I Refuse to Be Your Second Choice novel Chapter 156

Natalie had just pressed the numbers and was about to dial when she saw someone sprinting toward her.

Forgetting the call, she turned and ran.

A nearby door was slightly ajar, and Natalie made a desperate dash for it, pushing it open to find herself in a room filled with rows of shelves stacked with miscellaneous items.

She had hoped for a fire exit but had stumbled into a storeroom instead. It was a dead end, with no other way out.

Her pursuers were already on her heels. "Nowhere to run now!" one of them sneered.

With no escape route, Natalie shoved a shelf with all her might. The junk piled on it came crashing down, blocking the path of the two men.

She scrambled deeper into the storeroom, but the men were tall and strong, easily climbing over the debris.

Desperate, Natalie pulled down another shelf before turning to run again, only to find herself facing a solid wall.

"Go on, run. Why'd you stop?" one of the men said with a cruel grin, kicking aside an obstacle.

Natalie kept her eyes fixed on them as she backed away. "I've already called the police. They'll be here any minute. If you don't want to go to jail, I can tell them you didn't assault me."

"Don't worry about the cops. Mr. Gates has his ways."

The two men closed in. The other one looked her up and down. "A body like that… it'd be a waste not to have some fun. You go first, I'll keep watch."

A chill ran down Natalie's spine.

"Fine by me. They don't need us out there anyway. Might as well enjoy ourselves."

The man who spoke began to take off his jacket and unbuckle his belt. Trapped like a cornered rabbit, Natalie saw no way out.

"I can cooperate," she said suddenly. "But do you have any condoms?"

Her question made the man pause.

Natalie explained with a desperate earnestness, "I'm not trying to be difficult, it's for your own good. I have a disease, and I'm afraid I'll infect you."

The two men exchanged a look. "What disease?" the first one asked.

"My ex-boyfriend gave it to me," she said, her face a mask of sorrow as she wiped away an imaginary tear. "It's AIDS."

The word sent a jolt of fear through them. They scrambled back as if she were the virus itself.

"Such a hot piece of ass, and we can't even touch her!" one of them cursed.

He was completely enraged. Natalie knew that if her head hit the ground, she would probably die. There was no escape.

“So this is it”, she thought. “At least my child, my parents, and my grandmother are gone. We can be a family again.”

Natalie closed her eyes, bracing for the end.

Suddenly, a powerful force kicked the man holding her, sending him flying several meters away. The painful grip on her scalp vanished, and she collapsed to the floor.

"Natalie!"

It was Alexander.

He rushed to her side and helped her up. "Are you hurt?"

Natalie stared at his urgent, worried face, completely stunned.

He was here.

She was about to say she was fine when she saw it—behind Alexander, an iron pipe was swinging through the air.