He hesitates and glances at Caesar. Caesar nods, and all three of them step forward.
I back up several steps, keeping the gun leveled. I aim at Caesar since the others seem to be taking direction from him.
“That is one hot little ass.”
I turn quickly, and three more men come at me from the opening in the hedge. One is an older guy with a bushy grey beard. The other two are maybe late thirties, clean-shaven, and stocky. I back up a couple of steps, looking over my shoulder at Caesar and Brett. They both have their arms outstretched, waiting to grab me.
Sidestepping to the left, I point the gun toward Caesar.
“Don’t come near me!” I yell. My hands are shaking. I can’t get a proper grip on the gun as I fumble for the safety. “I’ll shoot!”
Brett laughs.
“I’ve seen you shoot,” he says. “Somehow, I don’t think you’ll manage to hit any of us, let alone all of us, baby.”
Breathe, Hannah. Breathe!
I take a step backward, trying to keep all of them in my vision at once. I wrap my finger around the trigger and bite down on my lip again. I want to come back at him with a clever retort of some kind, but my mind is devoid of words.
They start to spread out and move in on me. I swing the gun from right to left. I should fire. I know I should fire, but I just can’t.
What good would it do?
Someone grabs my arm. The gun goes off. Caesar and Brett duck out of the way, but the bullet goes nowhere near them. There’s a sharp pain in my wrist as my hand is wrenched to one side, and the gun falls to the ground.
I scream as another man steps up and grabs my free hand, twisting my arm behind my back. Caesar appears in front of me, grabbing me by the chin.
“I told you,” he says, “it’s gonna happen. You might as well get used to the idea. We’re gonna take you back to Mark’s camp now, and you’re gonna cooperate, you hear me?”
“Fuck you!” I scream in his face, and one of the men behind me grabs a hold of my hair, pulling my head back painfully.
“I don’t give a shit if she cooperates or not,” a gruff voice growls into my ear. “I’m happy to smack some sense into her as soon as we get back there.”
“I don’t want to wait.” Brett steps forward and shoulders his way past Caesar.
“What?” Caesar turns his head to look at Brett.
“I’m gonna teach her a little lesson right now.”
Caesar snickers and grins.
“Suits me.”
I kick and scream as I’m pulled backward and over to the grass next to the sidewalk, but there’s nothing I can do to get my arms out of the tight grip on them. Brett is in front of me again, reaching out and gripping one of my breasts roughly.
Pushing back against the man behind me, I pull both knees to my chest and kick out, landing my heels firming into Brett’s stomach. He doubles over, gasping for breath, and the hand holding my hair shakes my head hard enough to rattle my teeth.
Brett stands and catches his breath, glaring at me. All at once, he steps forward, pulls his fist back, and punches me in the side. I think I hear one of my ribs actually crack, and I scream again.
“Stupid little bitch.” Brett reaches down and unfastens his belt. “Get her down on the ground.”
I’m thrown forward, barely catching myself on my hands as they hit the dirt. The pain in my ribs is crippling. I can’t catch my breath. Brett is on top of me, rolling me to my back. I try to pull my legs to my chest so I can kick hi
m again, but his hands are on my thighs, and Caesar is pulling my arms up above my head.
I keep screaming and struggling, but there are hands all over me, pinning me to the ground.
“I’m gonna finish what I started, baby,” Brett says with a laugh.