The Gift
1347 Words
Selena’s phone buzzed on the table like it had a pulse of its own.
Unknown number. She frowned.
“Who could this be?”
She picked it up. “Hello?”
A voice came through, low and distorted. Familiar.
“Selena.”
Her blood went cold.
“Did you really think you could hide from me in your mother’s little cabin?”
Jacob.
She shot upright, gripping the phone so hard her knuckles whitened.
“How did you—”
“I know everything about you, daughter,” he said, almost fondly. “I know where you sleep. I know who you’re with.”
Dale was on his feet in an instant, his good hand reaching for her.
Jacob continued, as if he could see them through the line.
“You’ve betrayed me with the son of my greatest enemy. Remember, he’s dead for a reason. But because I love you, I’ll give you one more chance.
Come back home. End that charade you call a marriage and come back home to your duties.”
Selena’s voice was steel.
“This is it. This is what you did to Mom. You manipulated her until her last breath. I don’t have a home anymore, remember? You disowned me, so leave me the hell alone!”
A low laugh.
“Don’t defy me like your mother defied me. Don’t take after her stubbornness.”
“In the meantime, check outside, Selena. I left you a gift.”
The line went dead.
Dale grabbed her arm. “Don’t—”
But she was already moving, grabbing the doorknob.
Headlights cut through the darkness outside.
A black SUV sat at the edge of the treeline.
And on the hood, illuminated by the headlights, was a body bag.
Zipped halfway open.
Selena’s breath caught as she stepped back instantly.
Inside, she could see blonde hair.
Blonde hair she didn’t recognize, so she stepped forward and realized she didn’t know this person. Dale walked out behind her.
“It’s only a threat,” he said.
The driver’s door opened.
A man stepped out, tall and broad, face hidden under a mask.
He reached into the SUV and pulled something else out.
A phone.
It started ringing— And Selena’s screen lit up with the same unknown number.
Dale pulled her back inside and locked the door.
“It’s a trap,” he said.
Selena stared outside at the body bag, then at the phone ringing in her hand, confused.
And then the man outside lifted his head, and even through the mask, she knew.
Those eyes.
Carlos.
She frowned. Just as she was about to go back outside, Dale pulled her backward, his arms wrapping around her like a shield as tears fell.
“You will never amount to anything! You will always be his puppet. You and your stupid mother!”
She screamed.
The phone rang again.
Selena answered on the second ring. “What? What!”
Carlos’s voice came through, distorted but unmistakable.
“Come out alone. No Dale. No cops. Just you and me. Or I zip the bag all the way up.”
Selena glanced at the woman’s face in the bag. She was breathing. Barely.
“Don’t do it,” Dale said quietly.
“It’s what he wants. To take you with them. If you leave, we know it won’t end well for you.”
“So what’s the alternative?” Selena shot back. “Let her die?”
“Do you even know her?” he asked, and she sighed, actually considering the question.
“But that’s someone’s child and sister. Do I need to know her to do the right thing?”
She asked, and Dale let her go. He stepped back, arms folded.
“Fine. Throw away everything we’ve had to endure. Go ahead,” he said dismissively, which made her feel even guiltier.
Fareeda stepped forward, her face pale but steady. Her palms rubbing helplessly
“Don’t go, my child. Not with men like that.”
Carlos’s laugh crackled through the speaker.
“End this drama already! We know how empathetic you are. This could be your sister. Five minutes, Selena. Then I decide if she lives or dies.”
The line went dead.
“Are you ready to risk the plan for her?”
Dale asked, but she shook her head.
“What if we can save her and ourselves too?”
Dale moved fast, checking the cabin’s windows, his gun low and ready.
“There’s only two of them. I saw the SUV. We can take them.”
“And if they have more?” Selena said. “If Jacob’s watching from somewhere else?”
“Then we make sure they don’t get the chance to use it.” Dale’s jaw tightened. “I’m not losing you or my mom.”
Selena looked at him, then at Fareeda, then back at the SUV and Carlos through the window.
She turned. “Give me your gun,” she demanded.
Dale froze. “No.”
“I’m not going out there unarmed, Dale. And I’m not letting you walk into an ambush for me.” She held out her hand. “Give it to me. They’re my family. I can handle them.”
For a second he didn’t move. Then he handed it over. His fingers lingered on hers.
“Don’t be a hero,” he said. “Not this time.”
Selena nodded and stepped outside.
The cold hit her immediately. The SUV’s headlights made her squint. Carlos stood beside the body bag, gun in his hand, mask off now. He looked wrecked.
“Good girl,” he said. “Told you I’d find you.”
Selena stopped ten feet away.
“Let her go, Carlos. This isn’t her fight.”
“It isn’t, but it’s mine. I won’t allow you to ruin everything my mother and I have planned for!”
Selena’s eyes dropped to the bag. The woman’s eyelids fluttered.
“Don’t make this worse, Carlos. If you’re caught, remember Dad would let you go to jail without covering for you,” Selena said. “Give me the gun. Walk away. And you can keep everything. I won’t bother you anymore.”
Carlos laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“I love how you lie through your teeth. You’re a professional. Let’s go home. I won’t repeat myself.”
He raised the gun.
Selena wanted to raise hers as well, but she was scared it would blow out of proportion, so she stood still.
She turned, shaking her head, telling Dale to go back inside, but he ignored her, taking the gun from her hand.
“She’s not coming with you. Just leave,” he said.
But Carlos only laughed, waving his gun toward the woman, who now began to shake from fear after seeing a gun pointed at her.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Carlos looked down, commanding the woman to keep quiet, giving Dale time to act.
He fired, shooting Carlos in the thigh. Carlos ducked as he accidentally fired a shot from the pain.
“Go, go, go!”
Dale screamed, and both of them ran in. All three of them dropped to the ground.
“f**k, Dale, what did you do? What if he comes in to finish what he started?!”
“He won’t. He’s in too much pain.”
Two shots cracked through the night, making them throw their hands over their heads.
After a few minutes, they heard a car drive off—But they waited another five minutes before getting to their feet.
“Stay here. I’ll go check,”
Dale said as Fareeda grabbed onto Selena like her life depended on it.
When Selena hadn’t heard anything from him, she walked outside and gasped as her eyes found the bag.
“The shots were inside the bag,” Dale said, and she stepped forward slowly to look at the poor girl. Her breath caught.
Carlos had shot her twice in the head.
There was no coming back from that.
- Writer
