Page 35 of Playing Hard to Hate
What was I supposed to do?Had I really survived my mom dying to go out like this? Shot in a grocery store.Tell me this was a sick joke.
“Open the drawers now,” one of the men demanded, his gun pointed at the male clerk, Joe.
He was one of my favorites. One of the sweetest guys who you know wouldn’t harm a fly. He was fifty years old and still struggled with acne, his black hair was always slicked back and kinda greasy looking. He always wore a vest and dress pants even though the job only required black attire. He was so sweet to me and the other people he talked to, even though everyone made jokes and mocked him because he drove a Mercedes SUV working at a supermarket.
He got the SUV after his mother passed, and she had always wanted one, so even though it was ten years old, he treated it like it was brand new.
Was this the last time I’d get to see Joe?
He didn’t deserve this.
None of us did.
He always remembered things I told him, and he went to school with my mom. He’d told me so many stories about her. Even from here, I could see his pulse beating wildly at the base of his throat, his eyes wide with fear. His face was so pale. It looked like he’d faint at any moment.
“I…I can’t without a transaction,” he whispered, voice quaking with fear.
Move, Tatum.
“Get out of here,” Joe muttered.
My body still refused to unlock and obey my brain.
The robber looked up, his dark eyes immediately landing on me. I squeaked.Like a stupid little mouse.I squeaked. He lifted his hand and crooked his finger at me.
I was going to vomit. Pretty sure I was about to throw up everywhere. “You! Come here now.”
Breathe, Tate. Breathe. Just breathe. I was going to die sweaty and in my gym clothes in the middle of the grocerystore.
I looked around, seeing nothing but fear and panic in the eyes of every shopper around me as the man’s voice echoed in the eerily silent store. Even the obnoxious music wasn’t playing anymore.
“Did you hear me? Make your transaction!” He shifted the gun to me, and I willed my feet to move. My knees knocked together, adrenaline making my body tremble. “Don’t make me pull the trigger. I didn’t come here to hurt anyone, but I will if I have to.”
Move. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Move your feet, Tate!I screamed at myself, sliding my heavy feet against the floor, my cart bouncing into a metal bin of discounted items, knocking it over in my panic. I couldn’t breathe.Why couldn’t I breathe?
The man walked over, his strides long and purposeful. His gloved hand wrapped around the end of my cart, and he yanked it forward, pulling me along with a gasp. My fingers wouldn’t unlock from around the handle of the cart.
This isn’t happening. I should have gone for drinks with Millie. I’m going to die in a grocery store buying fruit for a stupid diet.
“Hurry up!” he growled, his dark eyes glaring at me as I shakily lifted the items out of my cart and onto the conveyor belt. “Scan the items!” he yelled at Joe, who shook his head, refusing. I rolled my lips into my mouth, trying not to plead with him to just cooperate. This man may shoot someone. Was a few hundred dollars in a drawer worth a human life?
The robber then pressed the cold metal of the gun to my temple, and I froze. Pinching my eyes shut for a moment, I willed myself not to scream. To not open my mouth. I feared it would only make the situation worse.
What had I done to deserve this?
“Scan them, or I’ll blow her brains out!”
The gunman moved closer, far too close for comfort. He reeked of cigarette smoke and stalesweat. “Wouldn’t want a pretty little woman like yourself to get hurt now, would we?” he whispered.
I was going to die. All because of a stupid diet. Because I so desperately wanted to be thin to get a man. To find someone to share my life with. A life that was about to end. At least I got my first kiss. But I was going to die a fucking virgin. What an absolute horror.
My frustration grew, and Joe couldn’t sit back and watch this go on any longer. “The cops will be here any minute,” he whispered, just making the situation worse. I glared at him, fear gripping every cell in my body as this man held my life in his hands.Why couldn’t he just scan the stupid strawberries?
“For your sake, I hope she’s still alive, or you’ll have to live with her death on your hands.”
A loud bang came from the other side of the store. Someone had thrown something at one of the hanging ceiling lights. Within seconds the atmosphere changed, the gunman’s attention shifted to the other side of the store. “Boss, it’s a can of tuna, still open.”
In seconds, I was suddenly yanked backward behind a strong wall of muscle. My hands automatically curled into the fabric of the man’s shirt, and I held onto the stranger like my life depended on it, all while fighting to keep my balance from the sudden movement.
