Above and Beyond by Riley Morgan Page A

the bottom of his testicles. It was not a forceful kick, but it did not need to be. Ramon went weak at the knees and felt his stomach squeeze into a ball. He managed to hold Lena for a few more seconds before his body finally succumbed to pain and he dropped to his knees doubled over.
                  Lena went for the door, and Ramon heard it click and refuse to yield. She screamed and pounded on it, but it would not yield. Ramon slipped the key from his palm to his pocket and prayed that she did not realize what he had done until he was better suited to handle her.
                  “Give it to me,” Lena demanded.
                  Ramon rolled his eyes and accepted his bad luck.
                  “No.”
                  “Give it to me or I’ll scream.”
                  Ramon looked at her, his eyes begging to know what she thought that might accomplish.
                  Lena too, seemed to realize how empty that threat was, and walked over to her bed and collapsed onto it.
     

Lena
                  “Why are you trying to stop me?” Lena asked.
                  “What exactly do you think you’re going to do?”
                  “Stab him, shoot him, cut his throat, I don’t care.”
                  “Have you ever stabbed somebody? Do you know how to work a firearm? How do you think you’d manage to go about cutting Zeus’s throat?”
                  Ramon spoke in a whisper.
                  Lena only became angier. She was too blind with rage to see what Ramon was doing. She didn’t need to know anything except the betrayal that she had felt and the utter certainty that fate would not deny her the chance for revenge.
                  “Lena,” he said. “I’m on your side. I don’t want you to go to Cuba. I don’t want you to marry that spineless piece of shit. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
                  “Then why are you standing in my way?”
                  “Because if you go down there right now, you’re going to get yourself killed.”
                  “So what? I don’t care if he kills me,” Lena said.
                  “Well I do.”
                  Ramon eased himself up to his feet and went to Lena on the bed. He moved to her side and engulfed her in his arms. He soothed her with soft words and tender touches. He told her that everything was going to be alright and she believed him.
                  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
                  “I know.”
     

Ramon
                  “We need a plan, and fast,” Ramon said.
                  Lena looked to the scissors on the desk. Ramon rolled his eyes. She looked to the gun that she knew he kept under his arm and Ramon got serious.
                  “I’ve got enough blood on my hands,” he said. “I’m not solving this with a gun.”
                  “Then what?”
                  “We need to make a plan to get you out of here.”
                  “Well let’s just steal a car and drive away as fast as we can.”
                  “How far do you think we’d get before they find us? And even if we could do that, nobody is allowed in or out of the compound without getting cleared by your father’s people.”
                  Lena sighed and turned away from Ramon, laying back down in bd. She thought it was hopeless, and Ramon was beginning to think that she might be right. He didn’t have any good idea at the moment. Somehow he needed to get Lena away from here. Whether it was with him or not, she couldn’t stay here. The minor complication was that if Lena disappeared from the compound, Ramon would be held responsible, and that idea did not make him