Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.
What’s happening? What’s he going to do with me?
The knock sounds again, and Armando grabs my arm, propelling me toward the storage closet.
“Shh.” He puts his finger over my taped lips as he pushes me backward into the crowded dark space.
I try to scream no, but it comes out as nothing more than a muffled sound.
“Quiet, Hannah.” There’s a warning to his tone.
The door shuts.
Panic sets in. I’m afraid of the dark. I don’t like small spaces. And I definitely don’t want to be tied up and left in here to rot.
I want to slam my head against the door to make noise, except he was expecting whomever showed up at my back door. So it’s someone he knows.
Which means I can’t hope for a rescue from them.
In fact, if he’s hiding me in here from his associates out there, it could be for my own safety. Like they might insist on killing me.
Oh fuck.
My entire body starts to shake. Not a slight tremble, but a terrible shuddering that makes my knees knock together and my ribs lock down in a painful cinching.
I hear male voices and footsteps tromping past the closet. The sound of a body being dragged.
Tears drip down my cheeks and over the duct tape on my mouth. My breath rasps harshly in and out of my nose.
“What about the florist?” a male asks just outside the closet. “Need me to clean that up?”
“I got rid of her,” Armando says.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. She didn’t see anything. It’s cool.”
I was right. He’s protecting me. That’s why I’m in the closet. Because if his buddies out there knew I saw something, I might have to die.
But then… how do I know he’s not going to kill me anyway? Maybe he just wants to make me his fuck toy first. Keep me tied up in his closet for months and months and then throw me dead in a ditch.
Oh my God.
This is bad.
“I’ll finish the clean up here. I owe you. Don’t tell anyone about this. I’ll tell the don myself, yeah?”
“Yeah, as long as you do.”
“Swear to Christ. Hey—get rid of his gun, too. I can’t carry one.”
“Are you fucking nuts? Someone’s trying to kill you. You need a piece.”
“I can take care of myself.”
He definitely can. I just saw him take care of an armed man without ever firing. In fact, he’d purposely emptied the gun chamber. I don’t think he meant to kill that guy at all. It was definitely self-defense.
“I fucking hope so.”
