His (Ties That Bind 2)

I don’t argue and walk in through the sliding glass doors and toward the ladies’ room. The center is busy, and we have to wait in line for a few minutes, but pretty soon, it’s our turn. When Josh is finished, I lift him up at the sink to wash his hands.

It’s when we walk out that I see them.

Josh must see them at the same time because he stops, then waves. He recognizes the men from last night. They’d returned his scarf.

“Let’s go,” I tell Josh, pulling him along toward the door where, through the glass, I can see Lev at the pump across the parking lot.

“We’ll use the other exit,” the man says near enough to my ear to make me shudder. His hand falls on my shoulder again, like last night, except that today, it’s heavier, and when I try to pull away, he shifts his grip to my upper arm, and I know he’s not going to let go.

“You were getting ice cream,” Josh says to the younger one, who is on Josh’s other side and trying to take his hand.

“Let us go,” I tell the bigger man at my side.

“My orders are to bring you and the boy in. That’s all. I’m not going to hurt you, and you don’t want to scare the kid, so act normal.”

I look back over my shoulder and see the SUV still at the pump.

Shit.

“Please, I—”

“Wally!” I look down at the same moment Josh’s hand slips from mine and see his other one in the younger man’s hand as he separates us, walking him fast toward the exit at the back of the center. “I need Wally!” Josh is trying to get free of the man, body half-turned as he sees his stuffed animal farther and farther behind.

“I’ll get you another toy,” the man tells him in an accented voice. If he’d spoken last night, I would have known. But the one who has me, he sounds American.

“He needs his toy!” I yell louder than I’m sure either of our companions like and loud enough that people stop and look.

“Fine,” the one who has me says through gritted teeth. He leans toward me. “You grab it. We’ll hold on to the kid for you.”

I look at Josh as he’s hurried out of the service area. I grab Wally and run after them, wondering how no one is stopping us. Don’t they see what’s happening?

We’re out back in the next minute and headed toward a dark SUV with tinted windows. It’s parked illegally, and the man who has Josh opens the back door as the older one grabs my arm again.

“Mommy!”

“I’m coming, Josh!” I run for him, but the one who has me won’t let me get to him.

I remember the pistol still in my purse. It’s loaded. Ready. But Josh is inside the SUV.

The younger man gets into the driver seat after closing Josh’s door, and although I can’t see him, I hear him calling for me as the older one walks me around to the other side.

Slipping my hand into my purse, I feel for the pistol. Just when I get my hand around the grip, I see the sliding doors open, and Lev rushes through them.

“Hey!” he calls out sharply, cocking the pistol he takes out from beneath his jacket. It’s got a silencer on it. I can see that from here. “What you’re taking doesn’t belong to you.” His voice is low, rage just beneath the surface of that false veneer of control.

“Motherfucker,” the one who has me says and reaches beneath his jacket, eyes glued to Lev. That’s when I pull my pistol out because he doesn’t expect me to have one. He doesn’t expect me to be armed or dangerous.

But I am.

I did it once before, but I was too late then. Joshua was already dead by the time I acted because I hesitated.

I won’t be too late again.

And so, steeling myself, I cock my pistol, ram it under the fat belly of the man who has me, and in the same instant that he realizes what’s happening, that he meets my eyes, I pull the trigger.

The pop is quieter than I expect. Maybe it’s his fat that muffles the sound, I think, as the man stumbles backward, then slumps against the wall.

There’s another sound, another popping. I open the back door to get Josh and can see Lev easing the younger man into the driver’s seat.

Lev shifts his gaze behind me at the man now seated on the ground.

Josh stares up at me when I turn to him, dropping my pistol and grabbing him in my arms. I bury his face in my chest so he doesn’t see the man on the ground.

“SUV is at the pump,” Lev says to me. “Walk. Don’t run.”