For the Love of Anna (The Town of Pearl 1)

Think, Anna…think.

She felt his hot breath then his lips against her neck. When she tried to push away, he grabbed her throat and squeezed. His other hand pressed against the zipper of her jeans. He had the button undone and was working on the zipper. Oh, God, please help me.

“Please…” she barely got out.

He released his hold on her neck but kept her body against his. He kept rotating his hips and touching her everywhere. When he grabbed at her breast, ripping through the fabric of her blouse, he scratched her skin, and she cried.

“I have some money stashed in my room. If I give it to you, will you give us a few days to get the money my father owes you? I can ask the guys at work. They like me, they’ll help me.” She knew she babbled, but she needed to get to her room. She would escape out the window and get the hell out of town.

He paused a moment, and she pressed the palms of her hands against his chest. He was a combination of muscle and fat, the stereotypical wiseguy gangster.

The other man pressed against her, holding her hips while he rubbed his crotch against her ass. She was trapped between them, and panic set in. She nearly began to hyperventilate. Then she heard his question.

“How much you got stashed?”

She heard her father in the background.

“Anyone want a drink?’ She cringed, and the tears burned her eyes. The bastard was getting a drink, and she was about to be raped by two criminal gangsters. Anger and determination felt like they burned through her blood.

“How much?” The other man repeated the question, squeezing her hip bone, grabbing her roughly on her thighs.

“A few thousand,” she lied.

“A few thousand! You bitch. You been holding out on me.”

She turned toward her father to give him a piece of her mind, but he was already there and struck her across her cheek. She went flying to the floor. The other two men laughed.

It was horrible, and she wanted the floor to eat her alive.

“Please. I will give you all I have. Let me go to my room.” She held her hand against her cheek. She felt the blood, and the pain in her body was increasing with every minute that passed.

She slithered across the floor. Her body was in so much pain, but she feared for her life. She needed to escape.

The men didn’t move to help her up, and they didn’t stop her either.

The ache in her ribs made it difficult to walk. Her face and body throbbed with every step, but as she finally stood, holding the doorframe for support, she walked closer to the room. When she entered the room and slightly closed the door, she felt relieved at the distance between her and the three men.

No one followed her inside, and the second she was there, she grabbed the box under her bed and headed toward the window.

Carefully peeking over her shoulder to make sure they didn’t follow, she heard their laughter then an argument.

Lifting the window open, she crept out, closing the window behind her.

* * * *

Anna wouldn’t look down. She just focused on surviving and putting this life behind her.

With each step, the tears leaked harder and faster, and the pain increased.

Finally, she made it to the first floor and jumped the last twelve feet.

Her ankle twisted, and she bit her lip trying not to scream as her bruised and battered body hit concrete. Just her luck. How the hell could she run in so much pain?

Someway, somehow, she limped quickly to the corner. She could smell their cologne on her clothes. Bile rose in her throat, but she pushed on.

She waved down the first cab she saw and got in. “Go, go, go!” she yelled and constantly looked over her shoulder then behind the car as they traveled away from her apartment.