Wrong Time (28 page)

Epilogue

Three days earlier, Chloe was sitting
in her new house located on the beach in Hawaii. For once, life was peaceful,
and there were four armed men outside her door to make sure that it stayed that
way. A loud popping noise interrupted the sound of the waves. It was a familiar
sound to Chloe. It was gunfire. She ran to her bedroom where she grabbed a
pistol that she kept in her nightstand. About the time that she grabbed the gun
and started running back into the living room, the front door was broken down,
and several of Markus’s men came in. Chloe raised her gun. She knew it wouldn’t
do any good against such a large force, but if they were going to kill her, then
by God, she was going to take at least a few of them with her.

“Lower your gun, Chloe,” a familiar
voice said from behind the men.

Markus stepped forward out of the crowd
of soldiers.

“I have no intention of killing you, so
lower your gun and we can talk about this,” Markus said.

Chloe had no intention of lowering her
weapon. She knew what Markus was capable of. He would not only kill her, but
first he would make her suffer in ways that even she couldn’t imagine.

“Why wouldn’t you kill me? I would kill
me in your position,” Chloe said.

“I have a feeling that you might have
information that could be useful to me.”

“What kind of information?”
 

“I have no idea, but you’ve had direct
contact with our enemies. Word has it that you even made a deal with them.”

Chloe slowly lowered her gun and then
threw it to the floor.

“What do you want to know?” Chloe
asked.

“I want to catch and kill the people
responsible for my most recent misfortune, and I want you to tell me how to do
that.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“You can start by telling me everything
you know about the people we’re dealing with.”

Chloe told him the few things that she
knew about the people who had captured her and how they had ultimately made a
deal with her.

“Well, unfortunately for you, none of
that is of any help to me, so you have ten seconds to tell me something of use
or you’re going to die right here and right now,” Markus said while motioning
to a rather large man.

The large man walked over to her and
placed a gun to her head, and Markus began his countdown.

“Wait a minute. Just give me some time
to think,” Chloe pleaded.

“Tick tock, Chloe,” Markus said with a
smile.

“Okay. There’s one thing I remember.
Two of them, the guy named Nathan and the Samantha girl, seemed to be together
in a more intimate way.”

“How exactly is that relevant to me?”

“If you could find someone close to
either one of them and threaten that person, then I’m sure the two of them
would come running to you. It’s a two for one situation.”

Markus thought for a moment. He
remembered that as far as they could tell, Nathan was only a regular civilian.
In fact, he even lived with his parents before all of this started. Maybe if
they threatened his family, they could lure them out and kill at least two of
them at one time.

“I think that this works,” Markus said.

“Great, so you’re going to let me go
now, right?” Chloe asked.

“No, my dear. I’m sorry, but no one
crosses me and lives to tell about it.”

 
Markus pointed a gun down at Chloe’s head
and stared deep into her eyes. Her eyes looked so desperate. It was obvious
that this woman, who had never been scared of a thing in her life, was now
desperate for just one more moment. As Markus stared into her eyes, he saw himself
in them. He, too, had been desperate. He, too, had been tortured in many of the
same ways that she had been tortured in, and for the first time in his life, he
just couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger.

“You’re lucky. I’m feeling unusually
merciful today. You and Jerome are going to go to Mississippi to kill a couple
of nuisances,” Markus said with a smile and then walked out of the room.

Jerome followed him.

“Sir, are you sure this is the right
thing to do?” Jerome asked.

“First of all, don’t question my
judgment, and second of all, I need to give you instructions on what to do in
Mississippi. You’re going to seek out Nathan Grey’s parents, and then you’re
going to contact me. I’ll get in touch with Nathan. From there, you should wait
for them to arrive,” Markus said.

“Should I kill the hostages once they’re
on the way?”
 

“No, I want you to kill Mr. Grey’s
family right in front of him. Then, I want you to kill his little girlfriend,
Samantha Fisher. After that, I want you to bring him to me. He and I have a lot
to discuss,” Markus said with a wicked smile.