First, I have to handle the girl.
Without letting her get out and go inside to pee first, I lock up the room and get back in the car. I feel her eyes on me, but she doesn’t break her silence until I fire up the engine.
“What are you doing?”
I don’t answer her.
She asks again, her voice softer and dripping with nervousness, when I pull up in front of the adult store. “Jasper, what are you doing?”
I kill the engine and look over at her. “I’m gonna go into this store and buy a few things. I would highly suggest you listen to me this time and don’t scream when I open the door. See, I’m going to tell anyone who looks at me twice that you and I are into kinky shit and we’re roleplaying right now. I’m gonna tell them you’re an exhibitionist and you like for strangers to look at you. You’ve got some shame about it though, so you like to be tied up first, you like to pretend it’s against your will.”
She stares back at me with abject horror, but I’m not done.
“And then I’m gonna tell them about our little game and the signal my adventurous girlfriend and I came up with, how when you’re wanting some attention and you see someone you want to share your body with, you call out to them for help. I’m a good liar when I need to be, so I’ll be convincing. I’ll draw that unwitting stranger right into our twisted little game, and when they hear you screaming and come out to see what’s going on, they’re gonna see how pretty you are. They’ll take one look at those big blue eyes and those lips that look to be made just for sucking cock, and who do you think they’ll want to believe, Autumn? You or me? If they believe you, they’re in the presence of a dangerous man, a killer. They’re in a moral predicament with a potentially scary outcome and their conscience prodding them to do something, to put their ass on the line to save some girl they don’t know. If they believe me, they just get to look at a pretty girl naked. So they’re going to believe me, because most people take the easy path every chance they get, and then while you’re screaming and crying and begging me not to, I’m going to take off your clothes and show you off to some pervert who works the counter at this farm town adult store. That’s what happens if you scream.”
Her jaw hangs open and she stares at me as if I’m the devil incarnate.
Unfazed, I hold her gaze and tell her, “So, these are your options, snowflake. The choice is ultimately yours.”
Autumn swallows, her pretty blue eyes flickering with a myriad of emotions before she looks away from me.
She must not be an exhibitionist, because when I open the car door this time, she doesn’t make a sound.Chapter SixAutumnHe’s crazy.
A madman. A psycho. A sexual maniac.
My mind is screaming at me that I need to get away from him, but I can’t move. I’m paralyzed with terror, imagining the scenario he just painted a picture of. Imagining him actually doing it.
I have no reason to think he wouldn’t.
My stomach rocks. I wish I could clutch it and sink back against the seat, but I can’t move much with my wrists both shackled to the door handle.
I think I’m going to be sick.
I don’t know how long he’s in the store, but it feels like forever.
Before he made that threat, I wouldn’t have hesitated to scream bloody murder when a dinged-up blue Cadillac pulled into the space beside us. A tall, thin man gets out and glances in my direction. As soon as he does, he does a double-take and offers a weak smile that gives me the creeps.
A scream catches in my throat. I want to cry out for help, I want to appeal to him and tell him a straight-up psychotic man has kidnapped me and I need help… but I’m too afraid Jasper wasn’t bluffing. I’m too afraid the stranger wouldn’t automatically believe me. My story is unusual, so he might be torn. He might go inside and ask if anyone else saw the girl in the car outside. Jasper will speak up, he’ll tell his twisted story about our sexual debauchery. The strangers may be skeptical, but he’ll invite them to come outside and he’ll show them.
And he’ll do it. I may not know him well, but I know down to my bones if I defy him even after he so vividly told me what would happen if I did, he’ll execute the punishment. He’ll hold me down while I kick and scream, he’ll tear off my clothes and show every inch of my naked body to the curious onlookers.