I looked around the large bathroom, trying to think. Holing up in a closet would make me feel like a sitting duck.
“If they’re in Benny’s office, I can make it down the stairs without them seeing me,” I whispered urgently.
“Stay where you are,” he instructed firmly. “The police are en route. Five minutes. I’m ten.”
So, in other words, an eternity.
“So, I just sit here and hope they don’t come up here?” I hissed frantically.
“Baby, I need you to stay calm for me, okay?” The combination of his no-nonsense tone mixed with the endearment had me calming a bit. “I want you to stay put. That’s a big house. It’s possible whatever they’re after is downstairs. The police will be there soon,” he reiterated. “I’ll stay on the line with you the whole time.”
“Okay,” I whispered, despite it feeling completely counterintuitive to simply stand and wait.
I fidgeted as I sat on the lip of the bath tub, unable to keep still. I could hear the sound of Travis’s motor and my own frantic breathing as my heart thundered in my chest. When I heard footsteps on the stairs, I froze in panic. I didn’t even have time to tell Travis before the knob turned.
A vaguely familiar man came in, though at first I couldn’t place him. He glared at me, his eyes bloodshot, the smell of alcohol immediately burning my nostrils. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded as he stepped unsteadily into the room and into my space, grabbing my upper arm roughly with his gloved hand.
My phone clattered to the floor as I gasped in pain.
“I’m house-sitting for Mabel, and you’re....” My eyes widened as realization struck me. “You’re Roy, her son.”
He sneered. “And you’re that little bitch my mother thinks so much of.”
I reeled back at the spite in his tone.
“There wasn’t supposed to be anyone here. That’s a fucking problem,” he gritted out, and yanked me with him toward the door. It was obvious immediately he wasn’t in his right mind, and I struggled against his grasp with every bit of strength I could muster.
“The police will be here any second,” I exclaimed, pulling my arm out of his grasp and falling on my backside painfully in the process.
As if on cue, the wail of sirens sounded in the distance.
He leaned down over me, wrapping his large hand around my neck and squeezing painfully.
I wheezed against his hold, gasping for breath as his image blurred.
“You listen to me,” he snarled. “You don’t say a fucking word about me. You never saw me. I have friends in very high places on the force. You say anything—you’re dead. Understand?”
I nodded frantically, desperate for air.
“Good, now you’re going to take a little nap.”
I didn’t have a second to grasp his meaning before he slammed my head on the marble floor and everything went black.
