Hunted By The Devil

Chapter Five

The old man quirks an eyebrow at me, but doesn't ask anymore questions. "Here you go." He says tossing me a key chain with two keys on it. "Rent is due by the fifteenth of every month. There is a one hundred dollar late fee, so don't be late."

"Thanks." I say getting ready to walk out of his office. "Oh by the way do you happen to know where there might be a car for sale?"

He looks at me. "I have a car for sale but it's not much of a looker."

"I don't care what it looks like. Does it run?" I ask trying to sound more confident than I feel when I'm doing this kind of thing.

Before six months ago I have never had to deal with anything like this. I have never tried to buy my own car, or go out and find apartments. I didn't know how to do any of this stuff. Honestly I still don't know if I am doing it right. I am just learning as I go.

"Yeah, it runs good. It's just ugly as a dog's ass." He says in his deep gravelly voice.

"Sounds good. How much for the car?"

His eyes light up with amusement. "Well sweetheart, I like you so how about seven hundred dollars for the car."

I hand him the money, and he hands me a set of keys and a title. "Where's it at?"

He stands up and walks towards me. Something about the way he's looking at me makes me feel a little uneasy, but I assume it's just my paranoia. It's hard for me to trust anyone. It feels like everyone is out to get me. It feels like there is always someone watching me.

"Right this way sweetheart." The old man walks out of his office, leading me to a small parking lot behind the building that says employees only. How many employees could there possibly be? It's an apartment building, it's not like a hotel where you get room service and cleaning ladies.

"It's that one." He says pointing to an old, rusty gray pick up truck sitting in the last parking spot.

"Thanks." I say walking towards the truck.

"No problem sweetheart. The names Jack if you need anything else, you know where to find me." He says winking and I feel bile rise in my throat. Great my landlord is an old pervert. Just what I needed.

I take the for sale sign out of the window throwing it in the passenger seat. Aside from the smell of cigarettes the car is actually pretty nice on the inside. The interior is black leather and there is a rubber floor.

The truck starts right up to my surprise and I take off. I need to get a couple of things before going back to the hotel. I drive around town looking for a pharmacy. I pass several really nice ones along the way. That's not what I'm looking for though.

After driving around town for thirty minutes I finally find a little bitty pharmacy on the edge of town. The paint on the building is faded and half of the sign is missing. The parking lot is empty. Good.

I walk in looking around for cameras. I noticed one on the door when I walked in, but I don't see any inside. I walk around picking up a few things. Gauze, rubbing alcohol, medical tape, and two things of hair dye.

"Did you find everything you needed?" The elderly man behind the counter asks.

"Umm yeah." I say trying to figure out how to ask what I need to ask.

He rings up my items, putting them in a bag. "That will be eighteen ninety nine miss."

"Umm actually I forgot I need to pick up a prescription as well."

The elderly man smiles at me. "What's the name on it?"

"It hasn't been filled yet."

He frowns. "I can fill it real fast for you. Do you have the prescription?"

"Yeah. I need some antibiotics and some pain meds."

His brows furrow. "I don't understand."

I pull out a large stack of hundreds. At least a thousand dollars. "Do you understand now?" I ask.

"I can't, umm I can't do that miss." He says looking at me.

"Please. I can't explain, but I need them. My friend is seriously hurt and we can't go to the hospital for reasons you wouldn't understand or believe. But I really need this medicine. He has a very bad infection. Please." I beg. I really need him to do this. I know he can use the money.

He looks around the small pharmacy and I can tell he's thinking about. "I- If I do this. You can not tell anyone and I can never do this again. I can lose my pharmacy."

"I will never tell anyone, just please please help me. I don't want my friend to get even worse." I beg again.

He let's out a loud sigh and walks to the back. I hear pill bottles rattling around and I breathe a sigh of relief.

The elderly man comes back a few minutes later, holding a little brown bag with the RX label on it. "Thank you, thank you so much. You are truly a life saver."

He nods his head and I practically skip off, feeling so happy. I can't believe I actually got antibiotics. Brad is going to be so happy. I got us a house, a car, and I got him medicine. Maybe this place really is going to be good for us.

I drive back to the motel, knocking on the door. "Brad, babe. It's me. Open up."

It takes him longer than normal to open the door and I start to worry. He opens the door slowly. His face is pale and he looks weak. "Hey are you okay?" I ask, grabbing his shoulder.

"Yeah, I am just a little sick to my stomach and I'm really cold." He says, his voice weaker than normal.

I put the back of my hand on his forehead. "You are burning up. You are running a fever. Here lay down." I say helping him to the bed.

I grab him a bottle of water and some Tylenol. "Take this."

He takes the medicine and lays down holding his stomach. I rub his arm, looking at him. "Before you fall asleep babe, take some of these antibiotics I got you."

He sits up looking at me confused. "How did you get antibiotics?"

"Don't worry about that, just take some and feel better for me okay."

Brad does as I said, he takes the antibiotics and lays back down. It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep. I watch as he sleeps, checking his temperature every few minutes. I really hope it's not to late, I will never forgive myself if he dies from an infection.

I hate my husband. I absolutely hate Augustus Vendino. I never in a million years thought I would hate the man I married, the man I gave six years of my life to. The man I was so deeply in love with. The man who's charms blinded me to the reality of who he was.

That day, when I was walking through the mansion, I was just exploring. I wanted to see why Augustus was always so secretive about the east wing. I wanted to know why him and his security team always disappeared to the east wing.

Some days he was gone for hours, doing whatever it was that he did in that forbidden part of the house. After six long years of vague answers and secretive conversations with his team, my curiosity got the best of me.

So one day when Augustus was out, I made my way to the east wing. I went through the big wooden door, that leads into the basement. I never expected to find a guy tied to a chair, bloody and beaten. Eyes so swollen he couldn't open them. Cuts all over his body. He was barely alive, barely hanging on. I had to get him out of there. I had to save him.