Chapter 3

• The blond smirked and looked at the dark-haired man for a moment before moving over to the button. “How many men?” He asked.
• “How many men what?” I looked to the others like they could tell me. “How many men does it take to screw in a light bulb?” No one moved. “I don’t know what you’re asking.” I reached into my pocket and they all gave me a hard look. “Relax.” I pulled out the hair tie with two fingers and held it up for them to see, “just pulling my hair back.” I motioned to the floor behind me where I had thrown up. “Feeling a little soiled at the moment.” I made fast work of a loose bun and then crossed my arms over my chest.
• “How many disgusting men did you see stalking those women?” The blond asked in a calm tone.
• “Oh.” I glared at him, why hadn’t he just said that? “Eight.”
• “How did you know they were after those women?” He raised one eyebrow at me.
• “Because I…” I almost said heard their thoughts, which never ended well when you told people that. “I overheard them.” I had to play it cool. If I could fool doctors that stared at me for hours on end, for years I could fool some complete strangers into thinking I was perfectly normal.
• “So why didn’t you yell or call the police?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
• I moved just my eyes from him to the other two and then back again. “Clearly you’re not from the city. Call the cops and say what?” I snorted, “you think they give a pish? Nothing would have happened.” I motioned up and down my body, “Do I look big to you? Yelling would have just added me to their to-do list.”
• The woman gave me an understanding look. I still couldn’t figure out why she looked familiar.
• I lifted my hands. “Look, I’m sorry I shot Rafael. He just appeared at the wrong time and was running right for those girls.”
• “How do you know my brother’s name?”
• Ugh. His brother. Just great.
• He looked almost as scary as the dark haired one now.
• “Uh, the girl that dropped down onto the fire escape with the big scary dude said you shot my Rafael.” I tried to look concerned, but honestly, I was at a nine point eight right now and it wasn’t looking like I was going to go back down on my FOS anytime soon. “I’m sorry. Is he all right? I aimed for his tush, lots of meaty tissue, nothing important to worry about—”
• He looked like he wanted to grin but cocked his head to the side instead. He turned and started talking to the other two, waving a hand around. The woman was nodding, so I really hoped this talk was in favor of releasing me. She turned and walked out of my view.
• I sighed and crossed my arms over my stomach, tying to think calming thoughts, which all things considered was never going to help, but I didn’t want to start ranting like a lunatic. I turned to pace and saw the spew in the middle of the very tiny space. “Um, I really hate to put you out, but could I at least get housekeeping in here?” I looked behind me to see the blond man was paying attention. “Or, bring me a mop and pail, maybe some air freshener?”
• The woman came back and handed the blond man something. He went back to the corner. There was a noise and his hand appeared through a small window. “Put this on.”
• I looked at it. It looked like a Fitbit monitor. I glanced at the woman to see as she raised her arm and was wearing one that was similar. Hesitantly, I stepped over and took it out of his hand. If it got me out of here, I’d dance a jig, however pretty that wouldn’t be.
• He pulled his hand back and the small window was gone. I couldn’t even tell where it had been. Looking at the device, I turned it over, then put it around my wrist. Why I needed to wear a Fitbit, I didn’t know. Maybe they wanted to monitor my vitals. Vitals that would sound like a heavy metal band right now. I did it up, then wanted to undo it when the thought of it being some sort of lie detector thing crossed my mind. I don’t normally lie, I just don’t always share all the facts. I held up my arm to show it was on.
• “Step out from your door and through the door across from it.” The blond said.
• There was a whoosh noise and a door opened in the wall I’d been leaning on. I went over and stepped out. Two large men were on either side. Running was out of the question. I did as instructed, and the door whooshed closed behind me. I was now in a slightly larger, by that I mean maybe a foot larger than the last cube. This one had a bed and in a little cubby hole in the corner a toilet. “Oh, this is much better.” I said, not even attempting to hide the sarcasm in my voice.
• I turned to see them looking through a wall at me. “So I guess leaving has been taken off the table?”
• The blond gave me a quick look. “That’s up to Rafael and Victor.”
• Oh good. The man I’d shot in the butt had some say in whether I got out. “Victor?” I was hoping he was a reasonable person.
• He nodded. “I believe you met him on the fire escape.”
• I was going to be living in a cube for the rest of my life.