Page 30 of Heartless

“No shit, dumb fuck. That’s why when we get back, we’re taking her out of here.”

A new fear fills me. I know that nobody will come looking for me. It’s Saturday evening, and the studio is closed tomorrow. Onyx won’t be back until a couple of days from now.

It might be too late, then. I’ll have to figure out how to get out of this situation.

We spend another twenty minutes with him pacing and mumbling and me trying to figure out how to get out of this situation before Amy returns.

When the knock sounds at the door again, we make the trek back from my office to the front door.

“Got five Gs on one go! This is a rich bitch! We don’t get more than five hundred in a day from ours!” Amy chirps as she walks through the door.

The answer comes to me just as the door is about to close. I see Chopper, the owner of a bike shop across the street, locking his doors. His son, JC, and another worker, Cruz, stand by talking as they wait for him.

I rush through the door screaming, “Fire!” and they all turn in my direction, along with a few other people walking down the sidewalk.

“I’ll be back for you, bitch!” I hear Jesse call out behind me.

JC, Cruz, and Chopper, in that order, come running in my direction as I shout, “He’s got a gun!”

I hear a shot ring out, but I know that he hasn’t hit me because I don’t feel anything while I’m still running toward the bike shop.

JC and Cruz pass me up, and I hear them taking shots at Jesse just as Chopper pulls me into his arms.

“You all right?” he asks, holding me.

I’m shaking like crazy and too scared to speak, let alone open my eyes.

“It’s okay. They’ll get the piece of shit. They don’t have him yet, but his ass is wounded,” Chopper says.

I tell him what happened as I turn to see JC and Cruz coming in our direction.

“He got away,” JC says.

“Where’s the lady?” I ask.

“Over there,” Cruz says, pointing to where the woman sits on the sidewalk surrounded by a few passersby determined not to let her go.

“We’ll get them, honey, I swear, but first we need to call and report it,” Chopper says.

“You got someone you need to call,” JC asks.

I think about my husband and sadly shake my head.

“No, I don’t.”

7 – MEADOW

Raven-colored hair, that’s lost its luster, hangs limply around my shoulders, and my tiny, one-hundred-pound frame has lost ten pounds that I couldn’t afford to sacrifice. A wave of nausea rushes over me, forcing me from the edge of the tub to run to the toilet.

Gripping the edge of the cold bowl, my body bows as everything within me clenches. I spew forth the last remnants of my lunch, shuddering and crumpling to the floor.

I take a few deep breaths and push myself up from the floor as the ache in my hip intensifies. Sniffling, I walk to the sink, grab my toothbrush, and squeeze toothpaste onto it.

I hear a truck outside, and it sounds as if it’s idling in our driveway. Every time someone comes to deliver a package, fear fills my heart. Every time someone comes to service our home, I’ve canceled at the last minute, wondering if it might be my attacker.

I’m terrified of menial things like getting the HVAC system serviced or calling a plumber or any of the repairmen who might normally visit our home. Thankfully, we haven’t needed any of those services except for the plumber, but I made sure that they came on a Sunday when I knew Onyx would be home.

A part of me knows that I’m being illogical by assuming that the man knows where I live. Yet, another part of me wondershow long he was watching me and my studio. What if he’s followed me home before?

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