly. “Is this your dog?”       “No, the dog isn’t mind, but I know him.”       “Don’t you know anything about the girl whose name is written on the dog’s collar?” the woman specifies.       “By the way, where’s she?” Raquelle looks around quickly and frowns slightly. “Where’s the owner of the dog?”       “You know her?” the man specifies.       “Yes, that’s my friend.”       “Helene Marshall? Is she the owner?”       “Yes, Helene.”       “Isn’t that the short girl with black shoulder-length hair wearing a light green top and light blue denim shorts?” the old woman asks with suspicion.       “Yeah, that’s my friend! You saw her? You know where she went?”       “She’s been taken away!”       “What?” Raquelle opens her eyes widely, getting sharply pale from horror. “What do you mean she’s been taken away?”       “She was unconscious when five men put her body in the truck of the car,” the man says.       “Five men? Are you serious?”       “Absolutely?”       “My son and I weren’t far from here when I saw what was happening here,” the woman confesses. “I let him know it, and we watched everything.”       “Isn’t her bag lying there?” the man asks, pointing at Helene’s bag lying not far from here. “I see the one.”       Raquelle takes the bag and checks out what’s inside quickly, making sure that it really belongs to Helene.       “Yes, it’s hers…” Raquelle nods slightly. “It’s Helene’s bag… Here’s her phone, her documents, the keys from her home… The wallet with money and cards…”       “Holy Mother…” the woman closes her mouth with her hand. “What did they want to do to her?”       “Did you see everything from start to end?” Raquelle specifies.       “No, we only saw the moment when the girl was put in the truck,” the man shakes her head. “The dog was already wounded, and her owner was lying on the ground and not moving when Mother came to me and said they were surrounded by some cads.”       “My son wanted to go there and meddle, but it was too late, sadly,” the woman says with sadness. “They left in the car and took the girl with them. And when we came here, we only found the wounded doggy.”       “Oh, my God…” Raquelle puts her hand on her forehead with a heavy breath. “They’ve kidnapped her… Helene is now in great danger…”       “We must call the police immediately and tell them what happened. Tell them how some scums drugged the young, sympathetic girl with something and took her away in an unknown direction.”       “Alright, can you describe those people who took her away?”       “Yes, I clearly remember that there was a middle-aged man with a bun on his head.”       “Bun on his head?”       “And the others looked like typical bandits,” the man adds. “They’ve got the same faces as long-time criminals have.”       “And we also saw they looked at the girl with hungry eyes,” the old woman confesses. “As if those cads wanted to, heaven forbid, rape her.”       “Yeah, especially one of them. He felt up literally her whole body and almost decided to kiss her. But the man with a bun stopped him.”       “I think I’m guessing who that is…” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “I’m guessing who kidnapped her.”       “You know something about them?”       “Yeah… But it’s… A long story…”       “Anyway, you must tell her relatives about what happened and call the police shortly,” the old woman insists. “And the sooner you do this, the sooner those nasty cads are found.”       “Don’t worry, ma’am, I will do this surely,” Raquelle promises in a little shaking voice. “But we’ll talk about it later. Now we must drive Sammy to the vet before he loses much more blood.”       “Are you in the car?” the man asks.       “No, sadly. My friend and I walked on foot.”       “We will help you then. I will drive you and the doggy to the clinic.”       “Really? Oh, thank you so much, sir. I would really appreciate it!”       “There is the one not far from here. One familiar of mine is working there, I can agree with him, so he works with you immediately.”       “Thank you so much. Don’t worry about the money, I will pay for everything.”       “Sonny, you have a blanket in the truck,” the old woman says thoughtfully. “Bring it here, please. So, we can place the doggy on it and carry it on the backseat.”       “Yes, yes, now!” the woman exclaims, gets up on his feet, and rushes to his car.       “Do you have a first aid kit?” Raquelle asks. “We must disinfect his wounds and stop the blood somehow before we come to the clinic.”       “Don’t worry, sweetie, we have everything,” the old woman replies, stroking Raquelle’s hand. “My son will help you drive the dog to the hospital.”       “My gosh, how long will all of this last?” Raquelle sighs heavily. “When will those scums leave us alone? When will they stop chasing Helene and Peter?”       “I guess the story is much more complicated than it seems.”       “Yeah, it’s true. My friend and her boyfriend are wanted to be killed by the old man, who has gone insane. I don’t know why, but it’s clear he isn’t going to give up.”       “Did they go to the police?”       “Yeah, we asked our familiar police captain for help, but we’ve got so little information that we can do nothing yet.”       “Jesus Christ, poor guys… What’s happening to our world? Why do we have so many heartless scums in it? Why are we living in such a bandit time?”       “You’re right…”       At this moment, Sammy whines with great pity as he looks at Raquelle as if he apologizes to her for not being able to save Helene.       “Quiet, quiet, Sammy, quiet, my body,” Raquelle pronounces softly, petting Sammy’s head tenderly. “It’s okay. You did everything you could.”       “His name is Sammy?” the old woman specifies.       “Samuel. But my friends and I call him just Sammy.”       “Wonderful doggy. Just a gem. I will be praying that he survives.”       “While the doctors examine him, I will contact the guys and tell them what happened to Helene. And then we will meet and think about what to do.”       “I imagine how shocked they’re gonna be. And what’s gonna happen to the family of that girl… My God…”       “I get horrified when I think about it. But we’ll have to tell them everything. Tell them everything that’s happening.”       Raquelle sighs heavily and glances aside with sadness, while the man runs to her and the old lady with a soft blanket in his hands.       “Alright, let me put him on it,” the man says and gives the blanket to Raquelle. “Girl, unfold the blanket, please.”       When Raquelle puts the blanket on the ground, the man raises the wounded Sammy and puts him on it very carefully.       “Mom, open the back door!”       The old woman comes to her son's car, opens the back door, and holds it, while the man carries Sammy whining from pain carefully on his arms and puts the dog in the back seat.       “Can you work on the dog’s wounds?” the old woman asks, giving Raquelle the bag of medicines.       “I will try,” Raquelle nods and takes it from the old woman as she holds Helene’s bag in another hand.       “Good. Get in the car, young lady, get in. Let’s not waste time.”       “Could you tell me everything you saw on the way?”       “Sure, we will tell you everything we saw.”       While the old woman sits in the driver’s seat, Raquelle sits down next to Sammy and starts getting through everything she finds in the first aid kit to find what she needs to disinfect the dog’s wounds and stop the bleeding. The man starts the motor and starts pressing the gas pedal, watching the road closely and driving straight in the right direction. His mother and he give a detailed story of everything they saw and many more details about the criminals, who took Helene away, letting Cameron know that it was really the work of Marcus and his accomplices, who decided to deal with Peter’s girlfriend after his successful escape from them.       On the way, Raquelle manages to give Sammy first aid to minimize all the possible risks. And then she just tries to calm the doggy calm with words and caresses, saying again and again that he is not guilty of not being able to save his owner. The girl tells him that the guys will find Helene wherever she is. Even if she is not sure about the successful end of this story because she has a very, very presentiment about it.       

***

      Not even guessing what happened to Helene and Sammy, Peter went to the home of his friend Jessica, not refusing to help her with changing the broken faucet in the bathroom. While trying to figure out how to do it and following the instruction that only has pictures, the man has a good talk with the girl about everything. She does not meddle in his work since she does not understand anything about it and completely trusts her friend, who does the thing that seems so complicated at first sight with no problems and successfully starts replacing the faucet. And when the blond does it, he shakes the invisible dirt off his hands with his head proudly raised and looks at his friend with a slight smile.       “Okay, done, I kinda replaced it,” Peter says confidently and gets up from his knees.       “I hope nothing breaks after we open the water tap,” Jessica expresses hope.       “We will be doing this slowly.”       When he comes to the open panel with tubes for hot and cold water, Peter twists the handle slowly to open them again. At some moment, he hears a quiet hiss, which makes Jessica shake slightly, but the man calms her down with a slight smile, with the thought that it’s fine. And after making sure that the access to water is restored, Rose comes to the faucet that he just replaced and starts opening it slowly, seeing water starts getting out of it and turning the handle to change the temperature.       “Yeah, it works!” Jessica claps her hands happily. “I’m finally gonna have a hot bath tonight!”       “It’s great!” Peter says proudly. “Hot and cold water – both pressures are good, and the faucet is really cool.”       “Oh, Pete, thank you so much! You’re just a gem!”       Jessica comes to Peter with a wide smile, hugs him tightly, and kisses him two times on the cheek in happiness at some moment.       “I dunno what I’d do without ya!”       “Why don’t I help my friend?” Peter shrugs, while Jessica steps back.       “I’m sorry about getting you outta home. But I had an unplanned bad event yesterday evening – the faucet broke as well as one of the tubes for water. I dunno how it’s called. But that’s good my neighbor helped me turn off the water so I could go to the shop and buy a new one. I wanted to ask him to change the faucet, but he should’ve gone somewhere. So, I had to ask another fairy for help. And run to my neighbors with cans, begging them to give me some water for cooking food, washing plates, and other water procedures.”       “Nah, it’s okay,” Peter smiles shyly, clapping Jessica on the shoulder. “I’d have to get out of home early or late.”       “Besides, you haven’t come to yourself after what those cads did to you.”       “Nope, I feel much better now.”       Peter turns off the faucet after he washes his face and hands with warm water.       “Of course, my eye still looks like a scary movie, but looking at this doesn’t make me so horrified.”       “Yeah, they kicked your ass harder than at school…” Jessica says thoughtfully, putting her hand on her hips. “Even the most famous six-foot-tall closets didn’t give you these bruises.”       “What did ya expect in the case when some bastards tied you up tightly and started to beat you and torture you with an electric gun with no shame?”       “Ugh, I’m even afraid to think about what you had to get through.”       “Don’t better think about it. So, your nerves are okay.”       “Okay, blond, let me feed you something tasty.” Jessica claps Peter on the shoulder. “I can’t let you go hungry, not thanking you for helping me out like this.”       “Well, if you’re suggesting, I won’t refuse,” Peter smiles slyly.       “What about a cup of strong coffee and some tasty food? I have so much!”       “Good idea!”       “Let’s go to the kitchen then!”       “Maybe, we should clean it here? Wash the floor, wipe off the dust, and clean the dirt off…”       “Oh, we’ll deal with this later! Have a little rest! You spent three hours replacing this faucet!”       “It’s okay, I’m not tired.”       “C’mon, buddy, let’s go, I will do everything by myself later.”       With these words, Jessica takes Peter under his arm and takes him to the kitchen, where much light gets through the big, wide window.       “Sit down, I will boil the water and find something to eat.”       “Be happy you have such a wonderful friend, who’s always ready to help you do any man’s work,” Peter says cheerfully, sitting on the high chair at the bar table. “What would ya do without me?”       “You’re right!” Jessica exclaims, fills the kettle quickly with water from the faucet, and turns it on so it boils. “Maybe I don’t have a boyfriend, but I have a cool friend.”       “Okay, Taylor, don’t worry, I’ll do everything, I’ll fix everything. Just call me with your finger.”       “Aw, Rose, you’re just a sweetie! I do wanna kiss you hundreds of times!”       “Well…” Peter glances aside for two seconds and frowns slightly. “You wanna kiss me, but someone beats my face to blood…”       “I wonder what that old man came up with if he can’t get off you at all?” Jessica sits at the bar table in front of Peter. “Why did he get so mad at you?”       “Oh, I dunno, Jess…” Peter runs his fingers through his hair. “There may be many reasons…”       “Is your mother really guilty of all of this? Or did the man just decide to recall his wild youth when he killed half of the country?”       “If my mother were guilty of all of this, I don’t know what I would do to her. I lived so many years without her and was much happier than ever, but then she showed up and decided to do some bad tricks and got in some shit, which became the reason why Marcus started to chase me.”       “Wow, I thought Marcus was caught,” Jessica confesses. “Nothing was known about him for so many years. But now it happens that he chose you as his next victim.”       “What if Marcus keeps committing crimes? What if he hasn’t calmed down but just slowed down? People were fucking overwhelmed that several murders could happen per day. And he stopped being shy and afraid of everyone and killed people right before everyone’s eyes.”       “Who knows, Pete… But you’re probably right. Such a bloodthirsty killer hardly calmed down so easily and stopped killing forever. If you get deeper into it, you’re gonna 100% freaking overwhelmed at how much he’s done.”       “And that asshole has lived for so many years as if nothing happened,” Peter throws gloomily. “Been pretending to be holy. And he is not fucking ashamed. He’s killed than one hundred people, and he’s enjoying his life! Ha, fine!”       “It’s okay, he won’t enjoy his life for too long. Early or late, that scum will get what he deserves.”       “I hope. But we may be waiting for the day he finally dies for too long.”       “Listen, Peter, are you really okay after everything they did to you?” Jessica expresses anxiety. “When you and Marshall told me all of that, I had my jaw lying on the floor.”       “Don’t worry, friend, I’m okay now,” Peter assures with a slight smile. “Though I keep being tense all the time. Because this kind of calm doesn’t mean the story has ended.”       “You think something’s gonna happen soon?”       “It would be logical enough. It always happens: an uncontrolled hurricane comes after a long calm.”       “Oh, Pete, my poor buddy…”       Jessica claps Peter slightly on his hands folded in front of him on the table.       “I’m so tired, Jessica…” Peter confesses. “Sick of all this shit that I have to deal with.”       “I completely understand, buddy,” Jessica says softly.       “Damn, why can’t I just live the rest of my life and do my favorite thing? Why can’t I focus on my band’s work? Why can’t I think of moving into a new house? Marrying? Fatherhood?”       “Early or late, everything will end, I am sure. Don’t be upset and think nothing can be the same again.”       “If my friends weren’t near and didn’t literally pull me outta this shit, I would lose the meaning of my life and kill myself.”       “No, Peter, please, don’t say it!” Jessica shakes her head sharply.       “It’s true, darling. My friends and girlfriend are the only thing that holds me here. If I lost them for one or another reason, I wouldn’t need this world for anything at all.”       “You say it as if your friends make you stay in this world by force.”       “No, it’s not true. I really wanna live. I don’t wanna die. Even if my life has always been a piece of shit, my decision to try to kill myself wasn’t easy for me. When I tried to do it, I thought it would be easy for me to go and cut myself to death. But not at all, the fuck.”       “That’s good you admit your problems and don’t run away from them. You’re supposed to have a lot of courage.”       “I just understand I feel much better when I don’t hide the pain inside me, when I talk openly about it. When my close people give me the support and let me know I’m not alone.”       “That’s why we need close friends,” Jessica smiles shyly. “When your world crushes, you’ll surely know who appreciates you truly. Who’ll run at your voice and stay with you in the middle of the chaos. Not everyone’s ready to follow you in a hurricane and the darkness. But the one who does it is truly priceless.”       “I already know,” Peter pronounces amicably. “I know I consider some of my important people the members of my family for a reason.”       “The most important thing is not to turn your back on the guys and to do nothing to make them fuck you off.”       “I’ve been living with a fear of loneliness since childhood. I’m not afraid of Marcus himself as much as the loss of everyone whom I decided to trust one day.”       “No, your friends are really cool!” Jessica notices with her head proudly raised. “They’ve done so much for you over all this time. They fretted and fumed so hard to get you out of the shit you put yourself in with the thought that everyone gave a fuck about you.”       “That’s why I count on their support as much as never ever.” Peter swallows nervously. “Yes, I say the men shouldn't meddle in it for their own safety. But without them, I can’t overcome all of this. I can’t survive in this battle. I can’t protect myself. I can’t protect Helene. No matter how ashamed I am to admit it, I am weak. I’ve always been weak.”       “No, buddy, you aren’t weak.”       “Weak, Jess, weak. I can pretend to be sassy as much as I want, but I’m actually still the timid, weak coward that’s always peed his pants from fear and unable to stand up for himself.”       “Peter…”       “I really feel much better when the men are near me. Next to them, I feel safe. Much more confident. And when I'm alone… I’m like a lost little boy. I was really scared when I met Marcus. Not because he was horrifying. Because I was all alone. Helpless. Tied. Nobody heard my shouts. And those assholes… They didn’t care I was suffering.”       “A weak person wouldn’t get through as much as you’ve gotten through.”       ‘Yeah, but it all led to a bunch of psychological traumas, with which I’m probably gonna live for the rest of my life.”       “But you’re struggling with them! You’re fighting with your fears and doubts.”       “I have to fight.”       “Everyone fears something, Pete. Everyone has their own shortcomings. Millions of people suffer from depression, anxiety, stress… They spend years solving their psychological problems. You’re not alone in this case. There are many people like you.”       “And while I’m able to fight with this yet. Though it gets me super exhausted. Only my close people help me hold on. And my love for music that’s always been my salvation.”       “Focus on your greatest passion then. It won’t let you drown in your dark thoughts and spend time remembering those who forgot everything a long time ago and started to live as easily as Marcus Longbottom does with two hundred people killed.”       “I can’t be weak,” Peter says in a much lower voice. “I can’t. Not just because of my friends. Helene. She doesn’t need a weak girl who can’t protect her. She wants a real man. Who wouldn’t be afraid of anything and anyone and would always hide her behind his back.”       “I take my hat off for you ‘cause you came back and saved Helene when that bastard almost drowned her.”       Jessica glances at the boiling kettle that turns off automatically at some moment and gets up from the table to add water to the cup she prepared before.       “I would’ve been a fucking bastard if I’d done it,” Peter says thoughtfully. “Yes, I was madly mad at her, but after what happened, it was like I woke up from my sleep.”       “Listen, Rose, do you actually understand what you’re blaming the girl for?” Jessica asks, adding the water to the cup. “How could you, idiot, actually think about it?”       “I’ve been lately thinking that I’m really an idiot. The idiot, who attacked the girl for nothing.”       “And who shouldn’t have started it all.”       “You know well how painful my very first experience in relationships was. You know what that bitch Kristina did to me.”       “Yeah, but it doesn’t mean Marshall would do the same thing to you. She did show that she was loyal to you, literally more than Sammy was loyal to her.”       “When I just started to receive messages from Marcus, I seriously thought he could be right. I am still suspicious of the story of her bullying her schoolmates.”       “It does have to do with the girls! And Helene said they’d solved everything and decided to forget it all.”       “Yeah, but I think I don’t know everything. There’s something else about this story that may make the opinion about your friend much worse.”       “My gosh, Pete, why are you torturing yourself?” Jessica wonders and puts the cup of coffee carefully on the bar table in front of Peter after she mixes it with a spoon. “Marshall didn’t bully you. And let her solve it all with the girls.”       “I’m just afraid that I may be her victim.”       “C’mon, buddy! Helene would rather die than humiliate you, insult you, and betray you. She wouldn’t do that to you for sure.”       “Even if she says she’s become different, it doesn’t mean anything.”       “No, Peter, it’s excluded! She used to be young and stupid and follow the crowd of the self-pronounced school queen. But now Marshall is an adult girl who has the brains. She completely understands that she must not harm someone whom another dislikes.”       “I know, but I’m scared. Talks about bullying are too painful to me ‘cause I was a victim myself.”       “Don’t even think about it. Helene won’t harm you. She will harm nobody. She realized her mistakes a long time ago, and her grandparents washed her brain.”       “Anyway, I started to reflect on it. Marcus hasn’t given me any proof yet. He hasn’t revealed her dark secrets and proved his words about her having other affairs.”       “Oh, you must actually have no doubts about any affairs!”       Jessica puts a bowl with some chocolate cookies on the table after she checks out the kitchen drawers and sits down in front of Peter.       “Helene rejected all the men who paid attention to her. She didn’t even wanna look at anyone. Yes, I thought it was weird, but now it’s clear that she was just in love with you.”       “I know, Jess…” Peter takes a sip of hot coffee and eats a couple of cookies.       “Someone who hid their feelings for one and a half years as if they waited for the one they liked would hardly reject their sweetheart after getting a chance to date them.”       “I have so many thoughts that I can barely think now. I’ve got the arguments for her rightness, but I’ve got the arguments for her lies.”       “You should think about what Helene did to you only. How she hurt you, what kind of bad things she said, and why she left you at a hard moment. Has it ever happened?”       “Nope, it hasn’t…”       “Then why do you the fuck attack the girl?” Jessica asks loudly. “I completely get it, but since she’s done nothing bad to you, why would you ruin your relationship with your sweetheart? Why would you hurt her? Do you actually know how she’s suffering because of what you’re doing? When Marshall and I met the last time, she literally cried as she talked about your charges!”       “I really wanna believe she’s guilty of nothing.” Peter drinks some coffee. “And any bad words of mine about her break my heart. You know how bad I feel when I blame her for what I ain’t sure about yet.”       “So, maybe, you should believe your girlfriend, not the asshole that’s doing all of this on purpose?”       “I’ve lately believed her much more. I’ve been thinking Marcus is really trying to fool me.”       “Better late than never.”       “Helene is very important to me. I madly love her, and I’m afraid to lose her. I’m afraid of her betrayal even more than the betrayer of the men. I… I don’t know what I’m gonna do if the one I opened my heart to at my risk betrays me again.”       “Excuse me, but if you hurt her again and again, Helene is gonna leave you,” Jessica warns, “She’ll just get sick of listening to your charges and feeling insulted and humiliated.”       “That’s what I’m afraid of as much as loneliness.”       “Anyway, I’m glad you decided to work your brains a little,” Jessica smiles shyly. “Now it’s not too late to stop yet. It’s not too late to come to Helene, hug her tightly, and say you love her so much. Say you don’t believe any charges of that asshole.”       “I’ve already done it,” Peter cracks a slight smile and drinks some coffee. “Our relationship has lately been much better. I try so hard to get rid of the wish to reproach her for something. And I’m successful at this yet.”       “Yeah, they cleaned your brains with an electric gun,” Jessica notices funnily.       “Marcus is the one to blame. Since he wanna assure me about something, he should understand that his charges must include some real proof.”       “The man’s just bluffing, that’s clear! He’s got a goal – to make you fight with your girlfriend! And he probably decided to do something to turn you against the men.”       “I do get it all…” Peter sighs tiredly. “But it’s too hard for me to believe it.”       “Do ya believe the man that you met for the first time one week ago than your friends and girlfriend, who know you so well? That’s stupid, Pete!”       “I know, Jess, I know… Anyway, time will show.”       “Don’t let your emotions control you. Whatever happens, always work your brains. Or come to those who can think for you.”       “You’re right…” Peter smiles slightly after eating some cookies. “Thanks to my friends, I still haven’t believed it. They know everything and… So to say… They help me not to make many more mistakes.”       “Say, ‘thank you’ to them for letting you have some brains and the sober mind.”       “Yeah…”       Silence settles in the air for some time, during which Peter keeps drinking coffee and eating cookies, and Jessica glances at the window.       “Oh, alright, let’s clean the bathroom quickly and get rid of the trash,” Peter suggests. “I left it fucking dirty after replacing that faucet.”       “Oh, c’mon, Pete, fuck it!” Jessica waves her hand. “Sit quietly! Let’s spend time together for the first time in a while. Eat something tasty, watch a movie, and talk about everything in the world. You and I haven’t done something like this for like two hundred years.”       “Well, since I have nothing else to do, why not? Moreover, I really kinda forgot about you.”       “And Helene doesn’t think about me as much as before.”       “What can we do since we’re all so busy with work and problems?” Peter shrugs and drinks the rest of the coffee. “We don’t even have time to think about my friends’ wedding. Though the wedding is scheduled at the end of August.”       “At least, everything’s ready for the wedding.”       “Almost. The suits for the men and me aren’t done yet, and the brides’ dresses are still in work.”       “I hope they make it by the wedding day.”       “I’m sure they will. Moreover, I don’t exclude that the guys will have to reschedule the ceremony due to the problem with Marcus.”       “Yeah, that man did a really bad trick on you.”       “And he’ll keep doing this until he sees me in the grave.”       Peter gets up from the bar table with a tired sigh and comes to the small sofa, on which his wallet and smartphone are lying.       “I’ll check out my phone quickly. What if someone’s missing me and decided to send a couple of messages.”       Taking his smartphone and typing the password to unlock the screen, Peter checks a bunch of notifications about comments and likes on his posts on social networks. The man runs his eyes quickly over them, rates some of them by liking them, and even replies to a couple of them. And when Jessica comes to him after washing the empty cup and putting it in the kitchen drawer, he sees the notification about the voice message that was sent by someone in the common chat of his friends.       “Hm, one voice message…” Peter pronounces thoughtfully. “From Raquelle…”       “Hey, Rose, do you wanna know all the girls’ secrets and read their chat secretly?” Jessica chuckles.       “Nope, it’s a common chat between the guys and me. Though the men and I and the girls have a separate one.”       “I see…”       “Wouldn’t you mind if I listened to the message? Raquelle says it’s something critical. Like, she decided to record her message ‘cause typing a text takes too long.”       “Go for it! I am kinda wondering why it’s so critical!”       “Thanks…”       While Jessica holds him by the shoulders, Peter presses the play button and levels up the volume to listen to the message from Raquelle, noticing that her voice seems very tense, shaking, and excited.       “Hey, guys! Sorry for bothering you, but it’s really critical. Trouble happened… In short, Helene and I walked in the city with Sammy. Everything was fine at first, but at some moment, we agreed that I’d go to the café and buy something to drink for us. She stayed outside with Sammy, but I went. But I didn’t buy the drinks… Because I had a long talk with Serena, who had some questions related to signing the contract for a collaboration with one brand. In short, we spend a lot of time solving it all. All this time, I was at the café and sitting at the table. But… At some moment, I left the café shortly and saw that Helene wasn’t near. At first, I thought she had just gone aside. But then… Then I turned aside and saw Sammy. He… He was wounded… He was bleeding and lying on the ground…”       At this moment, Jessica cries quietly, but Peter opens his eyes widely with the thought that his heart starts squeezing painfully at a very bad presentiment.       “Sammy was all alone… Helene wasn’t around… He was found by the strangers, who went by: the adult man and the old woman. They stopped the car and got out when they saw Sammy. I ran to them and tried to find out what happened. Oh… In short, as it turned out, they saw the moment when Helene was taken away by five men. And one of those deadbeats was the one who wounded Sammy with a knife.”       “No…” Peter pronounces in a shaking voice and shakes his head sharply. “No, it cannot be the truth…”       “Oh, my gosh, Helene…” Jessica closes her mouth with her hand with eyes that are wet from tears.       “That man and that old woman told me they saw those stinkers put Helene in the truck. She was unconscious. I dunno what they did to her – they only saw the end of what happened. The man wanted to meddle, but it was too late. They took Marshall with them and took her away, leaving Sammy to die. Those people gave me a detailed description of the five men. And remembering Peter’s stories, I can say she ran into the bastards, took him away one week ago. The old woman clearly remembered the one who had a bun on his head. And she noticed that those scums looked at my friend with hungry eyes.”       “Can’t believe it…” Jessica shakes her head. “Helene… She… She’s in trouble… Great trouble…”       “Fuck, I did feel that this calm predicted the storm,” Peter says in a low voice with a heavy breath. “I was sure that something would happen soon.”       “In short, those people decided to help me drive Sammy to the vet clinic. And now I am here. The doctors took Sammy to the operating room and told me to wait in the hall. So, I’m waiting for the news. I don’t know how long the surgery will last, but when I know something, I’ll contact you shortly. The doctors give no forecasts, but Sammy lost too much blood as we were on the way to the clinic, and he whined with pity all the time. Oh… So, that’s it… And yeah, I’m okay, if you’re wondering. I repeat, when the doctors tell me the news about Sammy, I’ll come back to you.”       The voice message from Raquelle ends. Jessica and Peter, who get sharply pale, say nothing for two seconds and just look at each other with horror in their widely open eyes, understanding how fast their hearts are beating.       “It can’t be the truth…” Peter pronounces in a shaking voice. “No… I don’t believe it… I don’t! Helene’s okay! She hasn’t been taken away!”       “My God, what’s gonna happen?” Jessica sniffs quietly. ‘What did those assholes come up with? Where do we find her? Where do we find Helene?”       “Ar-r-r, fucking Marcus Longbottom… I swear I shall bury him in the ground when I see him. I shall throw that old bastard against the wall if something happens to Helene. I SHALL NEVER FORGIVE HIM FOR THAT!”       “What do we do now? How do we save her?”       “I dunno, Jessica, I dunno…”       Peter sits powerlessly on the sofa and grabs his hair tightly with the fingers of both hands, breathing heavily enough due to the critical lack of air.       “She didn’t especially have any chances against five people. No chances.”       “And they wounded Sammy…” Jessica notices in a low voice, sitting next to Peter and embracing herself tightly. “Poor boy… What’s the hell happening?”       “Most likely, they’ll drive her to another place. Not the one where they drove me. Which means we can’t find her.”       “Maybe, those assholes drove her to Marcus’ home?”       “Don’t exclude it. But I don’t know where he’s living.”       “Most likely, she can’t escape the one you did. I’m sure that those men learned from all the mistakes and won’t let anything like this happen.”       “And Helene’s much weaker than all of them. She’s as bad at sports as Daniel.”       “My gosh, will they kill her?” Jessica asks with tears in her eyes. “She will die, yeah? We will never see her again?”       “No, no, it won’t happen.”       Peter hugs the crying Jessica tightly around the shoulders, breathing heavily enough and understanding that his hands are shaking, and every single muscle is cramping from tension.       “I won’t let it happen. No… If those bastards touch her with a finger, I shall destroy all of them. I shall show mercy to nobody. Especially that bastard, who felt her up to the fuck before throwing her in the river. Who’s dreaming of getting his fucking whistle in her.”       “I don’t wanna lose Helene. I don’t want them to kill her. My friends don’t deserve it.”       “That’s good at least Raquelle is okay… She was madly lucky not to run into those bastards.”       “Don’t even dare to wait. You must tell the police about the kidnapping immediately. And since you know Marcus is guilty of all of this, and he’s got a lot of sins, they’ll find him and question him quickly.”       “They won't dare to fuck the guys and me off and ask us to wait. They must start looking for Helene immediately. They must find that nasty asshole and get him arrested. How long is he going to avoid the punishment for all his dirty tricks? It’s time to restore justice!”       “Hey, do the guys know about Helene’s kidnapping?”       “Most likely, no…” Peter pronounces in a low voice and rubs his forehead. “Nobody’s online now.”       “Text Raquelle and ask her to tell you everything again. What if she missed something important in excitement. Her voice was so shaky.”       “And now Mrs. Marshall will have to know everything.” Peter exhales sharply. “She will no longer be aware.”       “My gosh, poor Mrs. Marshall…” Jessica shakes her head with widely open eyes. “My God… I’m afraid to imagine what’s gonna happen to her when she knows her granddaughter is in mortal danger.”       “Fuck, when will all of this end?”       Peter doubles over and runs his hands over his face and from the top of it to the nape of his neck.       “How long is he gonna be mocking us? When will that nasty bastard die, as well as all of his henchmen? WHEN WILL HE LEAVE ME ALONE? WHEN WILL HE STOP HARMING ME?”       “Quiet, quiet, Pete, calm down,” Jessica tries to calm down, holding Peter by the shoulders and caressing them softly. “Don’t scream, please…”       “Asshole…” Peter clenches his hands tightly into fists so that his knuckles are white. “He does know my weakness. He knows I’ll wanna die if something happens to Helene. He did this on purpose to drive me crazy.”       “We’ll find her, buddy. I don’t know where and how, but Helene won’t become the victim of those assholes.”       “How do we find her?” Peter explodes. “We don’t know where she is now! No clues! And the witnesses only confirmed the fact of the kidnapping.”       “Pete, my sweetie…”       “Why? Why? Why was it Helene? Why was it the girl I love? Why?”       “Quiet, quiet, friend, I’m here. It’s okay.”       With these words, Jessica takes Peter in a tight hug and caresses his head softly, while the man answers her and snuggles his nose in the shoulder of his friend, sniffing quietly as he starts shaking strongly with the thought that his heart is beating like crazy.       “If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself for that,” Peter says in a low, shaking voice. “Never. I… I will be hitting my head against the wall… I will be punishing myself in all possible ways.”       “No, Pete, please, don’t say it.”       “It’s disgusting… My own powerlessness is disgusting. The thought that I can do nothing. Nothing to save her. To act like a real man.”       “Early or late, we’ll have the opportunity to save her. We’ll get a hint at where we can find Helene. Those assholes will probably make at least one mistake.”       “I can’t live without her, Jess.” Peter sniffs again, while his red eyes get wet with tears. “Life without Helene doesn’t make sense to me.”       “I know, buddy, I know. Hold on, I’m begging you. Now you must be strong.”       “I can’t…”       “You have no choice if you wanna save Helene.”       “But I don’t know how!”       “Tears and hysterics can’t help Marshall and won’t make Marcus pity her.”       “I can’t…” Peter squeezes tightly Jessica’s home t-shirt with his fingers. “I’m weak… Without Helene, I can’t be strong and unbreakable. Without her, I’m a fucking coward. A fucking rag. A freak with tons of psychological issues that have ruined my whole life!”       “I’m here, Peter, here. Here, my sweetheart.”       Jessica caresses tenderly the head of the crying Peter and presses him as close to herself as possible, completely understanding that the man cannot hold down his emotions because of despair and powerlessness. She lets him express his unbearable pain and falls into silence at some moment, with the thought that words can hardly give him any kind of relief and make him brace himself. And the blond himself uses the chance to cry on his long-time friend’s shoulder, literally tearing her soul and heart apart with his sobs, and not even caring that men do not cry at all and keep everything inside. He feels too badly and is not able to stay strong and collected right now, when Helene is nobody knows where and may die at any time because of Marcus and his henchmen, who do not mind using the moment to satisfy all their needs, no matter if she wants it or not.       

***

      Daniel and Anna enjoyed the pastime together and walked in the city for two hours. Then they decided to go to eat at the small café where they met Terrence, who had nothing to do today but suffer from boredom. When the trio decides on which drinks and food they want to buy, the men sit at the table, and the girl stands in the queue at the cashier. The friends do not feel bored and have a discussion about what they recently learned about Marcus’ crimes.       “Marcus turned out to be a much worse asshole than we could imagine,” Terrence notices, sitting at the table in front of Daniel.       “Yeah, I was really overwhelmed when I read the article you sent,” Daniel confesses. “And I didn’t wanna believe these two Marcuses are the same person.”       “At least, Peter recognized him thanks to the sketch that we saw in the article.”       “Honestly, I shortly came up with the thought that it could be Marcus. But then I tried to make myself sure that I was wrong.”       “No, buddy, it’s the truth. Rose is chased by the one who killed more than one hundred people many years ago.”       “I clearly remember that fucking mess. My parents watched the reports about that bastard all the time, and I listened to that and memorized.”       Daniel clears his throat quickly.       “Some familiars of mine lost their close people because of him. Someone lost a brother, someone lost a sister… My father’s colleague’s two children were actually murdered: a girl and a boy.”       “There were so many murders that everyone had a familiar, who lost someone in that hell.”       “My mother almost became his victim one day.”       “Your mother?” Terrence opens his eyes widely.       “One day, she went to a small shop to buy food and was in the middle of the chaos. Marcus went there and just started to shoot at everyone and stab people with a knife. Everyone panicked, shouted, and started to run from side to side, and it made him much madder.”       “My gosh…”       “I don’t know what kind of miracle it was, but Mom managed to escape healthy and unharmed. She couldn’t come to herself and was too excited ‘til the end of the day. Father didn’t leave her alone and told her to stay home. He even went to buy everything by himself. He took a list from her and went to a shop after work.”       “Fuck, I don’t understand how they could let that bastard go! And he used it and was fucking insolent! He stopped being afraid of everyone! He went wherever he wanted and killed everyone!”       “They were probably afraid to become his victims. Marcus didn’t choose a victim by some special criteria – he killed anyone who was near him.”       “And it’s been more than twenty years, but he is still free and acts like nothing happened.”       “I am resentful, too,” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully. “That asshole must’ve been executed! For killing so many innocent people for some kind of fun. To satisfy his needs and get rid of his thirst for blood.”       “I didn’t know half of it. I had my eyes popped out after I read everything written in the article.”       “I know, they wrote some kind of horror. I’d say, that’s a completed script for a movie.”       “There could’ve been many more victims if someone hadn’t managed to run away.”       “After that case in the shop, Mother stopped leaving home at all. Father didn’t even have to insist. And she was afraid that Marcus was watching her through the window.”       “Yeah… I was also afraid to walk on the street when a little girl was taken away in a car right before my eyes in the daylight.”       “At some moment, I started to think someone was walking after me and watching me. But when I turned and looked around, there was nobody. I saw Marcus from afar a couple of times. I saw… Him committing another crime by getting a certain squeaking boy in the car by force.”       “Oh, that was a cruel time…”       “At that moment, I wanted to take my stuff and get out somewhere,” Daniel confesses. “Walking on the streets was fucking dangerous. Even in companies. Even with adults. That bastard didn’t show mercy to anyone.”       “Yeah, but he committed crimes in many cities,” Terrence notices. “Not just New York. Raquelle and Natalia said he went to Kingston, too.”       “Not just. They said he committed crimes in New Jersey, San Francisco, Miami… Philadelphia… It’s a part of the cities where he was.”       “In short, it was a real hell.”       “Yeah, poor Pete, he’s now in great danger.”       “As if he wanted to be held in captivity by the most horrible criminal of the past century.”       “You know, Terrence, although crimes stopped, I don’t believe Marcus really gave up on that,” Daniel says confidently. “He probably harms people nowadays. But not so thoughtlessly, not before everyone’s eyes. The police probably have some cases that bastard has to do with.”       “Agree, while Marcus is free, he will keep harming everyone.”       “Likely, while that bastard isn’t dead.”       “There’s a suspicion that he murdered his wife quietly. Everyone knows that she suddenly disappeared at some moment. And Marcus decided to move to another place.”       “Aha, he probably described it in all details in one of his diaries that the article talked about.”       “There were surely many more diaries. The police didn’t find everything ‘cause a bunch of the names are missing in them.”       “Fuck, a mental hospital needs a bastard like him. How hard did he hit his head if killing someone was even easier to him than going to the restroom?”       “And it’s not enough for him! He hasn’t killed enough innocent people! He wanna kill two tens!”       “I wonder if he wanna Rose for nothing, too? If it’s so, which criteria did he choose him for? What did that guy do to him?”       “No, he got mad at the blond for the reason. If Marcus wanted to kill him for nothing, Peter would already be dead. But for the time being, he just ordered his henchmen to terrify him.”       “But that’s what we think! What if the reason for these attacks is his goal of killing him? Or maybe he’d been on the hook of him before! Who the fuck knows!”       “I dunno, Daniel,” Terrence shakes his head. “But there’s a reason to all this bullshit.”       “I can’t even imagine what the blond did to him. Why he’s about to become a victim of one old bastard, who is fucking insane.”       “Not just him. Helene’s in danger, too. She was tried to be tried and chased by the henchmen of that bastard.”       “Well, it’s clear about her. Marcus just wanna give pain to Peter and drive him crazy. He knows the blond won’t take it if something happens to her.”       “Yeah, you’re right… If we lose Marshall, we’ll lose Rose. We won’t be able to help him.”       “Oh, fuck…”       While Daniel runs his hands over his face and from the top of his head to his forehead, Anna comes to the table, on which he is sitting with Terrence, as she carries a plate with three high plastic glasses and a couple of packs with bright pictures.       “What are ya talking about, guys?” Anna asks and sits down next to Daniel after she puts the plate on the table.       “About Marcus,” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully and takes one glass. “About what to expect from him.”       “And him being a freaking asshole,” Daniel adds, taking a glass, too.       “Do you think Peter is really chased by the one who killed hundreds of people?” Anna takes the third glass with a drink.       “The police made a sketch based on the witnesses’ words. And after reading the article, Peter confirmed personally that it was Marcus, who was much younger back then.”       “I remember my grandma on the father said she barely got away from Marcus when he started to chase her. It’s funny that she used her bag to beat that cad strongly.”       “Didn’t you run into him by chance?” Terrence asks.       “I did once. But I saw him from afar. I became a witness to Marcus hitting a teenager on the head and getting him into the car.”       “And he didn’t see you?” Daniel surprises.       “Nope, I rushed to run. That case scared me to death. Crimes used to happen in New York only. I naively thought he wouldn't go to Kingston. But I was overwhelmed when I saw a familiar man on the streets of my mother city.”       “I guess it wasn’t enough space for him in New York,” Terrence assumes thoughtfully and drinks a little from his glass. “He decided to expand the zone.”       “But when I told my family about it, they didn’t believe me initially. They said I was talking some kind of delirium. They assumed I had too much free time and came up with ideas of how to make me much busier. Even if I didn’t have almost a free minute back then.”       “That’s good all of this hell kinda ended after Cassidy’s birth,” Daniel notices and drinks some from his glass. “She heard about Marcus from TV shows only.”       “And the funny thing is that my family refused to apologize to me even when they ran into Marcus. When I told them I didn’t lie, they just hummed quietly and told me to read a book.”       “Do you mean they didn’t take care of you?” Terrence rounds his eyes. “Didn’t they care that Marcus could’ve killed you?”       “They accompanied me not because they were worried about my life, but because I could just walk for nothing and talk to stupid, as they thought, and non-educated people. I thought if Marcus caught me somewhere, nobody would even shed a tear. And they would think about how to make me much busier and not to let me think of my friends, parties, and fun, even at that moment.”       “I’m sure they were worried deep inside,” Daniel assumes with a slight smile. “We know they always had problems with expressing their emotions. Being cold was easier for them than letting all their emotions out.”       “I was mad and sometimes thought of running away from home on purpose.” Anna drinks some drink from her glass. “I felt hurt at the thought that they didn’t love me and used me as a trophy they praised to their friends and close people. While I loved them so much and wanted to know it was mutual.”       “They loved you, Anna,” Terrence assures. “They just couldn’t express it. I mean, they expressed it in the way you didn’t want them to do it.”       “I know. Now I ain’t mad, and I’m grateful to my family for everything they’ve done for me. Besides, Mom and Dad did recognize their mistakes and learned to express their emotions. They’re no longer cold and tough.”       “Better late than never, princess,” Daniel notices and rubs his finger against Anna’s cheek. “There are mistakes it’s never too late to fix.”       “Anyway, I’m madly lucky not to get caught by Marcus. Though speaking the truth, I saw him multiple times after that incident, but I remained invisible and escaped all the time. Being horrified by the way he knocked out his victims or wounded them with a knife.”       “Yeah, his crimes make my blood run cold…” Terrence exhales sharply.       “Not just this,” Anna shakes her head. “Everything he can do to Peter and Helene.”       “We know. And they won’t get away from him so easily.”       “Honestly, I’m worried that cad hasn’t let us know about anything for one week.” Anna drinks a little from her glass. “I’m afraid he’s planning something awful.”       “Maybe, nothing happens ‘cause Peter has been sitting at home literally this whole week?” Daniel assumes. “You and I visit him all the time.”       “Who knows… But this kind of calm won’t lead to anything good.”       “Yeah, but the problem is that we can do nothing to protect them,” Terrence throws his hands up. “We don’t know where and how he will want to deal with them. And even if we’re next to them for hours and days, it doesn’t mean it can solve the problem.”       “We may also suffer if we’re next to one of them. Marcus’s accomplices won’t pity you and Edward if you protect Peter. And they’ll do something horrible to Raquelle, Natalia, and me if they catch us next to Helene.”       “The most important thing is not to let them take anyone away as well as they did to Peter,” Daniel replies. “If it happens, we won’t be able to organize the search for sure.”       “One thing is clear – they’ll no longer drive anyone to the same place. I mean, nobody else will be in the place that Peter was lucky to escape from.”       “That’s what I mean! Who knows what would’ve happened if the blond hadn’t found a way out. And if Sammy hadn’t made him come back to the place where that asshole almost drowned Helene.”       “Hey, don’t you know when Mr. Johnson is back in the city?” Anna frowns slightly. “We should immediately tell him about the attempt to kidnap Peter and the dirty tricks of Marcus Longbottom!”       “Who the hell knows!” Terrence exclaims. “He didn’t call any dates.”       “But nothing stops us from sending him a message,” Daniel notices. “And he’ll read it in his free time and probably ask his colleagues to work on this case.”       “Right!” Anna clicks her fingers. “We can record a voice message and tell him everything we’ve found out.”       “Yeah, but when I sent him a message about us having a critical situation, he didn’t respond,” Terrence confesses.       “When did you text him?”       “Two days ago. In the evening. When Raquelle, Edward, Natalia, and I discovered more about Marcus.”       “Anyway, he’ll see everything and call us surely,” Daniel says confidently.       “Hey, Raquelle has familiars working in the police!” Anna exclaims. “Mr. Johnson’s colleague… Can’t remember his name, but he kinda helped me with getting the Potters arrested.”       “It must be Darwin… Darwin Austin.”       “Maybe, yes, Darwin.”       “Raquelle said he took a vacation due to the wedding and the birth of his child,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “He decided to distract himself from his work to spend time with his family.”       “What if we talk to the one who had a one-sided love for her? Well… The one who helped you get Simon Ringer arrested!”       “Hunter?” Terrence frowns slightly. “We could try. At least, he could try to find out something about Marcus. What if the police know more interesting things.”       “If Mr. Johnson isn’t back in the nearest time, we’ll have to ask that man for help,” Daniel says thoughtfully.       “There’s also a suggestion to find his second colleague, who also participated in the arrest of the Potters. Oliver, I guess… We could try to talk to him.”       “Let’s just record a voice message for Mr. Johnson, and then we will see it,” Anna suggests.       “Let’s record it right now!” Daniel adds. “No need to waste time!”       “Yeah, but it’s too noisy here,” Terrence notices, looking around quickly. “It would be too hard to focus.”       “Let’s take our drinks and food with us and record it in the car? Nobody would bother us there.”       “Yeah, guys, let’s get in the car,” Anna agrees. “Our drinks and food are paid. So, we can go.”       “Oh, wait for a sec, please. I’ll check out my phone quickly. I’ve been getting tons of notifications.”       With these words, Daniel takes his smartphone from the pocket of his denim waistcoat, unlocks it with a password, and starts examining everything he sees on the screen closely.       “Oh, I’ve been kinda popular today, too…” Terrence says with a slight smile, running his hand over his hair.       “So, boys, are ya receiving thousands of likes and comments from girls after you posted your half-naked photos?” Anna asks funnily, crossing her arms over her chest.       “My recent photo of me wearing swimming shorts has really received thousands of likes.”       “Aha, and the video of Edward and you playing a catch near the pool and squeaking like two pigs has received much more,” Daniel notices.       “I didn’t post that video! Raquelle recorded it and published it from my phone!”       “I got it, judging by Cameron and Rochester’s laugh behind the scenes,” Anna laughs shyly.       “C’mon, I don’t mind. Since people like watching me suffer because of my little, annoying brother, it’s okay – I’ll make them a little happy.”       “Oh, yay, suffer!” Daniel chuckles, typing his answer on the comment that he especially likes under one of his recent photos on the social networks. “Your brother and I do get pleasure from playing on each other’s nerves.”       “Right. Without that restless rutrag, my life wouldn’t be so bright. With just Raquelle, who doesn’t play on my nerves less.”       “Well, I’d bet who plays on someone's nerves,” Anna smiles mysteriously, leaning on the table with her elbows and on her hand with her chin. “Don’t add yourself to the list of holy and innocent people, my sweetheart.”       “I am very sweet and puffy,” Terrence shrugs. “And I answer back to those who dare to snap at the one who’s older.”       “Oh, shut up, Daddy!” Daniel exclaims. “You’re far from sweet and puffy!”       “Unlike someone.”       “Shut up, paleface.”       Anna chuckles quietly and takes a sip from her glass.       “Hey, tough guy, did ya start a long correspondence with someone?” Terrence asks. “Who are you sending messages to?”       “Just replying to some cool comments,” Daniel replies.       “Couldn’t you do this later? We actually wanted to record a voice message for Mr. Johnson!”       “Now, second! I’ll send it, and we’ll go!”       “Hey, red-haired cutie, see what your sweetheart is doing there! So, he doesn’t do anything bad!”       “I trust him,” Anna smiles sweetly, caressing Daniel’s shoulder. “And I’m not used to checking out his phone to find correspondences with some girls. Because I know he doesn’t have them.”       “You’re my only one, sweetheart,” Daniel replies with a wide smile. “And I don’t need anyone.”       Daniel kisses Anna tenderly on her cheek, and she puts her head on his shoulder with a blissful smile, while Terrence watches them with tender feelings.       “Wow, how many messages from Pete!” Daniel pronounces surprisingly when he sees the notifications about messages in the friends’ common chat.       “Did he miss ya?” Terrence laughs.       “Who knows! Maybe, he really did… Or maybe, something happened…”       “He texted in the common chat…” Anna notices thoughtfully, looking at the screen of Daniel’s phone. “Hm… Asking what it all means and wishing to know all the details… What’s he talking about?”       “We’ll know it now,” Daniel replies quietly.       Daniel scrolls down some recent messages that Peter sent. But at some moment, his wide smile disappears from his face sharply and changes to the true horror caused by the content.       “Guys…” Daniel pronounces hesitantly. “It seems like trouble happened.”       “What?” Terrence rounds his eyes. “Trouble? What trouble? What do ya mean?”       “Sammy… He’s wounded… He’s now at the vet clinic…”       “Sammy’s wounded?” Terrence and Anna ask at the same time.       “But how?” Anna wonders. “Who did this? Why? What happened?”       “It seems like he was stabbed with a knife and left to die,” Daniel announces.       “And Helene? Where was she at that moment?”       “Helene’s situation is much worse…”       “Worse?”       “She’s been taken away in an unknown direction.”       “What do ya mean she’s been taken away?” Terrence surprises.       “Wanna say Helene’s been kidnapped?” Anna gets sharply pale from horror.       “It seems like there are witnesses,” Daniel says thoughtfully, still examining the content of Peter’s messages. “The old woman and her son. They saw that Helene was put in the truck when she was unconscious.”       “Oh, no…” Anna closes her mouth with both hands.       “Something we were afraid of happened?” Terrence opens his eyes widely.       “Marcus’ people did it,” Daniel says and swallows nervously. “But there were five of them.”       “Five?”       “Helene wouldn’t have gotten away from them,” Anna shakes her head. “She didn’t get away from one man, but there was a freaking crowd.”       “And as I understand, they wounded Sammy?” Terrence specifies.       “Most likely,” Daniel nods.       “Okay, how does Peter know it? He was there? He saw Marshall being taken away?”       “I dunno… I don’t understand it yet…”       “No, no, it can’t be the truth,” Anna says in a low, shaking voice. “No… I don’t wanna believe it…”       “Damn, if it’s the truth, I don’t know where to find her,” Terrence grabs his hair with his fingers.       “Poor Peter…” Daniel shakes his head. “He’s probably going crazy there. Fretting and fuming…”       “And those assholes wounded Sammy…”       “No wonder he didn’t also get away from the crowd.”       “Wait, if he’s now at the vet clinic, who drove him there? Those strangers?”       “Most likely…”       “I wish he were okay…” Anna prays, putting her hand on her heart. “My God, I wish we got some good news.”       “Wait…” Terrence freezes sharply, opening his eyes widely with the thought that his heart is beating fast. “Raquelle… She was supposed to be with Helene.”       “What? Raquelle?”       “No, no, no,” Daniel shakes his head sharply. “Don’t you wanna say they’ve taken her away, too?”       “Raquelle wanted to spend some time with Helene. They agreed to meet somewhere in the city and then play with Sammy.”       “For God’s sake, Terrence, don’t say such terrible things,” Anna begs desperately. “I don’t even wanna hear about it. Don’t tell me both of my friends are in trouble.”       “But I wouldn’t be surprised. If the girls ran into those assholes, they wouldn’t be able to get away from them. I mean, they didn’t since we know Helene was knocked out and taken away.”       “Calm down, guys, nothing’s known yet,” Daniel tries to calm down. “We know nothing about Raquelle yet.”       “What’s unclear?” Terrence resents a little louder. “It’s clear that those bastards didn’t leave Cameron alone!”       “No, God, please, not this…” Anna begs with tears coming to her eyes. “I don’t want this… I don’t…”       “No panic, friends!” Daniel exclaims. “Raquelle’s okay. Nobody’s taken her away!”       “Okay?” Terrence asks hesitantly. “Are you sure?”       “Yes, as it turned out, she was the one to send a voice message to our common chat, and Peter asked her tons of questions.”       “And where’s now?” Anna specifies.       “As I understand, Raquelle’s now at the clinic, waiting for the news about Sammy. Those witnesses helped her drive the dog and give him first aid.”       “Oh, damn…” Terrence exhales sharply, running his hands over his pale face and breathing heavily enough. “Thank God… I was so scared…”       “But how did it happen?” Anna throws her hands up and sniffs quietly. “Where was Raquelle when Helene was taken away, and Sammy was wounded? Did she fight with her and leave? Just like Daniel did on the day Peter and Marcus met for the first time!”       “Alright, let’s come to my car, get in it, and listen to the voice message from Raquelle,” Terrence suggests.       “Yeah, you’re right,” Daniel agrees. “We can’t hear anything here. Let’s go now!”       Not wasting time, Daniel, Anna, and Terrence take the glasses with the drinks they have not drunk yet and open packs of sweet food, rush to leave the café, and come quickly to the parking lot where MacClife, Sr.’s car is parked. When the owner of it unlocks the door with the key, the three people get into the salon and close the doors. Daniel starts playing the voice message from Raquelle and turns the volume up to hear everything she says clearly, getting more horrified every second, as well as Anna and Terrence. And when the message ends, the three people looking pale and breathing heavily look at each other with widely open eyes.       “Alright, at least one good piece of news – Raquelle is okay,” Terrence exhales sharply.       “So, what do we do now?” Anna asks in a shaking voice, looking at Terrence sitting in the driver’s seat or Daniel sitting on the passenger’s seat with her wet eyes. “How do we save Helene?”       “I have no little ideas…” Daniel runs his hands through his hair, leaning on the door of the car with his elbow.       “The witnesses only confirmed the kidnapping of Marshall by Marcus’ people,” Terrence notices. “No more.”       “Does it turn out that we’ll only have to sit and wait?” Anna asks in a low, shaking voice. “Wait for that asshole to want to give us some claims in exchange for her freedom?”       “I don’t think he’s actually gonna set her free,” Daniel assumes. “Marcus didn’t organize Helene’s kidnapping for a ransom or something like that. He just wanna get rid of her quickly.”       “Bastard!” Terrence swears gloomily. “He didn’t do this to Peter, but he decided to do it to Helene.”       “She won’t escape the way he did,” Anna shakes her head. “Helene’s doomed. She’ll die. We won’t find her.”       “Quiet, quiet, Anna, don’t cry,” Daniel pronounces softly, caressing Anna’s head, while she snuggles her nose in the passenger seat and cries quietly. “It’s gonna be okay. Nobody will die.”       “She will! We won’t find her!”       “No, no, we won’t let it happen,” Terrence promises, squeezing the steering wheel tightly. “We’ll find Helene and save her. Nobody’s gonna leave her.”       “How?” Anna wonders loudly. “We don’t have even a little clue!”       “Fuck, fucking Marcus!” Daniel throws gloomily and hits his hand against the dashboard. “I wish that bastard were cursed!”       “I wish he actually died!” Terrence exclaims. “Killing hundreds of people wasn’t enough for him. He decided to kill two more people!”       “What’s Helene’s fault for him?” Anna makes a quiet sob. “What did she do to that man?”       “That asshole is gonna use Marshall to manipulate Rose. Make him dance attendance upon him.”       “And he got many more reasons for provocations,” Daniel adds. “He’ll easily let those stinkers do anything they want to her. Starting with terrifying her and ending with attempts to rape her and torture her cruelly.”       “No, no, please, don’t say it,” Anna shakes her head with tears in her eyes. “I wanna hear nothing about it.”       “It’s the truth, though,” Terrence sighs tiredly. “Helene’s in their hands. And we can’t protect her anymore. And she won’t be able to deal with that crowd by herself.”       “Helene didn’t deserve it. She’s a good girl. She’s guilty of nothing. Nothing.”       Closing her face with both hands and doubling over, Anna starts holding down the tears with a shake in her whole body. Daniel seats immediately from the passenger’s seat to the backseat and takes the girl in his tight hug, while she puts her hand on his back and squeezes his t-shirt as she snuggles her nose in his chest.       “Quiet, quiet, my girl, quiet, I’m here,” Daniel tries to calm down, caressing Anna’s head softly. “It’s gonna be okay. I promise.”       “We’ve gotta come together and decide what to do,” Terrence says quietly. “And finally send a voice message to Mr. Johnson.”       “And support Peter,” Daniel adds. “I’m even afraid to imagine what he feels now.”       “Yeah… Especially now, when he can do nothing.”       “If something happens to Helene, he won't take it. This time, we’ll hardly be able to make his life better.”       “Moreover, he’s still far from being okay. His old scars let him know about themselves again and again.”       “We must find Helene before those scums wanna kill her,” Anna says in a low voice and sniffs, feeling how strongly she shakes and pressing herself tightly to Daniel. “I don’t know, though…”       “Right, we must not let her death happen. Otherwise, we’ll lose Peter, surely. We won’t pull him out of the hole for the second time.”       “And he won’t want to get out,” Daniel adds with anxiety.       “Alright, guys,” Terrence raises his head, exhaling sharply. “So, we’ll be waiting for the news from Raquelle, then we’ll come together and talk about what to do.”       “And I’m afraid that Mrs. Marshall will have to know the truth Helene was hiding from her so hard,” Anna expresses anxiety and wipes tears under her eyes. “We can’t be silent after she’s been kidnapped by Marcus’ people.”       ‘Sadly,” Daniel sighs quietly. “She’s gonna have questions if Helene doesn’t come back home in time and answer her calls.”       “That woman would know it all early or late,” Terrence notices. “Since Helene wanted to tell her nothing, we’re gonna complete this mission.”       “She’s gonna be struck if she knows about the kidnapping,” Anna says quietly.       “Yeah, but we can’t be silent anymore!”       “Moreover, if Raquelle drives the wounded Sammy to her home,” Daniel adds.       “My heart breaks when I think we’ll have to do this,” Anna confesses.       “Alright, guys, let’s follow the plan I came up with, and then we’ll see it,” Terrence says confidently, taking his smartphone from the pocket of his short denim pants.”       “By the way, as far as I understand, Edward and Natalia know nothing yet,” Daniel notices. “I didn’t see any messages from them in the chat. Pete was the only one to do it.”       “Natalia hasn’t been online since the morning,” Anna says when she takes her phone from her bag and checks something. “Her last visit was at 10:22.”       “Edward hasn’t been online since 11 o’clock,” Terrence says, running his finger over the phone screen.       “How do we reach them since they’re hanging around somewhere?” Daniel throws his hands up.       “I wish nothing had happened to them,” Anna expresses anxiety. “What if Marcus and his accomplices deal with them.”       “I don’t think he cares about us now. His main goal now is Helene and Peter.”       “Edward is supposedly spending time with Natalia.”       “Most likely. They got so busy with each other and turned off their phones to hell.”       “One hundred percent!” Terrence exclaims.       “Hey, MacClife, haven’t you talked to your brother today?” Daniel asks.       “Nope, today I haven’t seen or heard him. But yesterday, we texted some messages. Laughed at one funny video.”       “Anyway, they’ll surely see all the messages,” Anna assumes. “Maybe, later, but they will see.”       “It would be great if it happened before Raquelle coming back to us with the news about Sammy,” Daniel replies thoughtfully.       “Damn, where’s that little rutrag hanging around?” Terrence resents, still checking out something on his phone. “And this golden-haired beauty is walking somewhere.”       “I ain’t sure if I can do this, but I’ll try to call her now,” Anna says confidently and starts typing the number with shaking hands, sniffing at times, and wiping tears under her red eyes. “Maybe, I’m lucky to have her answer.”       “I’m gonna annoy this little rag with calls. And when he shows up, I will kick his ass. For nothing. Because he hasn’t had his ass kicked yet.”       “Okay, I’ll call Pete then,” Daniel says, while the head of Anna sobbing quietly still rests on his shoulder. “I’ll try to comfort him. Or maybe, he’ll tell us something important.”       But Daniel spends some time before he manages to contact Peter and get the confirmation that Helene has really gotten in trouble. Meanwhile, Anna and Terrence cannot reach Edward and Natalia, who are kind of swallowed by the ground and do not even think of responding to anyone’s calls. Nevertheless, after a couple of attempts, the friends decide to give up and try to call them later. And while they are waiting for the news from Raquelle, they record a voice message for Victor Johnson and send it with the hope that he will listen to it and take some measures to save Helene from what is threatening her right now.       

***

      Actually, Natalia and Edward are alright. Very, very alright. Suspecting nothing, the lovers are spending time at the home of the man, who has already accepted the fact that he will not manage to finish the repair by the time he is married. Nobody can reach them because both of them turned their phones off to spend some time together, distracting themselves with nothing and forgetting about everything in the world. And no, Edward and Natalia are not just talking sweetly, eating something delicious, lying on the soft sofa, and watching a movie on the big TV that was recently brought and hung on the wall.       The soon-to-be spouses are now in the bedroom, which is probably the only place in the house where the repair has been completed. The light, warm wind gets through the open window into the room where it’s very, very hot now. To be clear, the lovers think so as their naked bodies spread the burning heat, and their lips connect in a tender, continuous kiss, their fingers create a mess in the hair, and their hands slide slowly but confidently over their necks, shoulders, and arms. Nobody is in a rush. Both of them enjoy every moment, give their soul and heart to everything they do, and make sure both of them feel comfortable.       One warm hand of Edward is holding Natalia’s cheek tenderly, and another hand is caressing his sweetheart’s perfectly straight back, letting him enjoy the touches to the lady’s smooth skin, while he breathes in her attractive smell that clouds his mind. The girl’s fingers squeeze and pull slightly his black, thick hair, her hands caress his wide shoulders and tough biceps, and she presses herself closely to his naked torso, bending her back backward and sticking out her buttocks. A couple of imponderable kisses on the curve of her neck, the tender caress of her ears, and the area behind them make her unconsciously make a quiet, sensual moan and run her fingertips over the wide chest and the muscles of his stomach that are as tough as stone.       At some moment, Natalia steps back a little and sets her bedroom, piercing eyes into the eyes of Edward, whose heavy, hot breath burns her skin, while their faces are prohibitively close to one another, and their hearts are beating at maximum capacity. The man’s hands caress the girl’s face tenderly, while he looks fixedly at her soft and sweet lips that shake from impatience and kisses them again with a stronger pleasure, running his fingers through her loose, little wavy hair. Just like a skillful seducer, he feels when he can act like a hungry animal, but when to do everything very tenderly and slowly, even if it’s madly hard for him to resist the absolutely naked blonde-haired beauty, with whom he is now sitting on the wide bed with an incredibly soft mattress, in which they literally drown.       Natalia stretches herself out sweetly when Edward lies her slowly on the bed, raises himself above her on his arms, and gives her a much more sensual and exciting kiss on the lips. She tenses slightly the muscles of her stomach, squeezes the white sheet with her fingers, and leans on the soft pillow with the back of her head when the man’s lips start making a slow way over the curve of her neck, and his fingers squeeze and caress her big breasts very tenderly since they catch the attention again and again. Breathing quietly is now impossible, dizziness gets stronger from the all-embracing ecstasy, and sensual moans get out by themselves. The female body is as sensitive as never ever and reacts wildly to any action of the man, whose lips slide down to her collarbones and stay on her breasts and nipples for some time, while his hands caress the curves of her slim waist, her flat belly, and her thighs that she tenses unconsciously.       When Edward’s lips reach her belly, which he also caresses with his hands and covers with short kisses, Natalia’s sighs get much louder and more impatient. It lets him know that she is literally dying of the feelings that tear her apart and make her fall deeper and deeper into the hole of eternal pleasure. Her body aches from the sweet, tormenting tension when the man’s hands end up on the inside of her thighs and his lips leave a few tender kisses on them. When he covers with kisses the beauty’s long, slim legs, while she is breathing heavily with closed eyes and bending backward like a cat, along with the music that gets out of her fiancé’s fingers.       Later, Edward barely touches Natalia’s soft lips with his, heating her quiet, shaking sigh. Then he steps back a little and smiles tenderly as he enjoys the beauty of her blue-sky eyes with dilated pupils, seeing her frantic desire for something more and true admiration with her beloved man. And he sees how flawlessly she reacts when he brings his lips to her tender lips with a heavy breath for a much assertive, weakening kiss, understanding that a shake gets into every cell of his body as he presses his naked chest to her big breasts. The girl’s warm hands caress the man’s face with all the love and ruffle the hair on his head, and apply pressure when he runs his hands slowly over the curves of the lady’s waist or squeezes her tough thighs with his fingers. A sensual moan gets out of the mouth of the beauty when the tip of his tongue runs slowly over her lips, then gets into her mouth, and slides over her palate and around her tongue. She does all the same things when she raises herself at her elbows, puts one arm around the man’s neck, and sinks her nails into the nape of his neck, and then scratches his wide shoulders with them.       Edward’s fingers squeeze tightly and pull Natalia’s hair on the top of her head when he covers her whole neck generously with exciting kisses and caresses it with his lips and the tip of his tongue, biting the most sensitive areas with his teeth tenderly and running his hands chaotically over her naked back up and down. The girl presses herself as closely to the male torso spreading the burning heat with a sense of intolerant tension, puts her arms around his neck, and snuggles her nose in his shoulder, feeling a little dizzy every time she breathes in the attractive smell of the skin of her beloved man.       At some moment, Natalia leans her head back with a sensual moan when Edward’s fingers squeeze her breasts like a boss, and when his lips suck tenderly her nipples that are as tough as a stone. In passion, she bites the thinnest area on the curve of his neck, then caresses it with her lips, and kisses it two times, feeling that he shakes and making him make a quiet moan by caressing the area behind his ear with her half-open mouth and the tip of her tongue. After looking into each other’s eyes with a heavy breath, the lovers let their lips connect for a slow kiss that makes their hearts stop briefly multiple times, while they moan quietly and forget everything in the world. Every touch of the heated fingers to the naked skin wakes up a powerful electric wave and kills the rest of the shyness that made them hold down this dangerously burning wave somehow.       While he runs his half-open lips over her auricle and the area behind her ear, squeezes her earlobe tenderly, and sucks it, Natalia rubs his tough chest with her hand and scratches slightly his back with the nails of her second hand, feeling every single muscle on it. After leaving a short kiss somewhere under his chin and letting her tongue slide over the area near his Adam’s apple, she slides down to his collarbones, runs her lips over his shoulders, and pinches his tough arms and strong biceps with quiet, sensual moans as she goes crazy from it. When she lies the man softly on the bed, the girl runs both hands over his chest, covers it generously with exciting kisses, sucks tenderly his tough nipples, and caresses them with her tongue. That’s what brings her fiancé to ecstasy and makes him breathe unevenly and moan quietly, while he runs his hands over the curve of her slim waist or squeezes her tough buttocks tightly. The blonde’s eyes full of admiration slide over the whole male body that makes her breathe heavily, feel dizzy, and understand that her heart stops every time she touches it.       Natalia does not forget about Edward’s stomach, which she covers generously with short kisses and caresses with her lips and hands, letting him know that she goes crazy for him and wants him to take her as soon as possible. The girl pretends that she wants to get much downer after she touches the area that is two centimeters away from her fiancé's groin with her lips, feeling that her fiancé is looking forward to this so badly. But instead, she just runs her fingers around his navel and brings her lips confidently to his lips for a sexual kiss, running her tongue over his teeth and palate at some moment and around the tongue of her beloved sweetheart. The man’s hands press the blonde-haired beauty passionately, with pressure, as close to his naked torso, letting her feel how the tough genitals get into her abdomen, and she rubs against it at times.       And when she gives him a couple of tender kisses on the lips, Edward lies Natalia on the bed with one easy movement, raises himself above her, and makes her bend backward like a cat with exciting kisses that he leaves on her whole neck. Every time she makes a sensual moan, he kisses her with a stronger pressure, grabbing her softly by the wrists and pressing them to the bed. This sweet, intolerably tormenting torture continues as he squeezes her breasts intensively with both hands and caresses them from all sides, along with her illegible whispers. He sucks tenderly and licks her tough nipples that do ask for attention so badly. He runs his hands slowly and smoothly over her flat belly, lets his fingertips slide around her navel, and plays with the silver jewelry in it with his tongue. Then he adds some fuel to the fire and watches the way she bends her back backward strongly with sensual moans when his fingers slide over her crotch, touch her tough clitoris tenderly, and rub it slightly, noticing silently how wet it is between her legs and inside her and smiling smugly at the thought that he is doing everything right.       But Edward does not stay in it for too long and brings it smoothly to Natalia, bending above her, looking into her eyes with admiration and feeling that her hot breath burns his little red skin when he leans on her forehead with his forehead.       “Are you ready?” Edward asks in a quiet, low, hoarse voice.       “Yeah…” Natalia pronounces with the heat as she nods confidently. “I want you… Now…”       Feeling that his heart trembles nicely in his chest, Edward smiling widely touches Natalia’s lips sweetly with his lips, while she runs one hand over his ruffled hair and caresses his cheek with another. He does not realize how he squeezes both of her lips tenderly and initiates a sweet, deep, freaking sensual kiss, which she answers to powerlessly. She runs her hands slowly over the man’s tough back, shakes slightly at the touch to his strong biceps, and makes him shake when her fingers squeeze tightly her sweetheart’s buttocks. Long, tender kisses on her neck relax her and make her fall out of reality and think they are the only people living in this world. And the parallel caress of her breast brings her to the top of the world and makes her tormenting tension somewhere in her abdomen much stronger.       After giving herself to the intolerable temptation, Natalia does not realize how easily Edward makes just one movement to get into her most personal zone, breaking the barrier that prevented them from a passionately desired pleasure. That’s why the girl makes a deafeaning moan and sinks her fingers into the man’s back, dying of impatience caused by his very tender and smooth movements that make every single muscle shake in the pain that is nice to some extent. The madness that is getting stronger every second, letting both of them know that there is no way back.       Edward’s dark, passionate side possesses him more and more and makes him much more determined, and turns him into a hungry animal, enjoying the way Natalia bends under the weight of his body and pleases his ear with her painful moans full of frantic pleasure. And when they start to sound like she is about to scream, the man shuts her up with an exciting kiss that makes both of them feel dizzy as he tries so hard to break the wall with powerful pushes because it still prevents him from reaching the desired final destination. However, the girl agrees to help her sweetheart with it, getting closer to him not less determinedly and pressing him to herself as closely as possible as if he is the source of oxygen. Now, when their sexual tension is at the peak, the whole body is super sensitive to any actions of the one who owns it at the moment.       At some moment, their bedroom eyes meet and stare fixedly at every single feature of each other’s red faces. They are full of a bright gloss and a wild desire. A loud and heavy breath burns the skin as well as any touch of their hot hands or soft lips. Their head goes around due to the crushing tsunami of unforgettable emotions, blood is boiling in the veins, and tormenting pain does not feel so strong due to the mind that is clouded by the eternal pleasure. Edward’s tender hands caress Natalia’s cheek, and his fingers get through her blonde hair thrown on different sides. They slide smoothly over the front of her neck, which she shows to him, leaning her head back so he covers it with different kisses, leaves wet paths, bites some especially sensitive areas with his teeth, and sucks them tenderly. While the hands of the girl herself caress his naked torso, every single muscle of which is tensed painfully, and the curves of his waist, her fingers squeeze the man’s buttocks like a boss, and her nails leave bright red scratches on his back or sink tightly into the nape of his neck.       Every time they try to break the invisible barrier, the lovers lack the air more and more, and every single muscle cramps from the electric waves that get stronger. As she makes screams that are close to moans, Natalia kisses Edward greedily on the lips, which she bites painfully in passion, holding his face tightly in her hands and putting one leg around the man’s waist at some moment, while he grabs her thigh and presses her much closer to himself with just one movement. He forgets what shyness and insecurity are. It’s like someone different wakes up inside him at this intimate moment. A wild animal. A tiger that cannot be stopped by anything when it needs to reach a goal. However, she also turns out not to be shy and openly shows her feelings, which she is now obsessed with. If she wants, she bends backward like a cat. If she wants, she moans loudly. If she wants, she screams and begs to give her much more or to do something nice shortly.       “Please, Edward…” Natalia makes a sensual moan. “Please…”       “Quiet, baby, quiet…” Edward says in a hoarse voice with a sly smile, runs his lips over the area behind Natalia’s ear, in which he wants to whisper something, knowing that its echo is going to make her heart tremble. “Relax, Natalia… Enjoy what I can give you.”       “Again… Again… Please…”       The heart misses a beat, and a deafeaning moan gets out by itself when Edward brings his lips to Natalia’s lips and runs his tongue around her tongue and then gets much deeper into her territory since he is the only one to be able to enter it. At some moment, he slows down and then stops, delaying such a desired culmination on purpose and getting pleasure from watching his fiancée, whose eyes express a plea of moving on and a categorical refusal to end all of this when they are so close to the finish.       “Don’t stop…” Natalia whines in a whisper. “Please… Again… Again! Again! Please…”       “Are ya sure you’re ready for the sweetest thing?” Edward whispers in Natalia’s lips with a sly smile and bites the bottom one slightly. “I’m close to the edge already…”       “Please, my lion…”       “Ready to scream at the top of your lungs?”       “Yea-a-h-h-h…”       “Sure?’       “Ar-r-r-r, don’t irritate me, MacClife!” Natalia grabs Edward tightly by the hair and pulls it strongly. “Fuck me, after all, before I do this by myself!”       “Okay, dolly, I got it.”       Squeezing her breasts tightly with his hand and caressing the lady’s tough nipples, Edward covers Natalia’s neck generously with long-lasting kisses. The girl rolls her eyes from the dizziness that gets obsessed with her, starting to make back and forth movements unconsciously with her thighs as if she rushes to run toward him with screams full of enjoyment. Toward the all-embracing ecstasy that makes her lose consciousness for a moment. She makes a long-lasting moan when his teeth bite slightly and sink into the tender skin on her neck, which he caresses with the tip of his tongue. With the feeling that her heart is about to make a way out of her chest.       After one more furious kiss on the lips, Edward keeps reaching the finish line quickly and determinedly with the thought that he needs a little before he finally climbs the mountain. Shaking from strong, tormenting feelings and feeling as vulnerable as never ever, Natalia sinks her teeth into the skin on the curve of the man’s neck in passion, putting her arms around his waist and pressing him close to herself with a wish to never let him go. But when both of them understand that they are close to the edge, they bring the case to an end, staring fixedly into each other’s eyes and choking from a lack of air. One, two, or some moments later, Edward leans on Natalia’s forehead with his forehead with a deafeaning growl when he starts to understand that the wave of the burning heat gets into every single cell of her body, and her muscles shake in sweet seizures. She moans right into his mouth with a heavy breath loudly and blissfully, bending with no control in the strong and hot arms of the man, who also starts strongly. It’s like he released what was locked somewhere deep inside for a long time with a low, long-lasting moan, getting the feeling of total relief and bliss.       The lovers breathe super heavily with a sense of slight dizziness for a few seconds as they look into each other’s eyes with a bedroom glance. At some moment, a blissful smile shows up on their faces when they step away with a slow exhalation. Edward grabs tenderly Natalia’s blushed cheeks and gives her a super tender kiss, which she answers with passion, putting one arm around his neck and running the fingers of her second hand through her fiancé’s ruffled, matted hair. The man’s hands caress her fragile shoulders and slide over the whole back and the curves of her waist, giving the girl breathing heavily with love and caress. At some moment, he steps away from her slowly after he cannot escape the temptation to leave a short kiss on the area behind the ear of his fiancée, who closes her eyes with a sense of slight dizziness and a pulsation in her abdomen.       “Hey, are you alive?” Edward asks in a low voice with a heavy breath.       “Nope, I died…” Natalia makes a long-lasting moan. “Of pleasure…”       “I died with you, then.”       Edward brings his lips to Natalia’s lips for another kiss, during which she sits up slowly and takes the initiative, running her tongue over his palate and around his tongue with a sensual moan. While the man puts his hands on her breasts, clenching and unclenching them, and rubbing the lady’s tough nipples with his thumbs. Then the girl puts her arms around his waist with closed eyes and presses herself as closely to the male's hot torso as possible with her chest. He answers these hugs hotly, caressing his fiancée breathing like an exhausted animal on the head and running his fingers through her long, matted hair. He can clearly feel the blonde’s heart beating a crazy rhythm against her chest, and she sometimes moans quietly as she snuggles her nose in the curve of his neck. And when she puts her hand on her fiancé’s chest, Natalia can feel his uneven heartbeat, too.       “I love you…” Natalia whispers tenderly.       “I love you so much, too,” Edward pronounces in a quiet, low voice and kisses Natalia sweetly on the top of her head. “My little girl…”       “You’ve been just imitable today, my tiger. I feel as good as I never felt before.”       “Just like you. This time, you’ve released the wild cat living inside ya and gave it total freedom.”       “Can’t resist when you kiss and caress me.”       Edward smiles blissfully with closed eyes because Natalia succumbs to the temptation to leave a couple of tender kisses on the curve of his neck and bite the skin on it slightly. And when she steps away a little, the man lies powerless on the bed and puts his arm under his head, sticking out proudly his chest that rises and falls often enough. While the girl blushes from excitement and looks at his naked torso with admiration.       “Gosh, it’s so good…” Natalia pronounces blissfully, straightening her back, spreading her shoulders, leaning her head back, and ruffling her hair slightly, while Edward watches every curve of her gorgeous body like charmed. “I love moments when we don't rush and can just relax…”       After Natalia lies next to Edward, she stretches herself up sweetly and lies silently in an absolutely relaxed condition for two or three seconds. But then the girl moves closer to the man and lies under his arm comfortably, putting her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest, while he presses her closely to himself and runs his fingers through her soft golden hair.       “You’re right,” Edward says after a long silence. “The feeling when you can slow down is really awesome.”       “Nobody prevented us from bringing this case to an end for the first time in a while,” Natalia notices funnily. “Someone stops us all the time: the men are boring, the girls wanna ask something, the adults don’t let us have fun.”       “Nobody annoys us ‘cause we turned off our phones. And we’re at the house that’s about to become our own place.”       “It was the decision I don’t regret at all.” Natalia starts drawing some figures on Edward’s chest with her finger, which she also runs around his nipple, which she touches tenderly with her fingertip. “The whole world can wait when I wanna give lots of attention to my beloved man.”       “That’s right! We can’t think about our problems all the time. I personally wanna turn off my head for a while and just let myself relax.”       “And I’m happy to help with this.”       “Think you’ve already done it. You gave me tons of unforgettable pleasure and helped me get rid of tension.”       “If I can do something else for you, just let me know.”       Natalia grabs Edward’s face tenderly and leaves a few short kisses on his lips, burning his skin with her hot breath and making his heart tremble nicely.       “Just be with me,” Edward says in a quiet, low voice and caresses Natalia’s cheek. “Give me a chance to look at your face. And feel your pretense.”       “As you wish, my lord,” Natalia pronounces obediently. “As you wish…”       Natalia leaves a couple of kisses on Edward’s lips and caresses them with tender, weightless touches, hearing his heavy breath clearly. And when she puts her hand on the man’s chest, she feels how fast his heart is beating.       “It beats so fast for you, my lady,” Edward says with the feeling that every beat of the heart echoes in his temples. “And just for you.”       “Just like mine beats for you,” Natalia replies, taking Edward’s hand, putting it on her chest, and putting her hand on it so he can feel her heartbeat.       At first, Edward smiles widely, looking into Natalia’s eyes with admiration. But then he turns onto his side lazily and takes the girl in his tight embrace, not being able to resist his desire to leave a few kisses on the curve of her neck and run his half-open mouth over it. Also, he runs them slowly over the lady’s naked breasts and squeezes this part of the body with his fingers, along with her quiet, sexual moan.       “Natalia, my gorgeous Natalia…” Edward pronounces with admiration and moves a thin strand of hair off her eyes nicely. “Beautiful… My treasure…”       “Junto ati, me siento como una reina” Natalia smiles shyly, caressing Edward’s cheek and running her fingers through his hair. “Tú eresmi.”       “Para siempre, mi diosa hermosa. Hasta la muerte.”       Natalia caresses Edward’s hand that is stroking her head. In reply, he takes the girl’s hand, glances at her elongated nails covered with light glossy nail polish, and tenderly touches the inside of it with his lips, making his fiancée feel that her heart misses a beat. At some moment, the blond lies over her sweetheart and rubs her nose against his nose with a playful laugh, while he succumbs to her playful mood, squeezing her buttocks with one hand and holding her by the curves of her waist with his second hand.       “Maybe, do it again?” Natalia speaks into Edward’s lips in a low, seducing voice with a mysterious smile and pulls them tenderly. “So to say, I invite you to do an encore.”       “Seriously?” Edward surprises with a slight blush on his face. “Repeat?”       “Let’s start a second round and finish it together again?” Natalia leaves a smooth, long-lasting kiss on the area behind Edward’s ear and runs her half-open lips over it. “I want you again. So badly. I can’t get enough of you.”       “Aren’t you tired?”       “Not at all. With you, I’m ready to do this again and again.”       Natalia runs her tongue into Edward’s mouth with a low, sexual moan and lets it slide slowly over his tongue clockwise, making him feel a one-second cardiac arrest.       “Can't help myself get rid of such a strong affection for the man with such a gorgeous body,” Natalia adds and pulls slightly on Edward’s bottom lip, rubbing the bottom of her body against the man’s groin slowly but intensely. “Especially when he’s absolutely naked… At my mercy…”       “What if our second time isn’t as epic as the first one?” Edward asks in a low, hoarse voice.       “You can do this, Edward, I know it. There’s nothing you can’t do.”       Natalia covers Edward’s neck with short but assertive kisses, breathing in the smell of it.       “Well, if you want it so badly, you can leave it to me so I can bring you to total insanity,” Natalia suggests, sitting over Edward and running her hand smoothly over his naked torso from his chest to his abdomen. “That you will hardly handle…”       At this moment, Edward swallows loudly and nervously and tenses all his muscles painfully because Natalia’s fingers tickle tenderly the area under his navel.       “Of course, this suggestion is super seducing…” Edward notices with a heavy breath and hiccups quietly. “Oh, sorry…”       “Well, if you’re tired, we can just go to the shower and make our pleasure a little longer,” Natalia comes up with the idea. “I can help you wash your back and head… And maybe give you a little massage… Warm up every single muscle that drives me insane.”       “M-m-m-m, I like it…”       Edward sits up, and Natalia installs herself between his legs and brings her face very close to his.       “I can’t wash my back by myself. I need the tender hands of my stunning beauty. And her sweet lips… Everywhere… On every part of my body…”       “I agree to anything to make you feel good.”       Moaning quietly all together, Edward and Natalia let their lips connect for a continuous kiss, while their hands slide freely over the whole body that is now as vulnerable and sensitive to any actions as never ever when it’s naked. The girl puts her legs around the man’s waist and rolls her eyes when his lips caress the front of her neck and cover the curves of it with wet kisses, and sweet moans get out of her mouth by themselves.       “Your pleasure is more important to me,” Edward says confidently.       “If you feel good, I feel good, too,” Natalia purrs, steps away from Edward, lies down, and stretches herself out, sticking out her breasts proudly and sucking in her belly, while he looks at her whole body with eyes full of admiration.       “M-m-m, my sweet girl…”       Edward caresses Natalia’s belly tenderly with his warm hand and plays a little with the jewelry in her navel, being silently resentful that he suddenly started to hiccup.       “You don’t resist…” Edward runs his fingertips over Natalia’s pubis and around her labia, feeling how strongly she squeezes her thighs. “You wanna go to my bed… Scream, beg me to make her feel good… You act like a hungry tiger.”       “I see nothing bad with it…”       Natalia turns lazily onto her side and stretches herself like a gracious cat, looking at Edward languidly.       “I have sex with my soon-to-be husband. I want, and I will do this. Besides, I love lying absolutely naked in front of him so badly. I love catching his eating eyes on me. And I love my body. It’s beautiful. Hot. Sexy. And craves love from my beloved man.”       “Ar-r-r,” Edward smiles smugly and runs his hand over Natalia’s thigh. “I was sure you’d make me lose my head if you really wanted for the reason.”       “And I always say you smell like a man. A real sexual man. With whom I feel like I’m behind a stoned wall.”       “I am, babe,” Edward pronounces proudly and runs the back of his hand over Natalia’s cheek.       “You know, sweetie, I got one little wish,” Natalia smiles shyly as she blinks her eyes innocently. “Just one.”       “Anything for my girl.”       “I dunno what about you, but I'm hungry… I wanna eat something delicious.”       “Aw, sweetie…” Edward gets tender feelings and hiccups with his mouth closed. “Ugh, what the hell!”       “So, if you agree to a second round, you’ll have to give me some chocolate that you keep in your secret box.”       “Sorry, sweetheart, but there’s no food here, sadly.” Edward hiccups quietly and chuckles kindly. “But I can offer you a glass of water from the faucet.”       “It’s okay. I need just a little. Before I’m ready to give myself to your hands. To be at your mercy.”       “But…” Edward smiles mysteriously, putting his hand on Natalia’s belly. “We can have a mild overeating marathon and order a lot of food. A delivery guy can bring everything here in half an hour or one hour.”       “M-m-m, you’re reading my mind,” Natalia purrs, turning slowly on her stomach and stretches her arms, in which she hides her face.”       “We’ll now open the food delivery app, add anything we want, and make an order quietly.”       “I always wanna eat something fat and unhealthy after sex. And I can’t see a plate with dry chicken breast and steamed vegetables.”       “Don’t worry, beautiful, I’ll do everything now,” Edward promises and slaps Natalia playfully on her buttocks. “And while our order is on the way, we can put ourselves in order and meet them like normal people.”       “Yeah… I agree…”       “Moreover, since I started to hiccup, I got a strong feeling that someone was thinking of us.” Edward takes his smartphone from the table and presses the button to turn it on, covering the bottom part of his body with a blanket. “I mean, my big brother thinks of me.”       “Terrence hardly missed you,” Natalia assumes, turning her head to Edward.       “Maybe. But I do always smell when that asshole needs something from me. I feel that when he covers me with tons of explicit words, being mad at me for not wanting to let him know about me. And I even start to hiccup at times. Just like now.”       “Unless you notified our self-pronounced lord that you wanted to take me to our future house so we could have sex.”       “I’m not obligated to give him reports. Terrence doesn’t have to do with what I do and who I spend time with. I’m an adult boy and can decide what to do.”       “But he doesn't think so.”       “Since he’s the oldest one of all of us, it’s hard for him to turn off the harsh daddy mode and stop educating everyone like children. Even if we aren’t kids anymore.”       “What can we do if this is his destiny?”       A few seconds later, Edward’s smartphone runs the operating system. And when the man wants to open the app to order food online, he starts seeing tons of notifications related to reactions to his posts on social networks. However, he decides to ignore them by swiping them left to delete everything. But he does not do this when he sees some notifications from the app for messages and chuckles kindly when he reads some of them.       “Hey, here’s what I told you, dolly!” Edward exclaims, showing Natalia the content on the screen of his smartphone. “When we turned off our phones, everyone needed us immediately. Including my brother, who’s sent me like twenty short messages full of recentness.”       “He can’t literally live without ya!” Natalia laughs, hugging Edward around the shoulders and pressing herself to him as close as possible after she covers herself with the blanket.       “It seems like Raquelle isn’t near – that’s why our cat suffers from boredom. In the opposite case, Terry would fuck everyone off.”       “Oh, what does he want? Is he doing some stupid things again?”       “I only see his furious recentness about his brother hanging around somewhere and not responding to his calls and messages.”       A few seconds later, Edward starts reading the other messages.       “It’s weird… Why is such chaos happening in our chat? It was silent there for one week, but now everyone went to text messages all together.”       “Maybe something happened?” Natalia expresses anxiety. “My heart squeezes kinda painfully, to be honest.”       “I don’t like this, either…”       Edward and Natalia read closely all the messages in the chat, understanding nothing at first because everyone seems to be excited, judging by some little typos and words that are not always connected with one another. But at some moment, the lovers see the message that makes them get sharply pale from horror and feel that their hearts miss a beat.       “What?” Natalia and Edward pronounce at the same time. “Sammy?! Helene?!”       “Sammy’s wounded, Helene’s been kidnapped?” Natalia horrifies loudly.       “No way!” Edward exclaims. “Why do they think so?”       “Look, Peter says something about five bastards who surrounded her!”       “And some witnesses saw Marshall being put to sleep, put in the truck of the car, and taken away in an unknown direction.”       “Oh, my God!” Natalia closes her mouth with her hand.       “Hey, they talk about Raquelle’s voice message. She kinda explains what happened.”       “But where’s it?”       “Now… Second…”       After scrolling down tons of messages from his excited friends, Edward finds the voice message and plays it to understand what’s wrong. And the more they listen, the stronger Natalia’s eyes get from tears, and the heavier the man starts to breathe from excitement.       “No…” Natalia pronounces in a shaking voice, shaking her head sharply. “No, it can’t be the truth! Helene… My God… Did she really deserve it?”       “I’m afraid everything is much more serious this time,” Edward assumes. “Maybe Peter was madly lucky to escape, but Helene won’t do this. They won't let her. And she won’t be able to deal with that crowd of jackals.”       “And what do we do now? Where do we find Marshall? Where did they take her away? What did they do to Sammy?”       “As I understand, there is no news yet. Everyone’s waiting for it from Raquelle, but she doesn’t come back. And nobody knows when it will happen ‘cause the surgery may take a lot of time.”       “Here’s what we were afraid of! Calm before the storm. Marcus and his friends were silent for the reason. They planned to attack after making sure we’d relaxed.”       “Thank God, Raquelle is lucky. We’ve gotta thank her manager for getting Cameron busy with a talk.”       “At least one good piece of news.” Natalia sniffs quietly. “But what’s gonna happen to Helene? Marcus is surely gonna kill her! Nobody can stop him this time!”       “I dunno, Natalia,” Edward sighs tiredly. “But I have no little idea of where to find her. How to save her. One thing is clear – they’re gonna drive her to a different place. Not the one where they drove Peter.”       “You’re right… They may guess that we’d love to go there. Pete knows how to head to that place.”       “The witnesses only confirmed the kidnapping and described all those bastards.”       “And knowing that Marcus Longbottom is much more dangerous than we think, I’m even afraid to imagine what he’ll want to do to her.”       “Oh, fucking shit!” Edward swears gloomily. “We’re gonna be stuck in the same place ‘cause we’re able to do nothing. No clues.”       “It scares me to death,” Natalia replies in a shaking voice. “Would we just have to sit and wait for what that asshole is gonna do? Wait for him to wish to give some claims to Peter?”       “I don’t wanna scare you, but it seems like it’s gonna happen. I can’t really imagine what we can do.”       “But Helene’s in danger! She may die at any time! And we’ll know it when those bastards do their business.”       “The only thing we can count on is that she won’t do stupid things. She won't make those jackals much madder and will think she’d better be quiet.”       “Can’t be sure that it’ll save her. Marcus will kill her anyway!”       “Yeah, it’s clear that he gave an order to catch Marshall to drive Peter crazy.” Edward sighs tiredly. “Poor guy… I imagine what he felt when he found out everything.”       “If something happens to her, he won’t take it. Despite the situation with his charges toward her, Pete still loves Helene so much.”       “Until we get some news from Raquelle, we should meet him and support him somehow,” Edward says thoughtfully. “We must not leave him alone.”       “You’re right… We should meet…” Natalia wipes tears carefully under her eyes. “At least for Peter… Let him know we’re always near.”       “I think we have some time to put ourselves in order. In case we should be ready to go to someone’s home.”       “Gosh, when will all of this be over? How long are we gonna suffer? Why do absolutely innocent people have to suffer? Why? Why?”       “Quiet, quiet, my sweetheart, don’t cry.”       Edward hugs Natalia and presses her closely to himself, while she cries quietly and snuggles her nose in his shoulder.       “Yes, the situation is hard, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”       “I doubt!” Natalia makes a quiet sob. “We can do nothing. Nothing, Edward!”       “No, no, there must be a way to solve this problem.” Edward kisses Natalia sweetly on the top of her head, holding her in his tight hug with both arms. “There must be something that can help us.”       “There’s nothing! Nothing! We can’t help Helene. She’s doomed to death!”       “Quiet, quiet, baby, sh-h-h-h…”       Edward spends a few seconds trying to comfort the crying Natalia, caressing her tenderly on her head or cheek, while she starts shaking from tension.       “Okay, my sunshine, let’s wipe your tears off and put ourselves in order,” Edward says confidently, wiping tears carefully off Natalia’s face and kisses her sweetly on her eyes. “Take a shower, brush hair, dress up…”       “Yes, Helene hasn’t always been holy, but she doesn’t deserve anything like this,” Natalia says in a shaking, low voice.       “Stay here, but I’ll give you some water.” Edward kisses Natalia’s cheek, sits on the edge of the bed, picks up his boxers lying on the floor near the bed, and puts them on quickly. “Then, you’ll go to take a shower first, and I’ll go after you. And while you’re getting ready, I’ll contact the guys and find out everything.”       While Edward gets up from the bed and leaves the room in a quiet step to get down to the first floor and go to the kitchen, Natalia keeps crying bitterly as she squeezes the blanket tightly with her shaking fingers, pressing it much closer to her and setting her wet eyes into the distance. Nevertheless, the girl tries to hold herself down somehow and not to fall into an uncontrolled hysteria, even if her wish to succumb to her emotions is freaking strong because she realizes the situation of Helene is hopeless.       However, Natalia stops holding herself down when she later recalls her own experience of a kidnapping. One day, the people of Michael MacClife, Edward and Terrence’s uncle, brought her to the house of that man by force and held her there for several days. Even if she tried so hard not to show it, she was afraid to be there alone to death, surrounded by those who made her truly horrified, when her heart was beating as fast as a scared bunny’s. The girl understands the feelings of Helene like nobody else. Thinking her friend would have hardly thought she would be kidnapped by the people of Peter’s enemy, who decided to torture him as much as possible before fulfiling his greatest wish by putting the guy in a grave after his girlfriend.