This man, in all respects, was the neighbor you said hi to on walks or shared pleasantries with in the concession stand line of the local high school football games.
He looked…nice.
To Rose, he was utterly terrifying.
He cocked his head to the side and slid his hands into his pockets.
“You’re Deputy Little.” It wasn’t a question.
Rose wanted to make sure he knew it was an answer regardless.
“I am a deputy with the McCoy County Sheriff’s Department, yes.”
The man kept his head on that tilt and scanned her and the tub. The bubbles she had contemplated earlier had thinned but it was enough to give her a little cover. Still, she internally squirmed at the look.
That squirm went right back to terror when he snorted.
“Congratulations, Deputy with the McCoy County Sheriff’s Department.” He straightened his neck and pulled his hands free from his pockets. “You’ll be the first person I’ve ever drowned in a tub.”
Rose was already moving, water sloshing as she scrambled to stand.
The man was just as quick.
He cut across the bathroom and grabbed her by the throat before she could get her legs beneath her. On reflex her hands went up to try and slip beneath his grip but her body was trying to do too many things at once. She couldn’t get a finger beneath his hold, and she couldn’t get her balance in the tub either. Both problems together created a new one as her feet slid out beneath her.
If she hadn’t been so petite she believed the fight would have gone a little differently here, but as it was, the man easily followed her fall down alongside thetub. His hand stayed around her throat as he took a knee on the tile on the other side of the tub’s edge. The air against Rose’s chest and stomach was replaced by the warm water rushing back over her. She threw one hand out to stop her backward descent, but he still had one hand free.
He swatted it away with little difficulty.
“Don’t worry. This might be my first time, but it will be fast.”
He pushed down with the hand around her neck. She tried again to swing out at him, to claw him, to do something to his arm or face or anything.
But she was too small. Her opponent was too big. The disadvantage of being in the tub was too challenging.
Still, she wasn’t simply going to lie there and take it without some pushback.
Rose lifted her leg and kicked out at the man’s side.
The hit landed.
It wasn’t enough to end the fight, but it was enough to make his grip on her slip.
Rose didn’t waste time trying to stand again. She didn’t waste breath trying to threaten him or plead with him. She didn’t even use the precious few seconds to take a good, decent breath.
All the air left in Rose’s lungs formed one thing and one thing only.
“James!”
No sooner had his name left her mouth than the intruder’s efforts followed through. The calming bath with lavender bubbles turned into a burning nightmare. Rose thrashed around with her legs but couldn’t getany real traction. She blindly beat at the man’s arm with one hand while trying to pry free the other from around her neck.
She was so all-consumed with trying to shift him off her that realizing she couldn’t breathe seemed to come last.
But it came with a quiet wallop.
Adrenaline and panic bloomed a field of screaming flowers within her, each one yelling something different.
She was Wildcard Rose and yet she was going to die in a bathtub.
