Page 61 of Pocketful of Shame
"Come on," he said, rolling off me. "We've gotta get out of here."
Trembling, I ignored the shooting pain in my leg and, using my hands and one good knee, I dragged myself along after him.
My stomach rolled when we passed the waitress from earlier, bleeding out on the floor, and a strangled sob tore from my chest.
"It's okay." Catching ahold of the collar of my sweater, Sketch dragged me past the dying waitress, narrowly avoiding raining bullets and broken glass. "Just keep moving."
"Pres," I strangled out, terrified.
"I don’t know," Sketch grunted, pulling me behind the staff counter. "I didn’t see where he went."
"But we can't leave him –"
"No," he snapped, dragging me along like a ragdoll. "Forget him. I'm gettingyouout of here." Shouldering the door of the kitchen open, he pushed me through before scrambling inside. "Come on, Ro, move," he hissed, pulling me to my feet. Hand wrapped around mine, he dragged me through the huge, industrial-sized kitchen, hunting down an exit I wasn’t sure existed. "We've gotta get the fuck out of here. They’re still shooting outside."
"How?" I cried, hobbling after him. "There's nowhere to go!"
"There has to be an emergency exit around –"
"Pretty little princess?" a male voice boomed from just inside the restaurant.
"Oh god," I strangled out, immediately recognizing the voice. "Sketch, that's Catochi."
Sketch's eyes widened. "What?"
"Catochi," I choked out. "Catochi."
"Fuck!" Grabbing a knife off the stainless-steel countertop, he looked around frantically, eyes landing on something in the corner of the room. "Come on, come on," he hissed, pulling me towards the walk-in freezer. "In here."
Yanking the door open, a gust of arctic air blew out before he pushed us both inside and closed the door behind us.
Weaving between crates of raw meat, Sketch shoved me into the corner of the freezer. The light above us was clearly set on timer to switch on when the door of the freezer was opened because it suddenly faded out, cloaking us in darkness.
"Sketch!"
"It's okay." His hand found mine. "I'm right here."
Muffled voices came from just outside the freezer. "Where is she?"
Tears filled my eyes as my body shook from the glacial cold. "Oh god, we're gonna –"
"Shh," Sketch whispered, body rigid and welded to mine. His breath fanned the top of my head and I felt him tense and tremble against me. "No, we're not."
"We know you're in here somewhere, princess."
With my heart hammering along to the same erratic rhythm as his, I pressed my face into his chest and tried to steady my breathing – and stifle the sob rising up in my throat.
Sketch cupped the back of my neck, drawing me as close as two human bodies could get, aligned and flushed together. "Shh." His arm moved from my neck to tighten around my back. "Just breathe."
I could hear them mere feet away from where we were hiding and the knowledge that we werethisclose to danger caused a layer of goosepimples to prickle my skin.
A loud bang from just outside the freezer startled me, but it was the sound of another gunshot piercing the air that caused me to almost jump clean out of my skin.
Terrified, my body started to jerk uncontrollably and I couldn’t stop myself from knotting my fingers in the waistband of his sweats, tugging his big body closer to mine.
"Come out, come out wherever you are –"
"Shit," Sketch hissed, hooking an arm around me and shoving us behind a stack of meat crates just as the freezer door was yanked open and were bathed in light.
