Saving Savannah

“Don’t forget your makeup,” I called after them.

The waiter came by, and brought us a round of ice water. It was too late for coffee. Which was too bad, because I always thought—

What occurred next happened so fast, it took my mind a moment to register. A man slid into the booth, directly across from me. A man with dark, greasy hair. Almond-shaped eyes, turned up at the edges…

Every last hair stood up on the back of my neck. All the blood in my veins turned to ice.

Casually, the man plucked a straw from the table and dropped it into the nearest glass. His eyes never left mine as he bent low for a sip.

“Hello there… Julia.”

Forty-Five

SAVANNAH

It was like my arms and legs weighed a thousand pounds each. Every ounce of joy and resolve in my body just melted away.

“Imagine running into you here,” the man across from me sneered. “A diner, of all places.”

I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t. There was a knot in my throat the size of a grapefruit.

“I have to say, ‘Savannah’ was a real cute choice of a name.” He snorted. “A stupid choice, because it’s one of the ways I actually found you. But a cute choice, nonetheless.”

Somehow I managed a shaky, shuddering breath. My body was frozen. My voice, a fraction of its normal volume.

“What do you want, Louden?” I squeaked.

“Oh, you know what I want,” he said matter of factly. Louden reached out and plucked the hat from my head, only to settle it casually on his own. “Right now it’s only a matter of giving it up.”

I couldn’t move, couldn’t flinch. I wanted to get away as fast and as far as possible — just let my flight instinct kick in, and totally roll with it.

But his eyes…

Like always, his eyes kept me glued to my chair.

“I… I don’t have—”

“No, no,” Louden interjected. “Of course not. That would be too easy, right? Besides, where would you put them?” His eyes strayed downward, to the low-cut cleavage of my sexy witch’s costume. He chuckled gruffly. “I don’t suppose they’re in there now, are they?”

I shook my head.

“You sure?” Still staring at my tits, he leaned back into the booth, wholly comfortable. “Did you need me to check?”

“I don’t have them,” I said. “Not now. Not here.”

“Then where?” said Louden sternly. “And when?”

I gulped hard, but the knot still wouldn’t go down.

“Better hurry. Your little friends are coming back.”

I glanced over my shoulder and noticed the guys had left the bathroom. They were talking amongst each other, still laughing. Heading this way…

“Julia!”

The snarled edge to Louden’s voice snapped me back to reality. It was his dark voice. The one I always hated.

“I said, where are the—”