If she could get away with it, Adelie would never leave her house again. Eventually, she would attempt to find a new job, maybe once she got her nursing degree. As it was, it wasn’t until she and Suzie were completely out of food that Adelie convinced herself to venture out.
It was just the grocery store. Nothing would happen to her while she was at the store.
With the help of Maddox’s investment, she’d been able to pay off a large majority of their mortgage. They’d fixed the plumbing. They’d redecorated. Adelie reminded herself of these facts on an hourly basis. It was okay. She’d get her groceries and go back home where she could hide and pretend the world was as small as it’d been a hundred years ago, before social media and billionaires who owned theme parks decided to try and expand her horizons.
Adelie picked through the pile of rosy apples, dropping a few in her bag, when movement caught her eye. A man rested a hand on the edge of a large display filled with lemons. But he wasn’t selecting lemons.
His attention was fixed on her.
A shiver trailed down her spine. Adelie pivoted. Ordinarily, she took her time selecting fruit with the right amount of shine, free from bruises or spots. This time, she grabbed the first half dozen she encountered and stuffed them in her bag. Still sensing the man’s gaze, she peered from her periphery.
Another man had joined the first. He wore an overlarge coat open to reveal a flat-tire midsection jutting out over his jeans. The first man caught her glance. He nudged his friend with an elbow before jutting his chin in her direction.
“Nice apples,” he said.
The insinuation in his statement sickened her. Adelie’s throat tightened. She turned away without replying and headed toward the bagged, prewashed lettuce.
Instinct flared, pricking the skin at the back of her neck. Leave the lettuce, a small voice warned. She ignored it, telling herself this was nothing. It was all in her head.
She glanced behind to find the same man closing in on her.
Fear settled in. She wanted to abandon her cart, race off, leave the store and the creeps, but her feet refused to move.
“Saw your picture. It’s you, isn’t it? Alice.” His front teeth were crooked. He said the word like a verdict.
She retreated a step and swallowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This? This isn’t you?” He held up his phone and displayed Maddox’s favorite picture of her. The one he’d texted and told her she looked beautiful in.
Ritchie had implanted a mesmerizing forest instead of the green screen around her, and she glanced over her shoulder as she reached for the apple dangling from the tree. Even she could tell her expression was seductive and alluring—two words she never would have associated herself with. Her vision went red.
Panic clicked into her brain. These men weren’t like the other admirers she’d had, who only stopped to offer sweet compliments before moseying on their way. They zeroed in on her like predators to their prey, and the realization made her back arch like a cat’s.
She glanced around, searching for an associate or someone who might help her, but aside from these men, she was alone in the produce section.
“I love the new look,” the man with crooked teeth went on. “Makes me wonder what you’re like on a more…personal basis. Are you as sweet as this?”
“Excuse me.” Deserting her shopping cart, she turned on her heel and picked up the pace, heading for the exit. She struggled to remove her phone from its pocket. It caught on the fabric, refusing to come free. Too late, she realized she’d dropped her purse along the way as well.
Beyond the checkout aisles, the exit blared at her like a strobe light. The faster she went toward it, the faster the men followed. One of their hands brushed her elbow. Against her will, a cry of panic escaped.
“Hang on, there,” one said. The men hurried around, blocking her path feet from the collection of shopping carts and a row of flowers and helium balloons waiting to be picked over and given as gifts.
Adelie lost her footing. She staggered and found herself caught from behind by a pair of hands.
“Let me go!” she cried, but fear choked the plea to something timid and weak. She wriggled and wrenched, but the accompanying voice cut through her fear with distinct familiarity.
“Adelie. It’s me.”
Her gaze shot up to find Maddox’s concerned face and pale green eyes concentrating on her. She crumpled into him out of sheer relief. His warm arms encircled her, but they didn’t dispel the dread pounding through her.
“Problem here, boys?” Maddox said. His voice rumbled in his chest.
Adelie whirled around to find the two men snarling at her, shoulders rising and falling, faces flushed. A crowd had also collected. Several shoppers slowed their carts to gape, several with phones in hand.
“I’m calling the police,” Adelie said through her teeth.
“Already done,” a woman behind the men said. Her hair was short-cropped and gray, but she held a no-nonsense expression in her fierce eyes. “I got their picture too.” She held up her phone.
“Sounds like you boys better keep a low profile from now on,” Maddox said with warning in his voice. His hand was firm against Adelie’s back, securing her to him.
The men called out several expletives in Maddox and Adelie’s direction before elbowing their way out of the surrounding crowd, past Maddox, and toward the exit.
It wasn’t until they were gone that Adelie’s entire body went limp. She slumped against Maddox’s side, relieved at having him there. Tears sprang to her eyes, made all the starker by the sour tang in the back of her mouth.
“Are you okay?” Maddox asked, bending to meet her eyes. “Did you know either of those losers?”
“No,” Adelie said, answering both of his questions with a single word. She clutched at her chest, her muscles tight and defensive. She was shaking. Who knows what those
