Page 96 of Outside The Wire

“Hey. Um…I have a bit of a situation.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I have a flat tire.”

“Why didn’t you go to the gas station and get it filled?”

“Because there was no low pressure light. It just…died.”

“The tire died?” he said sarcastically.

I ground my teeth, trying not to let my irritation get the better of me. “Yes, it just died.”

“Baby, I hate to break it to you, but tires don’t usually just die.”

“Well, this one did.”

He sighed dramatically. “Alright, stay where you are and lock the doors. I’ll be there soon.”

“Wait, I haven’t even told you where I am.”

He chuckled, amused by that somehow. “Remember, you shared your phone location with me?”

“No.” That didn’t sound familiar to me at all.

“Well, I may have gone into your phone and done it for you.”

“You did what?”

“Hey, you have mine, too.”

“Oh.” Well, I guess that made it a little better. Still…

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Anything for you, baby.”

I hung up and locked the doors as he asked, waiting on the side of the road with nothing better to do at the moment than flip through the radio stations. I sent a text message to Noelle, pleading with her to grant me mercy for my lateness. I promised her hot cocoa every day for the rest of the month and a date with Wyatt—even though I swore I wouldn’t set them up.

Apparently, Asher had already let it slip that Wyatt was interested.

Sighing, I checked my phone, trying to find this locator thing Asher was talking about. I had no idea how any of it worked, and it took some Googling to figure out how to find it. But finally,after about ten minutes, I was pleased to say that I was in the know about this locator thingy and could see Asher was just minutes away.

“Look at that. I can see him moving and everything,” I chuckled. “It’s like it’s in real?—”

Glass sprayed across my lap as the driver’s side window was shattered. I screamed, flinching away from the figure looming outside the window, but even as I moved, I knew it was too late. I unlatched my belt, scrambling to get into the passenger seat, but whoever was out there grabbed me by the coat and then the hair, dragging me back. I screamed, kicking and thrashing with everything in me as I was pulled through the broken window.

Glass scraped across my skin painfully, cutting into my stomach. But I didn’t think of the pain as I tried to hook my boot into the steering wheel to keep from being taken. “Help!” I shouted over and over, crying out desperately to anyone who could hear me. My throat was raw from the savage abuse it was taking, but I couldn’t stop, not when it might save my life.

“Stupid bitch!”

My body was torn from the vehicle, my foot no longer able to hold me to the vehicle. The man tossed me to the ground, then grabbed a fist full of my hair and slammed his meaty fist into my face several times before I blacked out and hit the ground.

Rough hands grabbed at me, tearing at my coat, but I was too out of it to move even the slightest bit. My body jerked and I was rolled over. I pried my eyes open, staring into the horrifying, soulless eyes of my attacker as he searched me for God knows what.

And then…and then he was gone. Swept off me in a flash. I thought maybe it was all a dream until I heard grunting and a pained cry. Mustering strength I didn’t have, I rolled myself to the side and rested my head on the ground. But what I sawcouldn’t be right. Asher was here, but he was unlike the man I knew.

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