Relentless (Book 3)

Chapter 34: The Tenth Day - Part Three

Bethany

"No!" I screamed, my voice muffled by the gag. My knees buckled and I dropped. No! Benjamin dangled, swaying, the rope jerking around viciously as he struggled. He brought his cuffed wrists up to his throat, digging at the rope, trying in vain to loosen it to get a breath of air. I could see from where I was that his face was turning purple.

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't feel anything besides overwhelming terror and agony. It worse than if I were hanging from the roping, being suffocated. This was so much worse. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think.  Benjamin. I wanted to earth to swallow me whole. I didn't want to live without him. I wouldn't be able to. I can't do this alone.

I bolted to my feet, ready to try to run to him again when the first shot rang out. I swung my head toward Richardson.

He remained standing.

The shot hadn't been directed at him. So what were they shooting at? A few more shots rang out and Richardson's guards circled around him again and began trying to evacuate him.

Another shot rang out. I whipped my head toward Benjamin. He was no longer moving. No longer struggling to loosen the noose around his throat. He was hanging there. Limp. I tried to get to him once again. But Rivers and Jefferson kept a firm grip on my arms. It was then that I saw Benjamin's body drop to the floor, no longer dangling by the rope. Is he moving? Is he breathing? How did he get down?

"What the hell is going on here?" Jefferson shouted. "Why did his body drop?"

"Go and find out." I heard Rivers say, "I can manage our little inmate."

I felt Jefferson release his grip on my arm and a moment later, I tried again to pull out of River's grasp. "Not so fast Stafford." Rivers said, pulling me back closer to him.

I screamed at him through my gag. "You fucking traitor! How could you!" I tugged against his grip, trying to get him to release me so I could get to Benjamin.

"Hold on, Bethany, Jesus Christ." He said, struggling to maintain his grip on me.

He spun me around so that I was facing him, then he reached down and pulled the gag from my mouth. "Fuck you!" I screamed in my rage. "You traitor! You let them kill him! You killed him! I thought you were on our side! I trusted you!"

He looked hurt. But I didn't care. I wanted him to hurt. But no one was ever going to hurt as much as I did in this moment. "Let me go!" I screamed.

In response he stuck a needle into my neck. No. I swung wildly at him. How dare he? Was that a sedative or hallucinogen used to subdue me? "Bethany, stop!" He ordered, nursing a cut on his cheek. Jefferson hadn't torn out all of nails, and I made good use of the few I had left.

"You're not going to get very far cuffed like that, give me your hands." He said, is tone the same as when he cleaned my lash marks from Acer's belt and whip. Caring.

Huh?

"The shot is going to help you fight, Bethany. It isn't what you think it is. You feel more energized already, the pain is dulling, right?"

It was. "How?" And more importantly, "Why?"

"I am traitor." He replied, turning a key and releasing the cuffs from my wrists. "But only Richardson and his cronies would accuse me of being one." He handed me the key to the handcuffs so I could unlock Benjamin's as well, if he was still alive, and then pulled a handful of throwing knives from his tool belt, all strapped to their own small belt. My knives. He was on our side. He was Unbound. "Give 'em hell, Bethany." He said.