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Then I slip out of the VIP room. After a moment of searching and looking, I manage to find the bathrooms toward the back of the restaurant.
I step in and do my business. While I’m finishing up, I vaguely register someone coming into the bathroom. There’s a click of heels. From under the bottom of the stall door, I see an impressive pair of red pumps stride across the tile floor.
And then stop in front of my stall.
I press my hand against the door. It’s locked, of course. But that peeing-in-public paranoia settles in anyway. “Sorry, this stall is occupied.”
“Oh, I know.”
I stare, confused, at the stall door. Alright. So why is this woman just standing in front of it? And why does her voice sound familiar?
“I’ll just be a minute, then…”
I take my time, thinking that if I don’t rush, the weird woman might go to one of the other stalls. Maybe they’re occupied? I glance to my left and right. Nope. No disembodied feet under there. Out of order, perhaps, but that seems odd for an establishment like this.
Frowning, I finish up. It won’t be the first awkward encounter in a bathroom that I’ve ever had. Probably won’t be the last.
But when I open the stall, my blood runs cold.
Because the red heels belong to Holly Wilson.
It must be obvious on my face how startled I am. She smirks at me, her head tilted. It sends the cascade of her red curls tipping to the side. Her crimson painted lips and seductive black dress make her look like a black widow. Something poisonous.
Instinct is an interesting thing. I usually think humans don’t tend to have much of it these days. But sometimes, instinct flares up, firing off a mile a minute.
That’s what I feel right now.
That I need to run.
That I’m in danger.
The problem is, when you’re a few months pregnant, you don’t move the way you’re used to. I’m too slow, even when I try to dart around her. Holly grips my upper arm before I even make it half a step toward the door, her nails biting into my flesh as she roots me to the spot.
“Tut-tut, don’t be like that. Wouldn’t want to harm the baby now, would we?”
Before I can answer, Holly reaches into her purse. I try to pull away when I see what’s in her hand.
I don’t know the first thing about guns. Well, that’s not true—I know one thing: stay away from the end that goes bang.
I’m not doing a very good job of that right now.
Hers is a small thing, easily concealed. She aims it right at my stomach, her finger loose on the trigger.
“You wouldn’t,” I say in horror. “There’s a whole restaurant of people out there and you wouldn’t get out the door before someone stopped you.” She’s not the only person in Texas with a piece, after all. I can guarantee that there’s at least a dozen people out there willing and able to be the good guy with a gun today.
My warning falls on deaf ears. Holly’s smile only widens as she kisses the muzzle of the gun to my rounded belly. “I think you underestimate the lengths that I’m willing to go when it comes to getting what I want. Now…” She jabs the gun into me a little firmer. “We’re going to walk out of this place together. You’re not going to make a fuss. We’re just two girlfriends who are heading out, going to catch up somewhere a little livelier.” She smirks. “And if you do anything to make a scene, I’ll just have to make an even bigger one. You don’t want to have a sudden, unfortunate end to your pregnancy, do you?”
A cold shiver runs down my back. I would call the bluff, but the look on this woman’s face tells me that she’s just unhinged enough to do it. Everything in me wants to run. But everything more wants me to protect my child.
“Alright. I’ll go with you.”
The bright smile on her face doesn’t match the sinister context. Neither does her voice, which comes out cheerful and pleasant as she crows, “Wonderful!”
Holly slips her pistol back into her purse, but her hand stays in there with it. The pointed look she gives me tells me silently all that I need to know.
Run and your baby dies.
She’s careful to escort me the long way around so we don’t pass by the VIP section. I’m sending telepathic signals in Reese’s direction.
