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“Your cash and your suitcase,” said the low voice. “Yell for help and she dies. Run and she dies. You won’t see her, blind boy, but you’ll hear her scream just before I slit her throat.”
chapter twenty-four
Even though fear clenched my stomach like a vise, the ridiculousness of being mugged twice in one week wasn’t lost on me. The only difference was the first time around, I was alone, stupid, and looking for it; flying on adrenaline just like the good old days. But that night with Charlotte, the kind of fear that coursed through my veins was slow and thick like sludge. I had one thought and one thought only.
Whatever happens, he doesn’t hurt her. He doesn’t come close.
“Turn around, now,” the man said, and I could hear the scuffle of his shoes, a dance from foot to foot. “Slow. Nice and slow.”
We turned.
“He has a knife,” Charlotte whispered to me in a voice so strangled by fear I hardly recognized it.
A knife, not a gun.
“Run, Charlotte,” I whispered.
“No.”
“Run.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Damn her.
Had I been sighted, I’d make her run. I’d push her if I had to, but I was shackled by darkness. Weak. I could hurt her by mistake or make things worse in ways I didn’t dare imagine.
“Shut up, both of you. No one’s running anywhere.”
He sounded about fifteen feet away but drawing closer. I moved between Charlotte and the mugger, keeping her behind my arm, and gripped my cane tightly in my other hand.
“Drop the stick.”
Fuck no.
The cane was lightweight but had a long reach and was the only weapon I had. Rage was fast drowning my fear in a molten flood at this asshole for threatening Charlotte, for making her so scared. But he sounded young. He might chase Charlotte down if I fucked up. Then things would get a whole lot uglier.
“Okay, man, be cool,” I said. My cane hit the ground. “I’m going to give you my wallet. I’ve got at least a hundred bucks in there…”
“And her purse,” the guy said. “And her case.”
I ignored the last part, and I leaned in to Charlotte. “Put your purse on the ground.”
I felt her comply, and I did the same with my wallet, all the while, my nerves were lit up like a switchboard, and I mentally screamed at my brain tofucking workand show me the knife-wielding criminal on the other side of the black curtain.
“We’re going to back away now,” I said.
“Are you deaf too, fucker?” the guy said. “I want the case. Violin, right? Instruments sell for plenty.”
“Noah,” Charlotte whimpered. “Let’s just do what he says.”
“Smart bitch.” I heard the guy move, a scrape of shoe against asphalt, and I jerked backward. He laughed. “You can’t see shit, can you? I could stab you in the throat and then fuck your girl six ways from Tuesday, and there’d be nothing you could do about it.”
My pulse thrashed in my ears, and Charlotte gave a little cry. I reached and found her hand holding the violin. I pried her fingers loose—she was petrified by fear—and gripped it tightly in my own hands. The idea of giving her violin to this guy made me sick to my stomach. Charlotte’s parents had scraped by to save up for it; she’d had it since before her brother died… But what choice did I have? Charlotte was all that mattered.
“Here, man.” I set the case down, hating myself for giving it up. “You have everything now. We’re going to keep walking…”
“You don’t get to say what happens,” the guy scoffed. “I say. And I say I’d like some time alone with that sweet young thing over there.”
