ROGUE

31 : Betrayal

Your POV

My head pounded as I opened my eyes to a blurred darkness.
It felt like someone was constantly pressing a drill into my skull, and I could tell that it was sticky with blood.
What the hell happened?

I replayed the last things I could remember in my head.
The phone call from Ellie.
The Weatherspoons Pub.
The unsettling feeling in the car park.
The excruciating pain to the side of my head.
And then blackness.

The bed that I was laying on felt unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I could just about feel every single spring under the mattress and they dug into my back, making me ache.

As I tried to sit up, panic struck through me.
I couldn't move my arms, and I couldn't move my legs.
I was tied up.

My body reacted quicker than my mind and I instantly began to thrash, desperately trying to break out of whatever was holding me down, and the creaking of the bed echoed through the room, signalising to whoever was here that I was awake.

"Help!" I screamed, more out of reaction than out of thought.
I was cold, confused and frightened.
And worst of all...
I was alone.

However, that changed within a matter of seconds after I had made my distress call.
I knew that it was for the worst as soon as the fluorescent lightbulb flickered above my head and somehow managed to illuminate the whole room.
Four men entered the room, each of them covered from head-to-toe in ugly tattoos.
My heart rate sped up and my fear levels rose.

"You're finally awake." I tensed as one of the men strutted towards me and smiled, showing a full set of gold teeth.
The muscles in his arms bulged, and looked almost-too-big.

"Who are you? What happened?" My voice shook and I pulled on the ropes that restrained me to the battered bed. "And what's going on?"

The man pressed a dirty finger to my lips and I felt like gagging. "Shh, there's no need for questions, Y/n."

I flinched my head away and stared at him wide-eyed. "I think there fucking is," I looked around frantically, searching for a face I recognised. "I just woke up here, tied to a bed, with four men I've never even seen in my life, my head is pounding and you're standing there telling me there's no need for questions?"

The man chuckled evilly and shrugged. "My names Angelo. And you're here because Jason McCann has finally finished his mission."

I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What are you talking about?"

"The mission," Angelo said casually. "It was to kidnap you and bring you to me. He took a long time to fucking complete it," He looked at me lustfully. "But now I can see why."

It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room, and my heart felt like it was being squeezed.
"You're lying," I said. "Jason wouldn't do that to me."

"Wouldn't he?" Angelo titled his head and gestured for one of the other men to come and stand beside him. He held a black case in his hands and opened it slowly, revealing more than a dozen wads of green dollar bills. "Not even for this?"

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat.
"No," I tried to sound sure. "You'll see, Jason will be here any minute now and he's gonna fucking kill all of you for doing this to me." The anger quickly etched its way into my voice.

Angelo chucked and lowered his face down to mine, I felt his breath on my ear and I squirmed. "Jason's the one who did this to you."

"I don't believe you." But even as I said the words, I was more and more convinced that Angelo was telling the truth.
Jason never told me about the mission, and now I realised why.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart. You'll get your proof when Jason arrives."

"Go to hell." I seethed, hatred and pain echoed through the room and my body shook.

Angelo leaned back and raised an eyebrow at me. "Ben, come in here." He called, not drawing his eyes away from me.

The door swung open and Ben strolled inside, wearing his usual tux and his dark hair was jelled back.
Except the worst thing about his entry was that he was accompanied by someone I never thought would do anything to hurt me.
Ellie.

My jaw hung open and reality settled.
She had turned on me.

When they approached Angelo, he smiled at them and tossed them each a wad of dollar bills. "Nice work," he said. "But Ben, I would've preferred it if you had brought her here unharmed." He said, referring to the sticky wound on the side of my head.

'Ellie," I choked out.
She stared at the ground and ignored me, clutching the money in her tiny hands.
"Ellie, if you're going to betray me, fucking look at me whilst you're doing it." I spat.

She flinched and gradually switched her gaze from the concrete floor to me.
"I'm sorry, Y/n." Her voice cracked.

I didn't know what to say.
But I sucked up all the profanities I could spit at her and shook my head.
"After everything we've been through." I whispered.

A tear escaped from her eye and she stared at me for a moment, before looking up at Ben and tugging on his arm. "This is so wrong," she whimpered. "Please let her go."

Angelo shook his head disapprovingly. "This is business, Ellie. Y/n has been wanted by the damnation for three years, and that's not going to change today."

Ellie's actions were frantic.
"But why Y/n? Please just let her go! Plea-"

Bang.

Ellie's body fell limply to the floor before I could realise anyone was actually holding a gun.
As promised, Ben had killed her.
All I could do was bite my lip to keep myself from crying.
It happened all too quickly, and I didn't have time to process in my mind exactly what just happened.
Or what was happening.

Angelo rolled his eyes. "That will be all, thank you, Ben." He muttered.
Ben nodded, spun casually on his heel and left the room.
"And you three can clear off as well," he said to the other men. "I'll only be needing you when McCann arrives."

"That's because you're scared." I said to Angelo, as they followed each other out. "You're scared of what Jason's gonna do to you. You can't handle him on your own."

Angelo began to laugh. "Oh, Sweetheart. You're so innocent." He chuckled. "Do you remember the night before you and Jason got shot? I was the one who beat him."
My eyes widened and everything seemed to settle into view.
Could this scenario actually be true?

My heart wrenched and I felt my weakness show through the crumbling parts of my confident mask.
It must've been at least two minutes before I spoke again.
"So he was just..." I inhaled sharply, trying my hardest to hold myself together as my nightmare only seemed to be coming true. "Jason was just pretending to love me?"

Angelo continued to laugh as if I was dumb.
"Jason doesn't feel anything for you." He paused, savouring the moment. "He looks at you and only sees money." He smiled in satisfaction when he noticed the tears rolling down my face and soaking the pillow beneath me. "You mean nothing to him."

----------------

Thanks for reading
Vote if you liked ❤️