It was like this stranger could read me. There was a time when I would have wanted to see where this man led me, because I was never afraid. All I wanted was mind-numbing pain, and I didn’t have anything to lose. But all I could think about at that moment was Grant. Where was he?
“You need a man like me,” he said.
But the stranger couldn’t read me. It was all a lie. A stupid come-on that he probably used every night.
I followed the line of the wall to the bathroom, and the man was one step behind me the whole way. “Where are you going?” he asked in a raspy, singing voice. “I just want to play, girlie.”
I went down a wood-paneled hallway to the bathroom, but the doors, both the men’s and the women’s, were locked. An emergency exit was at the end.
“Come here, girlie,” he said. “You want to play outside?”
I fumbled in my purse for my keys, trying to remember what Grant had taught me. Like a dagger. Aim for the eyes. The throat. The nose. The delicate places. Kick to the groin if you have to. My heart was beating so fast that I didn’t press hard enough on the door, and had to try again. The man smirked.
“Don’t be nervous, girlie. It’s just Ronny.”
Outside, we were alone. A garbage can. A single lamp hanging from the side. Water trapped in puddles where the asphalt wasn’t smooth. My shoes crunched on the wet ground. Thank you, Grant, for making me put on my better shoes.
The garbage can was blocking the whole road, and on the other side, I had to go past the man. Shit.
“Let’s play a game,” he said, smiling, realizing I was trapped. “One game. It’s simple. And I promise, I’ll leave you alone.”
He stepped towards me. I grabbed the keys in my hands.
“Stay the fuck away from me,” I said.
“Oh, girlie,” he crooned. “Tell me. What are you going to do about it?”
The pain in my chest surged, bringing me back to that man that ruined my chance at karaoke at Bathtub Hooch. Everyone always said that. Like I wouldn’t do anything. Like I was some helpless little girl.
But I could do something. I could hit this jerk too. He raced towards me and I swung my fist at his face, the keys gripped like a knife, but he ducked down and I missed, my force so strong that I fell to the ground.
He laughed, a cruel, evil sound. It became painfully clear how alone we were. What was I thinking?
“You want to play that kind of game, do you?” he asked. He came towards me and my body surged with adrenaline, tingling everywhere. The man lunged toward me. His hands gripped my throat and I choked. A thousand images of Grant flashed through my mind.Don’t think. Don’t hold back.Each breath that was stolen, I could hear his voice.Don’t think. Don’t hold back.I kicked and thrashed, but I didn’t hit anything, and I was struggling to loosen his grip around my neck.
Suddenly, a looming figure came behind the man. The figure pointed a gun to the man’s head. The sound of the bullet muffled. Blood splattered on my face. We fell to the ground, and I quickly stumbled out of his grasp. I wanted to scream, but then I locked eyes with the figure.
Grant.
“Grant. I—” I looked around. His gun was already stowed. He was wearing black gloves.
“I said stay in the car,” he said. He pulled the man closer to the building. “You could’ve been killed.”
He checked the man’s pockets for a wallet and looked over his ID. Then he pocketed the wallet himself. The man lay still on the ground.
Anything to focus on the fact that Grant had killed a man in front of me.
“What are you going to do with that?” I asked, nodding at the wallet.
“Give it to Kiley,” he said. Blood was pooling underneath the man’s head, mixing with the stagnant puddles.
“Who’s Kiley?”
“An eraser.” And while I didn’t know what that meant, it wasn’t that hard to guess. It gave me chills to see Grant be so methodical about the entire process. Arranging the man, like he was part of the line in a factory. One more step completed. Another set in motion. A conveyer belt of murder. The erasure of life.
“You killed him,” I murmured.
“And he would’ve killed you,” he said. I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. I knew it was true. He turned away. “You need to be able to defend yourself.”
