Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (book club recommendations txt) 📗

an art piece he first fell in love with but his speech was so slurred now I couldn’t understand him. I clinked his glass again and took a big sip of my cognac, and he did the same. He was grinning and looked high as a kite. I decided to put one more chocolate in his drink just to be good and sure he didn’t fight me. He didn’t even notice, he was so high.

We clinked glasses again and we both took a drink. He downed his again and then let the goblet fall on the couch. His body and head fell back against the cushion and his eyes were mostly closed. He looked high as the sky.

“Mr. Chang?” I softly called his name. He didn’t respond. I nudged him. He didn’t react or move. I pushed on his shoulder a little harder and he still didn’t move. The bastard was officially high.

I quickly got up and locked the door. Reaching into my purse, I took out Betty’s duct tape and proceeded to duct-tape his mouth, wrapping the tape several times around his head and mouth. I pushed him face down on the couch, turning his head to one side so he could breathe and duct-taped his hands behind his back and then duct-taped his feet to his hands. No way was he getting out of this. I picked up my cognac and downed the rest of it. I poured myself one more glass. I needed something to make me feel brave if I was planning on shooting people.

I stood up to head for the door and got a little dizzy. Crap! I had a buzz! I couldn’t afford to have a buzz now! Now of all times! Maybe I shouldn’t have had that last drink. Shit! I steadied myself and shook my head a few times. Well, at least my hands weren’t shaking and I was feeling pretty good. Okay, I think I can do this. I turned off all of the lights in his office except for one small soft light. I walked out the door, locking it before I closed it. Time to get Caroline.

I casually walked back upstairs as if nothing had happened. No one was around, thank goodness. I was starting to feel the effects of the cognac more than I wanted. I was sure I wasn’t walking a straight line.

I was back inside my room, locking the door behind me. I flicked one small light on and called out for Caroline a little too loudly.

“Shhh! Isabel Grace, keep it down!” She came out of the bathroom. “I didn’t hear any gunfire so I’m guessing things went as planned?”

“Yup. Jan is all taped up and flyin’ high,” I snickered softly.

“Jan? Did you just call Victor Chang, Jan?”

“Course not. I said Jan,” I answered blinking a few times, trying to focus. “Wait. Did I say Jan or Jan?” I started giggling. “Oh my gosh! Why can’t I say it?” I was giggling harder. “Vic-tour Jan,” I tried enunciating his first and last name to no avail. I was laughing harder.

“Isabel Grace, are you drunk?” Caroline snickered. “Can you shoot your gun in this condition?”

“I may be a tad buzzed and yes ma’am, I can shoot straight. Besides, all of Jan’s men aren’t exactly petit men, I can’t possibly miss their round bodies.”

“Well, let’s hope not, if it comes to that.”

“Right! Is everyone in place?” I asked, slurring the question a little.

“Yes, with your cell phone fully charged… and they have the charger with them too.”

“Great. Are you ready, Caro?”

Caroline chuckled. “You haven’t called me that since we were kids. And yeah, I’m ready.”

“Well, I’m kinda havin’ trouble with names right now and your name is really, really long so that’s as far as I could get with your name.” We both laughed. “Car-o-line,” I made a face as I was trying to pronounce her name. Caroline laughed. “I really want to try and say your last name and see how that goes.” I was laughing at the thought of her even longer last name. “F-i-tz, F-tz,” I fell on the bed laughing harder. “Oh my gosh! Who knew you had a hard first and last name.”

“Isabel Grace!” She giggled. “Get your act together. We have to help the other girls, remember?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot.” I was quickly on my feet, saluting her. “Let’s go a huntin’ for some jammers and maybe shoot us some Triad members along the way.” I pulled my gun out and got it ready.

She exhaled, and pursed her lips. “Okay, whatever.”

We headed for the living room closest to the dining room where I saw one of the jammers. That’s where we were going to start. We got there with no problem and quickly unplugged the first jammer. I followed her to another part of the same room where she unplugged another one, each time hiding the jammer under a piece of furniture. We went throughout the mansion trying to find and unplug as many jammers as possible before any of the henchmen or Debbie discovered us, all the while Caroline shushing me. I couldn’t stop giggling every time I stumbled or tripped or ran into her. She was beginning to get irritated with me and for some reason that made the situation even funnier. We instructed the rest of the girls to start calling Josh as soon as they could see they had a signal. I wasn’t sure if this sex trafficker had any local police on his payroll so we said no police.

We managed to unplug and hide at least sixteen jammers before Debbie came around one of the corners. We froze. I hid my gun behind my back.

“Isabel,” Debbie sounded surprised. “What are you still doing here?”

“Well, we’re trying to escape but it’s proving to be somewhat of a kerfuffle,” I slurred. “Plus, I was