She walked out to the parking lot with BJ following her. She stopped and looked all around but there was nothing there but a few cars in the lot. It was eerily quiet and still. Her arms broke out in goose bumps as a chill ran through her.
“Where do you think it came from?” BJ asked, looking around.
She continued to scan the lot but saw nothing. “I don’t know. It almost sounded like fireworks or a gunshot.” Living in this area there were no shortage of either. Still, it had to come from somewhere and it sounded so close. She slowly scanned the parking lot again.
Marge yelled for BJ and he looked over his shoulder. He turned around, started walking inside and questioned, “You coming?”
“In a minute,” she answered and he entered the diner.
Sadie wandered to the side of the building. It was probably just someone setting off fireworks. But curiosity got the best of her. She’d always been too curious for her own good. She would just double check on her car too. She always parked on the side of the diner. Ever since she broke things off with Tyler, she didn’t like to park out front. Hidden car, hidden Sadie. So far, it had worked out for her.
As she got to the edge of the walk, she saw Melinda pull in and park. She waited and waved to her before she turned left around the side of the building and headed to her car. She was about three feet away from the passenger door when she saw what looked like a puddle. She silently prayed her car wasn’t leaking anything. It was the last thing she needed. She could barely afford gas for the piece of crap; any repair would have her dining on mac and cheese for months.
Sadie reached her car to inspect the puddle but something was just beyond. It looked like a heap of clothes. One more step and she realized those clothes were on someone. It was a man, and he wasn’t moving. His body was rolled onto his side. His left hand was thrown out in front of him. She squinted and focused on the hand with the red ruby diamond band. The hand was covered in blood and didn’t move. Lifeless. Panic built in her chest, and her heart beat faster. She walked closer and saw the puddle was blood. Breathing deep, she was about to scream when she felt a strong arm wrap around her stomach and a hand over her mouth. She tried to scream but it came out muffled.
Kicking and squirming, she made contact with a leg but that didn’t slow down Vise Grip, who was dragging her back by the dumpsters. Oh shit! Oh shit! She had seen this on a true crime show last week. She was going to be raped and chopped up and thrown into the dumpster. She had to get away. Sadie desperately tried to remember all the self-defense moves they taught in school. Unfortunately, her fear had her drawing a complete blank. He was gripping her so hard it was almost painful. All her struggling did nothing. She started to pry her mouth open in hopes of biting his hand and she thrashed as much as she could, which wasn’t much.
He stopped and Sadie felt his breath close to her ear. “Stop fucking moving. If you bite me, I will pull out your fucking teeth with my fingers, you got me?”
The scary lethal voice had her abruptly stopping any movement. Her eyes widened in fear, and her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. His voice was what nightmares were made of.
Sadie nodded and kept still. Tears formed in her eyes and sweat beaded her forehead. Fear had her frozen. He moved toward the back again—his hand still covered her mouth and the other remained wrapped around her waist.
As they approached the dumpster, she saw two large figures. Oh God, this is bad. She panicked and her legs started shaking. She kicked again. The hand on her mouth squeezed. The bite in her cheeks had her eyes tearing up again and she cried out. She immediately stopped moving. As they got closer, Vise Grip whispered with pure malice, “You make a fucking sound and I will cut your fucking tongue out.”
He tossed her onto the pavement. Sadie yelped as she hit the ground hard. If she did survive, she’d be picking gravel out of her legs for days. She immediately pressed her lips together to keep quiet when she looked up to see Vise Grip scowling at her. She looked back down and wished she’d spent more time in church because she could really use a Hail Mary right now.
“Now, what? This was not in the fucking plan, T,” a panicked male voice whispered. He was tall and his hair was short. His eyes cut to hers; he seemed almost scared. The soft light from the back exit illuminated his face, an innocent, boyish, surfer face, a not-a-care-in-the-world kind of face. A face she could trust.
However, his stare turned into a full-on glare and his scared face became scary. Her eyes focused back on the ground. This was not someone who would help her, not someone she could trust.
“No shit, asshole, you think I planned this?” Vise Grip pointed at Sadie and then raked his hand over his head. She could see he was also tall and wider than the other guy. It was too dark to see his face but he was bald and he looked to have a beard.
He looked beyond Surfer Boy to the other guy. “Your call, man, what do you want to do?”
Sadie looked up at the other guy. He was huge, really tall, definitely over six feet. She could barely make out his face, but from his shadowed profile she could see high cheekbones, full lips, and hair at his neck. His leather jacket fit snug and his jeans were torn in
