Page 37 of Help Me Remember

He glanced back as he headed toward a large archway where I could see a crowd of people looking toward the alleyway. A quick look told me it was an open-air market, and I wondered what he was doing.

“C’mon,” Eric said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the entrance. “Last thing they want to do is start firing into a crowd.”

“That,” I began, following as he pulled me into the thickest part of the crowd, “is actually a good idea.”

“I have them now and then,” he said with a laugh, though it was high-pitched and shaky. “Kind of hoping we can lose them in here and get out as quick as possible.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” I muttered as I watched the two men slide into view, looking around quickly. I winced when one of them straightened, barking something and nodding in our direction. “Pretty sure we just got spotted.”

“Keep moving,” Eric said, and I followed him.

There were stalls and small inlets where tiny shops were set up. Some of them were food, but most looked like a standard flea market blend of handmade goods and cheap knickknacks sold at a higher price. Eric and I struggled through the crowd, though I didn’t know where he was taking us.

It didn’t matter, however, as one of the men appeared in front of us at a booth, and another came up and shoved himself beside Eric. Tensing, I stepped forward only for the man next to Eric to allow me to see the gun pressed against Eric’s side, his dark eyes flashing an unmistakable warning in my direction.

“Come with us,” he told me, his accent thick but in English, “and we’ll let this one go.”

“Liar,” I hissed, unsurprised but despairing that no one around us had noticed what was happening.

“Come with us,” he said again, barely glancing at the group of people moving past us, a mix of young men and women who shouted and laughed.

Eric watched them and then looked at the man holding the weapon. “Quick question, have you ever seen Home Alone 2?”

The man shoved the gun into his side. “Shut it.”

Eric snorted. “Just checking.”

Both men focused on me, who they thought was the obvious threat. So neither of them noticed when Eric’s hand shot out to a girl beside the man holding him hostage and squeezed her ass hard.

The reaction was as immediate as it was loud. The girl shouted in outrage, whipping around to face them. By the time she looked at Eric, he had already taken a step away and was staring at his confused attacker in feigned shock and outrage.

“Excuse you?” the girl barked at the increasingly confused man, reaching out and smacking him on the chest. Her friends turned, asking her what happened. “This motherfucker thinks he can just grab my ass!”

“Jesus, what is wrong with you, man?” Eric asked, shaking his head. “In broad daylight?”

Understanding filled the goon’s face, and he snarled something at Eric that I couldn’t hear over the sound of outrage from the woman’s friends. The same woman stepped forward into his space. “Oh no, you got a problem with anyone it’s with me because I sure as hell have a problem with you.”

The other man, frowning, stepped forward to try to help, but half the group turned on him as soon as they realized he was with the first man. Now, even more people were starting to get involved, and a crowd was forming around the two men. Eric managed to slip back toward me, taking hold of my hand.

“C’mon,” he said, dragging me away and back toward the entrance as the crowd grew louder, feeding on one another’s outrage.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked once we were free of the crowded market and out on the sidewalk.

“That was…me making it up as I went,” Eric said, and I could see a thick layer of sweat on his brow as he yanked his phone from his pocket and opened an app. “I don’t know, I’ve never been in this sort of situation before. Maybe we should have called the cops instead of this stupid idea of getting away first.”

“If you didn’t trust the cops at your local station, then you shouldn’t trust the ones who would have come to the door,” I told him, having to admit his logic had been sound.

He flashed me a weak but grateful smile. “I guess you’re right. My brain’s going overboard right now.”

“Why?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, maybe because I just had a gun shoved between my ribs?” he asked, voice going shrill again.

“No, I mean,” I said, grabbing his arm and pulling him against a building to stare down at him, “you came up with a damn good idea and pulled it off perfectly. It was clever, quick, and more useful than anything I did. Why are you questioning yourself?”

Eric’s shoulders slumped. “I just…if I screwed it up, everything could have gone wrong in a second. Those guys were willing to shoot us, and no one was even paying attention while they had a gun held to me. I could have been dead before anyone but you knew what happened, and who knows what they would have done to you. And Christ, what if they’d done something to that woman? I shouldn’t have involved her and—”

I kissed him. One minute he was babbling, terrified for himself and everyone else, showing he cared about other people as much, if not more than himself, even while he was in danger, and the next, I had my lips pressed against his.

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