For a moment, I was frozen, unable to move or think or speak. I heard more commotion coming from the front of the store, but I couldn’t even think or react. And as one of the men came closer, it was finally as if an electrical charge shot through my body and I snapped into action.
Both men stared at me, the one closest to me moving an inch closer. I stared into his blue eyes, his dark eyebrows visible and a sharp contrast to the crisp color of his irises.
My survival instincts coursed through me. I darted for the front of the store—my only exit, since they were still blocking the rear entrance. But before I could reach out and grip the handle, one of the men grabbed my upper arm. His touch was like fire, singeing me, seeping into my bloodstream. It wasn’t painful, but I couldn’t deny how it made me feel or explain why I felt it so pronounced.
I gasped out on instinct and looked over my shoulder to see Blue Eyes staring down at me. “Easy,” he said softly. God, he was big and muscular, making me feel like a tiny speck in his world. “I thought you said it was only the one asshole?” The man with the blue eyes was the one to speak, his focus never leaving me.
“Yeah, I thought so too,” the other man answered, his gaze dark and dangerous, his eyes like spilled ink. Like the very devil himself. This man terrified me and I had no idea why. His voice was deep and serrated, cruel and violent.
“It was only supposed to be that one motherfucker,” Blue Eyes said again, and I swallowed in fear as I pressed my back to the wall, his hand no longer wrapped around me.
The commotion in the front of the store was getting louder, seemingly more violent. I felt my eyes widen, tears tracking down my cheeks. The one with the dark eyes loomed over me; the only thing I could see on his face was his eyes, dark and lifeless as he looked at me. And those masks, those skeleton masks that were so damn terrifying, reminded me of death.
“D, wanna go check on them?” he said to Blue Eyes.
For a second, the one named D didn’t move, and I snapped my focus to him. He stood only a few feet from us, looking down at me, his eyes locked on mine.
“Dude, you going or you want me to?”
Blue Eyes looked at the other man then back at me. “Don’t touch her,” he said, and I looked at the scary man to see his brows knitted.
“What the fuck?”
But Blue Eyes gave me a look before turning, as if he was forcing himself to leave. I heard the door to the front of the store open. There was muffled conversation and deep voices. I heard Richard grunting in pain and felt my tears come harder and faster. I had to do something, anything.
The man with the dark eyes looked over his shoulder, and I snapped my gaze to my desk, to where my cell phone lay.
I jerked my head back in his direction just as he turned around to face me once more, his eyes narrowing. Was he smart enough, in tune enough with his surroundings, to know what I was thinking?
I had a feeling that told me yeah, he probably was.
Chapter Three
Amelia
“P-Please….” I’m not sure what I was begging for. My safety? My life? I assumed these men had no intention of killing us or they wouldn’t have their faces covered. But I didn’t know how the mind of a criminal worked. Maybe even desperate ones at that.
And then a sliver of anger crept up that I’d resorted to begging in the first place.
I slowly stood straighter, the wall to my back, my hands flat against it. I kept my focus right on him, my eyes locked on his. Fuck him—all of them—for making me feel this way. If he thought I was going to be their victim, if they thought I’d let them terrorize me… they were sadly mistaken.
I lived with an abusive father, an absentee mother.
He was nothing to me.
He couldn’t do to me anything that hadn’t already been done.
And then I saw the corners of his eyes crinkle as if he were grinning, maybe knowing my thoughts.
“You gonna play by the rules, Red?”
I narrowed my eyes at his little nickname, presumably because of my red hair.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You got fire in you.” His gaze dropped to my waist and I felt a chill move through me. “Wonder if you’re a natural redhead.”
“Fuck you,” I spat out and clenched my teeth.
Even with the mask on, I knew that pissed him off. Maybe my words weren’t what he was used to hearing, not something he was used to being directed at him.