“Holy shit,” I whispered.
Katie heard me. I knew because she grinned at me, but it wasn’t a happy smile. It was batshit crazy.
“Hey there, Jena. It’s been a while.”
Now that my shock over seeing the gun in her hand was fading a little, I noticed that she was thinner than usual, her hair stringy and in need of a good brush. Her teeth were a nasty yellow color and her eyes were super shiny. She looked like absolute shit and I realized at the same time that she was completely fucked up on something.
“Uh, yeah, Katie. Long time no see.”
The fear wasn’t easing, but I was beginning to think again, at least a little more clearly. I needed to get away from her and that scary gun or at least call for help. My phone was still in my hand but she didn’t seem to notice.
Her hand was shaky the longer she held the gun up and I wondered if she was still high or if she was coming down. Either way, she was dangerous. I had to remember that.
“Step slowly toward me,” she commanded, backing up a little.
As I did as she said, I fervently wished I had even an ounce of Tia’s skills. I had a feeling my cousin would be able to disarm Katie with very little trouble.
I was careful to keep my right side turned slightly away from Katie so she wouldn’t see my phone. I inched past her, never taking my eyes off her.
“Go sit on the couch,” she instructed me.
I did it, barely managing to keep my phone hidden as I sat down. As soon as I did, Katie came to stand slightly behind me, to the left. I could see her out of the corner of my eye as she pulled her own phone from her pocket. Her head was down and I realized she was texting someone.
If I couldn’t get away from her or get the gun, I needed to call for help. Moving very slowly, I turned my phone slightly up so I could see the edge of the screen. I hit the home key and slid my thumb across the screen to unlock it. King’s name was right beneath the pad of my finger. Pressing the speaker against my leg, I hit the call button and prayed that it wouldn’t go to voicemail.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw she wasn’t even paying attention to me. I shifted experimentally to see if she would notice and her head immediately came up.
Okay, so maybe she was pretending not to watch me, but she was definitely paying attention.
“Sit still,” she snapped before looking back down at her phone.
My eyes rolled down and I could see that the call was connected. I hoped King was still listening and not about to hang up “Why are you doing this, Katie?”
“Doing what, Jena?” she asked with mock sweetness.
“Uh, holding a big handgun to my head?”
“Because I’ve always wanted to see you get what you deserve and now someone is willing to pay me a lot of fucking money to do it myself.”
Her eyes came up briefly and the look in them made a shiver shoot down my spine. Then she went back to her phone.
“What do you think I deserve?” I questioned softly.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. I have better things to do than answer your questions. Now, where are your car keys, we’re taking a little ride.”
Relief filled me briefly. “My cousin has my car. She had to run to the store.”
“Fuck!” Katie shoved her phone in her pocket. “When is she gonna be back?”
I shrugged. “A couple of hours.” It was a lie, but I wanted to get out of here before Tia came back. In the state she was in now, I didn’t think Katie would hesitate to shoot my cousin.
Katie was silent for a few moments. “Okay, we’ll take my car.” Using the barrel to gesture, she ordered, “Get up, step around the couch, and go out the front door.”
I followed her directions, carefully switching my phone to my left hand as I turned my back to her to walk around the sofa. When she didn’t say anything, I assumed she didn’t see it. My back was still to her and I looked down at the display. The call was connected. Carefully, I hit the button that made the screen go black and pressed the phone against my belly, glad I was wearing a baggy shirt.
I looked over my shoulder at Katie again and saw that she was looking down, tucking her hand into her purse, and still holding the gun.
Now was my chance. The front door was open and she wasn’t paying attention. I tucked my phone into my front left pocket, getting ready to haul ass.
I’d taken one step forward when she called out, “Don’t move yet, bitch.”
Shit, there was no way I could make it down the stairs without getting shot in the back if I tried to escape now. For the first time, I wished I’d taken the first floor apartment they’d offered me when I moved in.
She came up behind me, much closer, and whispered, “You’re going to walk down the stairs slowly and you’re not going to run. If you do, I’ll shoot you in the fucking back. I’ll make sure you never walk again and your boyfriend won’t even be able to use you as his fuck toy. Understand?”
I nodded.
“Good. Now go.”
Moving deliberately, I stepped out the front door and started down the stairs. When we reached the bottom, she directed me to her car.
That’s where she paused. I knew she hadn’t thought out this plan all the way through.
Unfortunately, she was smart, even with all the drugs in her system. “Go to the passenger side and open the door. Slide across into the driver’s seat.”
I opened the car door and did what she said, with Katie following right behind me into the car and settling in the passenger seat.
She pulled the gun from her purse and used her other hand to hold out the car keys. “You’re driving. I’ll tell you where to go.”
With shaky hands, I took the key and fumbled with it, trying to slide it into the ignition.
“Hurry up!” she yelled.
Finally, I slid the key inside and twisted. The car roared to life.
“Let’s go.”
Scared out of my mind, I put the car in gear and prayed once more that King would be able to find me before it was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Six
‡
“So where are we going?” I asked Katie for the third time.
“Where I want,” she answered shortly. “Stop fucking asking.”
We’d been driving for forty-five minutes and we were heading north out of Dallas toward Oklahoma.
I gave up trying to get her to tell me out loud where she was taking me in the hopes that King was still on the line.
“Take the next exit.”
I glanced at the exit name. “Telephone Road?” I asked.
“Yes, Telephone fucking Road. Now take the exit before I shoot you in the head.”
I wanted to wrap the damn car around a tree. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and if I wrecked the car, she would probably get thrown. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t allow me to buckle my seatbelt either, and I wasn’t willing to risk killing myself in an effort to get away from her. My survival instincts wouldn’t allow it.
I took the exit and pulled up to the stop sign.
“Take a right,” she directed.
I turned right.
Katie gave me a lot of instructions, taking so many turns I was completely lost.
Finally, she said, “Turn left in the next driveway. Go slow. There are a lot of bumps and I don’t think you’d want me to accidently shoot you, do you?”
I turned and reduced the speed of the car to a crawl as I crept down the bumpy gravel drive. After about five minutes, the driveway turned left behind a huge copse of trees. As we cleared the trees, I saw a white metal building a couple hundred feet away.
“Pull up to the building and stop.”
As soon as I put the car in park, Katie’s hand shot out, turned the car off, and snatched the keys out of the ignition.
“I’m going to get out on this side. You’re going to climb back over and do the same. Understand?”
I nodded.
She opened the door, her gaze never wavering from me, and slid out of passenger side. I crawled over the center console and felt my phone fall out of my pocket. Somehow it landed in the seat and Katie didn’t hear it.