Page 38 of Fighting Conviction
“What the fuck was that?” The smoker’s rough voice demanded an answer, but he sure as heck wasn’t getting one from her. Ellie swallowed back her need for oxygen and covered her mouth from making any noise. The only thing she could hear was one of the men’s labored breathing quickening before the crunch of dry grass. “What was… is that a damn donut? Where the hell did it come from?”
Ellie hoped he wouldn’t connect a flying donut with someone stuck in the tree, but her luck had been craptastic so far, she didn’t want to take any chances. She turned down the brightness on her phone and covered up the screen with her jacket so she could risk calling Dev. He picked it up mid-ring while yelling, but she didn’t have time to listen.
“Dev?” Her whisper was hardly even loud enough for her to hear, but it worked.
“Angel?” When his nickname for her—the one that already made her heart skip a beat—came out in a bellow into her ear, her heart almost stopped completely, this time in fear as she paused for a second to make sure the men below hadn’t heard.
“It was probably there from earlier in the day.” The dealer’s response made her think she was in the clear, so she rushed out her plea for help before hanging up.
She prayed the wooden slats and branches underneath her hid any light from her phone she wasn’t able to smother and quickly sent her location, hoping that was all he needed.
“Nah, this is the only thing that looks like it coulda made those sounds. Did you hear it? It sounded like it came off the fuckin’ tree.”
The dealer barked out a laugh. “Man, you must be out your gott-damn mind if you think a donut came outta the sky. You sure you need this shit? You’re already higher than I ever been.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Whatever, I’m out. I hate bein’ in this park at night. It’s straight-up haunted, man.”
“And I’m the high one.” The other man huffed out a laugh. “Get goin’. I’ll be gone in a second.”
The sound of grass crunching grew more distant and Ellie blew out the air threatening to burst from her chest. With a soft cry of relief, she rolled to her back to release all the tension in her arms and shoulders. She considered leaving, but there was no telling who else was hanging out in the park. If Devil had replied back, it was best to wait for him—
“I see you, girlie.”
Chapter Fourteen
Icy fear stabbed Ellie’s heart and she stared up in horror at the shining light on the pine needles around her. Her breath panted out in clouds and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep from screaming.
“Come on down, now. I don’t bite.”
Ellie refused to move. If he wanted her, he’d have to come get her. If he thought she’d go down willingly, he had another thing coming—
A click echoed through the tree and what it implied reverberated in Ellie’s mind. Nausea roiled up her throat and she swallowed back her fear. Thanks to Devil, Ellie had heard that click hundreds of times before. At the shooting range.
“You know, the thing about parks at night… No one’s surprised when bad shit happens. You’d think a place parents send their children would be safe at any time. But it’s not, is it? Terrible things happen all the time in the dark, and people just… expect it. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Ellie checked her text messages, but Dev hadn’t responded yet.
“Not gonna talk, huh? Maybe you don’t believe me. Well, let’s say, for example, if some young woman, which I’m guessin’ that’s what you are from the pink on your tennis shoes. They’re slightly bigger than a child’s. Although, of course we ain’t talkin’ ‘bout you. Just some poor unlucky lady. But if this young woman were to… I don’t know, fall out of a tree in the middle of the night? Or hell, even if shots are fired, and a woman winds up dead… It’d be a travesty, certainly. But, a surprise? Nah. She shouldn’t have been in the park all alone at night. She was careless. Naïve. Stupid. The media wouldn’t go so far as to say shedeservedit. But they might speculate what even the best of women woulda been doin’ out that late. They’d probably resort to assumin’ some sexual encounter, and you know how that always goes for women.
“But I’m gettin’ ahead of myself. Bottom line, no one wants to think it could happen to them. Rationalizin’ why it happened to you… I meanher… that’s the game we all play, isn’t it?”
Still lying on her back, cold sweat slithered down Ellie’s forehead, making her shiver as it carved its way to the back of her neck. She checked her phone again, but there was no sign of rescue.
“Why don’t you just show yourself? Then I won’t have to accidentally shoot somethin’ vital. Wouldn’t it be easier to talk?”
Was this really happening? Could this guy really be threatening her right now? Threatening tokillher? In a public park? Ellie wiped her face and clutched her stomach as it twisted in fear.
Not knowing what else to do, she prayed. To God. To Sasha. Literally anyone who would listen.
“Suit yourself.”
A sharp crack of air resounded and Ellie screamed as somethingthunkedinto the tree, only a few feet away from her head.
“I didn’t see anything!” she yelled, enunciating the last word as tears streamed down her face. This lunatic was freakingshootingat her. “Please stop! I don’t even know who you are! Please just leave me alone.”
Tskingfrom below rattled her bones.
