BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ Mark said, but even still, he could feel the lies. The shame, if Natasha had been lying to him. He looked over at Natasha, seeing the way she was shuffling on the spot. A wave of anger coursed through him. He tried to ignore it. ‘I just want her to be safe.’

‘Leave me alone, Mark,’ Natasha said, a glint in her eye that disappeared as the light shifted. ‘Go. I don’t want you.’

‘She hates you, Mark,’ John said, turning to one of the men nearby and nodding. ‘We’re always told we have to wish them well and send them on their way, but why should we? They wronged us, so why shouldn’t we strike back against that. I’m giving you the chance to do that. Here and now. No one knows you’re here, I’m guessing? No one will know you were too late. You can punish her for what she’s done to you. Watch her suffer and become no more, for all of it.’

‘No…’

‘You tried to give your life for this woman and this is how she repays you? She thinks nothing of you. You repulse her, just like Holly was repulsed by me. Even after I treated her like a fucking queen. I gave everything to her and she just ignored all of it. Well, that’s not how we do things now. We show them who runs the world. Let Natasha experience the same. I’m giving you the opportunity to take something back. She tried to steal your life, now you can take hers.’

‘Watch her play the final game. I’ll do the rest,’ John said, lowering his head and staring towards Mark. ‘It’ll look like suicide. No one will ever know. I’ll be gone. You can live your life.’

Mark couldn’t speak, watching it happen in front of him. John was still, then started nodding.

‘I understand,’ John said, then whispered in Natasha’s ear. She flinched at the closeness of him.

‘One… two…’

Mark watched her move backwards and forwards, moving her feet at John’s instruction, as he pointed the phone – it was a phone, he could see that now – in her direction. She counted out her steps, moving them in increasingly bizarre ways.

‘This isn’t happening,’ Mark said, beginning to move, as he watched it unfold. His feet finally obeyed him. He moved towards them, charging, before a flash of light exploded in front of him and he realised he was looking at the sky.

Standing over him, one of the men who had been standing with John. The one he’d nodded towards. In his hand, he could see something, dull and extended. Then, there was a glint of something which shone across his vision and then disappeared.