Though I really wanted to try to pick it up, I knew she would notice it then because her eyes were locked on me. I scrambled out of the car, forcing her to take several quick steps back, and slammed the door behind me.
“Do that again and I’ll shoot your ass!” Katie shrieked.
I lifted my hands and fell back a couple of steps. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
I closed my mouth with a snap.
Katie laughed. “God, I’ve always wanted to be able to make you do that. You always talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. It’s fucking annoying. I’ve wanted to tell you to shut the fuck up so many times over the years.”
I didn’t say anything, keeping my hands up in the air.
She wiggled the barrel of the gun, which made my breath catch in my throat as horrible visions of her accidentally shooting me ran through my mind. “Go to the door of the building and go inside.”
Once we were inside, she flicked on a light and revealed that the building was empty save for a bunch of boxes stacked on one end. To our left, there was a door.
“Go in the door,” Katie demanded. “Sit in the chair in the center of the room.”
We entered the windowless room and I realized it was some sort of office. There was a desk shoved against the far wall, along with a couple of chairs. Another chair was set up in the middle of the room, facing the door.
Immediately I went to the chair and put my ass in it. Katie was clearly getting more and more agitated and I didn’t want to push my luck.
She shut the door behind her, walked around to grab one of the other chairs, dragged it into place about five feet in front of me, and sat down. Crossing her legs, she rested her gun hand on her knee, pointed straight at me.
We stared at each other in silence for several minutes.
Cocking her head to one side and smiling sharply, Katie asked, “What, no more questions?”
I licked my dry lips. “I have lots of questions, but you told me to be quiet, so I didn’t ask.”
Tilting her head forward, like a queen to a peasant, she answered, “Go ahead. We have about a half hour before he gets here. I figure you have a right to know why you’re going to be beaten and raped repeatedly before they put a bullet in your skull.”
My stomach threatened to revolt at her words but I swallowed hard, keeping it down. Then I took a slow deep breath. “Who’s coming in a half hour?”
“You wouldn’t know him. His name’s Renaldo. However, he knows you. I made sure of it,” she answered smugly.
I nodded slowly, even though I knew exactly who Renaldo was courtesy of Larry Peretti.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Katie threw back her head and laughed. “I don’t hate you, Jena,” she chortled. Her amusement vanished instantly and she leaned forward, hissing, “I fucking despise you.”
There it was, all that rage and loathing clear in her eyes.
“Why?” I whispered. “I loved you like a sister.”
She laughed again, but it was harsh and grating. “Maybe, but you always had it so easy. You saw Justin, wanted him, and had him. Fell like a ton of bricks.”
“But he didn’t really love me,” I murmured.
She scoffed. “Yes, he did. He was crazy about you. He ended things with me because he decided he wanted to marry you.”
I shook my head. “No, he was playing me. He and King wanted to use me to get information on my old boss, Larry Peretti.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” she snarled. “Justin told me it was over because he was going to ask you to marry him. The asshole thought he could fuck me, scrape me off, then smile at me across the dinner table when I came to visit. I showed him though.”
Her last statement sent a chill through me. “What do you mean?”
She stood, shoving her chair back with a loud scream of metal on concrete. Katie paced across the office, back and forth, clearly upset.
“Car jacking. Jesus, why are cops so fucking stupid?” she muttered.
My brain was struggling to keep up with the implications of her words. “What are you saying, Katie?”
She suddenly stopped her frenetic movements, whirling to face me and lifting the gun to point directly at my head. “I shot the motherfucker. Right in the goddamn face. He treated me like a whore. He wasn’t the first, but he wasn’t going to get away with it like the others.” Her face formed a strange rictus of a smile. “I taught him a lesson, the bastard.”
“You shot Justin?” I asked, my eyes wide.
“Yes, I did.” She lifted the gun, pointing it at me. “Maybe I should do the same to you. You’d look pretty with half your brains against the wall.”
Holy shit, she wasn’t just whacked, she was a fucking psychopath and she was obviously jacked up on something.
I watched in horror as her finger began to tighten on the trigger and knew I was about to die.
That’s when all the lights went out.
Without hesitation, I threw myself out of the chair and onto the hard concrete floor. As my elbows cracked against the concrete, I heard the boom of the gun and saw the muzzle flash as Katie shot at the spot where I’d just been.
Disoriented, I did my best to aim myself toward the door and crawled forward on my hands and knees. Because there were no windows in the office, it was black as pitch inside.
I felt the rush of air as Katie moved by me and froze for a split second. Over my breathing, I heard the strike of her shoes against the floor as she walked away from me.
“Where are you, you bitch?” she screamed, the loud sound echoing in the small room.
My shoulder brushed the wall as I kept moving forward and I paused. Carefully I lifted a hand and felt along the sheetrock. I put my hand out to the right and felt the corner. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to imagine the distance from the corner to the door.
Pressing my right hip and shoulder against the wall, I began to slowly crawl forward, trying to keep my breathing as quiet as possible. I could hear Katie moving around, bumping into things. I could tell by the sound that she was back in the middle of the room where the chairs were.
I jumped and squeaked as she squeezed off another shot that whistled over my head. The echo of the gunshot covered the sounds I made as I hurried forward.
Terrified, I almost missed it when my bare arm hit the cool metal of the door to the office. I stopped moving, listening intently. I could hear Katie breathing heavily and it sounded like she was a few feet to my left.
Whatever I was going to do, I needed to do it quickly. It wouldn’t be long before she got off a lucky shot or a ricochet caught me. Moving as silently as possible, I lifted my right arm, sliding it to the left edge of the door then up.
My fingertips brushed the doorknob and I held my breath. Careful not to jiggle the knob, I pressed my palm against it and wrapped fingers around it.
It creaked ominously as I turned it.
“There you are!” Katie screamed, more gunshots filling the air.
Something hot streaked across the edge of my right arm and I knew I had no more time to waste.
Twisting the knob violently, I yanked the door open and dove through, slamming it shut behind me. I heard Katie shrieking and firing random shots in the room. There was a little more light in the open space of the building and I was able to figure out where the door was and scurry toward it.
I didn’t dare get to my feet because I didn’t know how much ammo Katie had left and I didn’t want to risk a stray bullet taking my head off.
When I got to the door, I threw it open and tumbled out of the building into the bright sunshine. Without taking a second to look behind me, I jumped to my feet and started to run toward the trees to my right.
As soon as I cleared the corner of the building, an arm shot out and wrapped around my waist, pinning me to a hard body.
Just like that, I was caught again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven