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“I’m talking to you, boy,” the creep responded with a growl. Instead of biting, Rueben kept his eyes glued on the glass display, his hand resting on his gun. Grinding his teeth so hard it nearly caused a headache, Rueben let out a frustrated sigh and finally turned around when the asshole tapped him on the shoulder.
“I said, I’m talking to you, boy.”
The jackass then tapped him on the chest, a sneer present on his face.
“And I’m choosing to ignore you,sir.” Rueben pushed all the condescension he had in him into that one word.
“You should know better. Letting your woman eat junk like that. You should have better control of her.”
“Seriously?” Rueben asked, incredulously. He sent a quick look toward the restrooms, happy to see that Alisha wasn’t on her way back yet. “Welcome to the twenty-first century, asshole.”
“That’s exactly the problem! All you stupid dipshits falling to the feminist movement and letting your whores brainwash you like this. You should know better.”
At this point, Rueben had had enough. He looked down at the hand still on his chest before stepping into the other man’s space.
“Now listen up. I don’t know what your problem is, but I don’t have to listen to your drivel. I can take you in for assaulting a police officer,” Rueben looked down at the finger to make his point. “But I won’t. I’ll give you this one chance to turn around and walk out of the shop.”
He had the satisfaction of watching the man in front of him swallow down his apprehension. With just the smallest bit of pushback the creep’s bravado caved. He nodded quickly before reversing back out of the shop.
At that point one of the friendly waitresses came running up to him, out of breath.
“Officer Rueben? Alisha gave me this to give to you right before she rushed out the back door.”
She handed Rueben a small, folded piece of paper along with Alisha’s badge and gun.
Chapter 29
For as long as she could remember, Alisha had always scoffed at the stupid female main character who would head off on her own, thinking she could save the day. Even worse were the ones who fell for the ever-predictable trap of the villain giving the idiotic woman a note to say if she came by herself, then her precious loved one would be released.
Yet there she was, on a bus, heading toward the creepy bad guy. She had received an email from [email protected] giving her strict instructions to follow if she ever wanted Adam to see the light of day again.
After that, it was up to her to carefully play things so Rueben wouldn’t realize what she was doing. She knew he would eventually push her to get lunch if she didn’t get herself something to eat. It only took a few careful words from her to get him to take her to their favorite place.
Obviously, Colt—because she’d long since given up thinking it was anyone else—had been watching them for a while if he knew the best place for her to sneak away. He’d told her he would arrange a distraction and she was to make herself scarce.
Alisha had contemplated telling Rueben, but Colt’s careful warning at the bottom of his email had dissuaded her of the idea. She just couldn’t risk Adam’s life.
She wasn’t a complete idiot. She made sure to leave Rueben a note before sneaking out the back. Alisha was also a fully trained police officer, dammit! Gone was the scared, naive girl Colt had taken advantage of. If he thought it would be just as easy this time around, he had another thing coming.
After sneaking out of the shop, her only instruction was to get on the two o’clock bus to midtown. After that, he would reach out.
Alisha kept her eyes peeled on all the people around her. Even though she knew it was Colt who was hounding her, he’d managed to get a creepy older man in on the distraction which allowed her to sneak away, so who knew what else he had up his sleeve?
Her chest rose as she took careful, measured breaths, trying to calm herself, but nothing seemed to work. If she wasn’t on a bus, she might have stood up and started pacing to alleviate some of the pent-up tension.
Every person who looked at her only made her panic worse. A small part of her brain tried to remind her she was in uniform, on a regular bus route; obviously, the people would find it strange, but logic wasn’t quite working for her.
She was side-eyeing a kid who couldn’t be any older than six when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She’d long since silenced all notifications from Rueben and would have switched it off if not for the fear that Colt would try to reach her on it.
And a good thing, too. An unknown number was trying to phone her.
“Hello, my little slut,” a deep voice filled her ear. She remembered how that same voice had made her heart beat faster the first few times she’d spoken to him. It was definitely Colt on the other side of the line.
“Where’s Adam?” she demanded.
“Now, now. Sluts don’t get to make demands and ask questions. You’re here to follow orders. It’s about time I reminded you of that.” Colt tutted before carrying on with his stupid evil rant. “Now be a good girl for me and get off at the next stop. Underneath the bench you’ll find a burner. Toss this phone so your disgustingDaddycan’t trace you on it.” Alisha could hear the sneer in his voice as he spat out the word Daddy. She also felt her heart sink at the thought of leaving her cell behind.
“And then what?” she asked, keeping her tone even. There was no point in showing him how much he was affecting her. He didn’t need to have any more power over her.
