“Someone’s trying to kill me! I need you to come to my apartment, or call the police, something. Just get someone here fast.” Her voice trembled and she whispered into the phone as she squeezed it between her shoulder and ear.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Mickey.” She sucked in a deep breath to calm her shaking nerves. “Please come here. She jumped me in myapartment and put a gun to my head.” Her words tumbled out faster and her beating heart slapped harder against her chest.
“Okay, calm down.” His voice softened but his breath turned ragged, as if he were running. “Where are you now?”
“In my bedroom. I knocked her out with my taser and ran to my room. I have her gun in case she comes in here.” A slight tremor rippled through her hands and she squeezed the butt of the gun to steady them. She couldn’t let fear stop her from protecting herself if need be.
“You’re still in the apartment? Where’s the woman who broke in?” The panic in Graham’s voice made her blood pressure spike.
“She’s passed out on the kitchen floor. I don’t know how long she’ll stay down. I didn’t know what to do. I thought she was going to kill me, but then my roommate came home.” Her breaths hitched and sharp, shallow gasps wedged in her throat. “Oh my God, Lydia. I told her to run. What if she comes in and gets hurt?”
“I’m going to hang up and call the police. Keep your phone right beside you. I’ll call you right back. I’m close by, but I might need backup and I want them on their way.”
“Okay. Hurry.” She shifted the gun in one hand and held the phone in the other. Her gaze locked on the screen and she willed it to ring. Agent Grassi couldn’t do anything until he got there, but it made her more confident just having him on the phone.
Seconds stretched out like hours. She kept her body as still as possible, her ears tuned into every shift and groan of the old apartment. Her phone vibrated in her hand, and she swallowed back tears of relief as Agent Grassi’s number popped up on the screen.
“Hello?” The word came out on the release of a pent-up breath.
“The police are on their way. Your roommate called them.”
A million scenarios played in her head of Lydia getting caught in the middle of this mess. Becca was missing. She didn’t need Lydia getting hurt because of her too. She couldn’t live with herself.
“She’s across the street at a coffee shop waiting for the cops. She’s fine, and she did the right thing by getting the hell out of there and calling the police.” An irritated sigh sounded through the phone. “You should have gotten out of there, too.”
Irritation intertwined with her fear. “She said someone was waiting downstairs. I didn’t want to get away from one psychopath just to run into another,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“I should be therebefore the police, so hold tight. Have you heard any activity?”
“I haven’t heard anything. But my door’s closed, and the kitchen is down the hall. I don’t know if I’d hear her if she moved around.”
“If she woke up and planned on coming after you, there’d be no reason for her to try and be quiet. You’d know.”
Great, just what I wanted to hear.
Her heart stopped beating for a second and she held her breath. She strained her ear toward the door. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Good. I’m turning the corner right now. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Be careful. She has long blond hair and I don’t know if she had any other weapons on her.” The guy might be a dick, but she didn’t want him to get hurt.
“I’ll be fine,” he said with another annoying laugh. “I’m going to hang up now. I’m the first one here, and I need both hands.”
Panic tore through her. She didn’t want to get off the phone. As stupid as it sounded, he was her lifeline right now. “Why do you need both hands?”
A beat passed before he said, “In case I need my gun. Keep your phone close in case you need it. Do you know how to use a gun?”
“Point and shoot?”
“Good enough. Hang tight.”
The call disconnected and she laid her phone face up on her lap. She wrapped both of her hands around the grip of the gun and kept her eyes locked on the door. The front door banged open and a muffled yell floated down the hall. Adrenaline sparked from her nerve endings, causing her teeth to clatter and her foot to bounce up and down on the shaggy rug. Graham was here, but it didn’t mean she was safe yet.
Heavy footsteps barreled toward her. “Mickey, I’m here,” he called out.
The vise of fear squeezing her lungs loosened, but her frayed nerves stayed on high alert. She kept the gun trained on the door.
