“Walk toward that black sedan and don’t scream or try to run,” he said in a devious voice.
My blood turned cold and my heart stopped.
What was happening?
“Alek, what’s going on?” I asked as tears pricked my eyes. Images of me lying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk flashed behind my eyes. Why would he want to kill me?
I hadn’t done anything to wrong him, had I?
“Just walk.”
“Is that a gun in my side?” That was a silly question. What else could it have been?
“Quiet.”
Me and all my preparedness were useless in this situation.
I’d been meaning to take a self-defense but kept putting it off because I couldn’t take off from work.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
But I had a can of mace in my purse and a stabby flashlight thingy my dad bought my sister and me when we first started driving by ourselves.
What good they were when a man was holding a gun against my body.
An elderly couple strolled toward us with their little dog. I saw them walking every evening when I closed the café. They couldn’t possibly help me. And I wouldn’t put their lives at risk by causing a scene.
“Evening,” the old man said. His wife waved and their dog ran toward my feet.
“Good evening,” Alek replied, wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me closer. The barrel of the gun dug deeper into my side.
I did everything possible to smile as if nothing was amiss.
A downside to living in a small town of less than ten thousand people was after six o’clock it became a ghost town. People retired for the day. Aside from a couple of restaurants and a mini mart that stayed open late, everything shutdown for the night.
We passed the couple and stopped at a black BMW with the windows blacked out.
Oh God, this was so bad!
“Are you going to kill me?” I asked as my voice thickened with emotion.
“Not if you cooperate.” He opened the door for me to get into the backseat.
“Please let me go.” I tugged away from him slightly, which only made his grip on my arm tighten. “I’ll never speak of this, or you if you let me go.”
“Get in.” He shoved me into the back.
I startled when a man wearing a mask was in the driver’s seat turned around to see me.
A scream ripped from my lungs on its own accord. I kicked my legs at Alek. He might as well kill me because I wasn’t going anywhere with him.
I reached for the door handle on the other side, and it was locked.
“Help me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “I’m being taken it against my will!”
Alek got into the car and whipped something out of his pocket.
I saw the metal syringe, but before I could register what was happening, it went into my neck.
