Shadows engulfed me as I fled deeper into the alley. I ran even as I blinked hard, trying to adjust my eyes to the lack of light.
Out of nowhere, my body slammed into something thin and icy, the force of the collision knocking me to the ground while the air vibrated with a metallic clatter. Still drunk on adrenaline, I lurched up, fingers gripping the iced-over metal making up the fence.
“Turn on a light,” one of the men demanded, and I knew they were closing in.
My stomach leaped into my throat, and I looked up, notingthe fence was at least eight feet tall. This left me with two choices: start climbing or take my chances with the criminals.
“There he is!” one of them yelled as the bright beam of a flashlight made me squint.
The night was filled with a rattling clang when I hurdled onto the fence. Every joint in my fingers and toes ached and protested as I scrambled to gain vertical distance.
My foot slipped, and in my desperation, I dropped the paper bag I’d been determined to keep. It thumped on the ground as I coiled my fingers around the sharp, slippery metal and regained my balance.
I spared one moment of sorrow for the bowl of Buffalo’s best chili I wouldn’t get to finish.
Laughing, the men trampled it while grabbing the fence and shaking. Beneath my tenuous grip, the metal trembled, and pain sliced through my fingers with every jolt.
Gritting my teeth, I climbed a little higher, and then someone threw their entire body weight into the fence. My foot slid again, but at the last minute, I caught myself and dangled above them, my safety hinging entirely on one weak, shaking hand.
Guess I wasn’t a cat after all.
I couldn’t climb for shit.
A hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked, my precarious grip no match for something so steady. I plummeted as the bodies made room so I could splat spectacularly on the pavement. Listen, I hadn’t made it that far up, so why did it feel like I hit from twenty stories high?
Before I could recover, I was dragged to my feet.
“Hold him!” someone ordered.
Arms pinned behind me, I watched one of the men move closer. The flashlight illuminated the flat, resolved look in his hollow eyes and the determined set of his jaw.
“Where’s your cash?” he demanded.
Using the weight of the man pinning me, I leaned back and kicked with both feet. The soles of my shoes hit him dead center in the chest and sent him stumbling backward, though not enough to knock him down.
His incredulousness only lasted a second before he straightened and laughed.
He laughed.As if I hadn’t put every last bit of my strength into that defense, as if practically slumping into the man who held me hostage, too drained to stand on my own, was a joke.
Thank God it was dark in this alley because the tears that filled my eyes were a useless embarrassment.
I was saved from humiliation when a meaty fist slammed into my face, rocking my head on my shoulders and sending me sprawling onto the pavement like a dead starfish.
“Search him.”
At least I wouldn’t die hungry,I thought as they grabbed the front of my jacket, ripping at the zipper and forcing it down. I knew I should fight back, but honestly, what was the point of fighting all the time if all I ever did was lose?
Rough hands jammed inside my open coat, recoiling a second later. “Christ! He’s ice-cold!”
Halfway to a corpse.
“Hurry up!” someone else complained.
The morbidity of the thought infused me with panic, andI began to struggle anew. A fist slammed into me again, the force of it scraping my cheek over the uneven ground.
“Not even two hundred,” the guy spat. “Damn. Why you so broke?”
One thing about bleeding is it’s warm. The oozing blood felt kinda nice on my wind-chapped cheek.
