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Sarah
Who’s Sarah?
Go run the shower in the spare bedroom. I left a note in the steam for you on the mirror.
I reread the text, confused. A message in the steam? Would it even show again if she had? I felt foolish as I strode to the spare room. I turned on the shower, closed the door, and waited. As she stated, a message, now blurred in spots, appeared on the mirror.
What does it say?I texted.
I’m sorry. I want you to be safe. Thank you for everything.
Where are you?
I don’t know. Hiding. I thought I heard noises, like someone following me.
I sighed. If this foolish girl had just stayed here, we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this!
“Maria, I’m going out,” I shouted to my housekeeper as I left again. I took my car, a near-silent, costly hybrid that I liked to use for short errands when it was raining too hard to ride my Harley. The silent motor would come in handy today, though, for other reasons.
Sarah sent me a picture of her current location. I glanced at my cell while I drove, trying to decide which way I should be going. The picture she sent me was a forest, blurred in composition, but it was an area I recognized, nonetheless. Sarah had gone in the direction of the creek. She’d made more headway than I could have imagined in such a short time. She must have sprinted. Maybe she really was a runner. Her toned legs certainly gave the impression that she might be.
I swung the car around and headed in the other direction. If I went on the service road behind my property, I’d get pretty close to where I figured she was. All I had to do was make sure I wasn’t being followed. My eyes darted between the review mirror and the windshield as I scanned for potential unwelcome guests. I only took my eyes off the road to check beneath the seat for my weapon. My trusty .45 caliber with a silencer was where it always was, loaded and nestled under my seat.
I pulled onto the service road, a silent ghost in my hybrid. I scanned the forest for movement and listened out the window to the rustling sounds of nature. I left the car idling in park and got out. My years of living with criminals had taught me a lot, and I was a trained shot and assassin despite my good nature for clean living.
I stood still and listened. The picture Sarah sent me was from just up the road and into the forest a few feet. She was so close. I crept as silently as possible in her direction, and I was just feeling confident enough to pull my phone out and text her when I heard a crack of a twig ahead. I froze and listened. Was it Sarah or someone else? A second later, I got my answer. A gunshot rang through the forest at a target I had yet to see. I strained my eyes to see either the target or the shooter and was rewarded with the sight of a man with a handgun just a few feet off the road. He stood by a rock on the brook’s shore, his gun trained at something or someone I couldn’t see.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” he sang as I crouched down behind a dense bush and took aim.
His hand moved slightly on the gun, and I knew I had to take my shot now or never. The idea of shooting a man who wasn’t after a sweet twenty-three-year-old but was after rabbit or fowl was hard for me to fathom, yet I had to take the chance.
I aimed at the man’s kneecap and fired. My shot was dead on, as I knew it would be. My brother and I had taken a long-distance handgun training course as teenagers at the insistence of our father. It had never proved handy for me anywhere except at the gun range until today.
The man gasped in surprise and grabbed his knee. He howled in shock and agony before slumping over into the leaves at the edge of the creek, where he remained motionless. I’d have my security guard make an anonymous call to the police after I had Sarah safe. The man was on the edge of my property anyway. I was fully within my rights to tell my security to shoot first and ask questions later. Every single one of them would lie and say they took the shot if I needed them to. It paid to be a decent and loyal boss.
I squatted down and texted Sarah.
Come. Follow the creek where the man is. I’m right there.
I heard rustling in the bush, and I raised my gun again just in case. Sarah emerged from the forest a second later, a look of terror on her pretty face. Her legs moved faster than I could have imagined as she expertly jumped obstacles and dodged fallen trees. She leaped over the creek and careened at me full speed.
“Get in the car,” I said. I kept my gun poised and my eyes alert as I backed into the car and got in.
I sped down the dirt road toward my mansion. Sarah remained silent and sullen the entire way.
“Do you have anything to say?” I growled.
“Sorry?” she murmured. “I thought being away from you was better.” Fat tears ran down Sarah’s tanned skin.
“Well, you aren’t very away, are you?” I asked. I didn’t mean for it to sound as angry as it did. I was angry though. This girl had managed to turn my quiet life upside down in less than twenty-four hours.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“Give me your phone,” I said. She handed over the burner and her cell. I crushed the cell with my hands, my knee holding the wheel steady as I drove.
“Why?” she asked. “It was clean. I checked before I left for your brothers!”
“Do you know how quickly and easily someone can add a tracking device? How do you think that man found you?” I demanded. My blood raging at the stupidity of it all.
