Page 79 of Safe Haven

“I think your ex-husband will beg to differ.” The man holding my arm in an iron grip confirms my suspicion as he twists me in the direction of the back entrance. “He’s going to be real fucking happy to see both of you little pains the ass at the same time.”

I can almost feel the bruises blooming over my skin as I’m led outside and shoved in a waiting SUV. Becca’s practically tossed in behind me, then we’re wedged between the guys who grabbed us.

The man driving pulls away as soon as we’re in and I close my eyes as they put more and more distance between me and Maddox. I’m not going to cry. I won’t give these assholes the satisfaction, and I don’t want to upset Becca.

I peek her way, uncertain what I’m going to find. I know she seems tough, but acting tough and being tough are two different things.

It appears Becca might be both, because she’s got an unimpressed look on her face as her eyes move from man to man. After a few minutes, she asks the one who grabbed her, “What kind of gun is that?”

The man next to her seems confused by her question. “Why? You don’t know shit about guns.”

Becca shrugs. “Just curious.” She leans forward a little. “You guys keep your car really clean.” This time she directs her question to the guy next to me. “How often do you have to vacuum it?”

The guy next to me ignores her.

She’s undaunted and continues looking around. “How many miles per gallon does this get? Is it a hybrid?”

The guy driving spins to glare Becca’s way before gesturing at the men who abducted us. “Can one of you shut her up?”

“Fine.” Becca lifts her chin. “I was just curious. I like knowing things.”

I’m not sure what she hoped to gain by engaging criminals in small talk, but Becca’s almost bored reaction to this whole thing is actually helping me not freak all the way out. But now that it’s quiet, I can feel the panic starting to creep in, so I lean her way and ask, “How’s your period? Is there a lot coming out?”

“Feels like it.” She shifts around. “Probably gonna start leaking everywhere soon.”

The man on her side tries to scoot away, but there’s nowhere for him to go.

“It’s too bad we don’t have any extra pads with us.” I wrinkle my nose. “Soon it’s going to be everywhere.”

Now even the man next to me is leaning away. I’ve never been happier about society’s fucked-up patriarchal ways. They’vefucked women over for so long, but are about to come in handy. Because I’m gonna use them against these twats.

“Unless you want a huge mess on your hands —” I start.

“Literally,” Becca pipes up. Making me think she and I are working out very similar plans in our heads.

The two of us together can’t fight these guys. They outweigh us by hundreds of pounds, so even though we can obviously out-think them by a whole lot, brute strength will be hard to overcome. That means we’ve got to work smarter, not harder.

And it would be smart to stall.

“You should probably stop at a drugstore and get us some more products.”

I doubt they’ll be willing to take us inside, so one of these dumb asses will have to try to pick out a feminine hygiene product. I’m willing to bet not a single one of them can even identify a tampon, let alone locate it in a store. If I’m lucky, they’re not the kind of guys who would ask someone to help them find it either.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” The guy behind the wheel seems to be our biggest problem. I’m not sure if he’s smarter than the other two guys, or just more high-strung, but he’s starting to annoy me.

“Oop.” Becca sits up straighter in her seat. “That last clot was a big one.”

I could swear the dude beside me gags.

“For the love of God, stop at the next store.” The guy next to Becca has already had enough. “It’ll take me two minutes to get her some pads to cram up in there.”

I don’t think this guy understands how pads—or vaginas for that matter—work.

Mr. Hyper cranks the wheel to the right, taking us toward a drug store. He’s still going so fast the tires squeal against the blacktop as they search for purchase and I end up squished against the ugly guy beside me. We jerk to a stop in the parking spot closest to the door and Hyper turns to the guy sitting next to Becca. “Get your ass in gear.”

As the big guy gets out of the car, the driver turns his glare onto Becca. “And you better not try anything stupid.”

I’m pretty sure Becca’s never tried anything stupid in her life. Even drunk she’s smart enough to beat me at every round of online Scrabble we played, so I can only imagine what she’s capable of sober.

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