“I’m going to take you somewhere safe but you need to listen and do everything I say. Do you understand?”
I just stared at him.
No.
None of this made any sense.
His arms squeezed my arms tighter, almost painfully.
“Do you?” he bellowed.
He made me jump.
I knocked a handful of chewy dog treats from their special hooks.
I nodded.
“Yes. Yes. I understand.”
“Good.”
I understood I had no intention of going anywhere with this guy.
I understood some random guy who looked identical to Kayal but was apparently not his twin entered the coffee shop and pulled out a futuristic gun, preparing to use it on me or him or whoever.
I also understood Kayal was spouting some crazy shit I had no concept of and wanted no part in.
I fully understood I had to break and run the first moment I got the chance.
This lunacy had gone on long enough.
The police sirens wailed into the dark and dreary afternoon somewhere in the distance.
Heading toward us.
“Is that your emergency services?” Kayal said.
I nodded.
“Good,” he said. “When I say, follow me out the back door. We’ll race to my ship. We’ll be safe there.”
I glanced toward the front door that led out onto Main Street.
The police squad cars screeched to a halt.
The doors flew open and the officers were out and taking aim at something down the road.
“On the count of three,” Kayal said. “One, two…”
He shifted his weight onto his back foot and reached for my arm.
He would grab me and drag me behind him.
I yanked my arm out of reach and bolted through the front door.
The bell rang loudly as I burst into the spitting rain.
Alerted by the harsh jingle of the bell, the armed cops spun in my direction, weapons pointed directly at me.
They didn’t automatically open fire.
That was good news.
“Help me! I’ve been kidnapped!”
I raised my hands above my head and quickly marched toward them.
“Freeze!” the closest officer said.
I did, standing stock still.
Having had no direct involvement with the police in the past, I thought over the only education I had on the subject.
The movies.
I dropped to my knees, lay down flat on my chest, and clasped my hands behind my back.
I was adopting the wrong pose, I thought.
They weren’t there to arrest me.
I didn’t care.
I was happy for them to take me in if it meant I could get away from this craziness.
An officer approached and the others covered him.
He holstered his weapon and bent down to me.
“It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
And call me a fool, but I believed him.
The stress drained from me and I devolved into wracking sobs of relief.
This nightmare was over.
I could go back to living my normal life.
To hell with Jason and the other jerks.
I would be single for a while.
I didn’t need this bullshit.
Then the doorbell rang behind me.
And Kayal stepped out.
He reached into his jacket and extracted a futuristic weapon, identical to the one his not-twin produced earlier.
I witnessed him crushing another just like it beneath his heel, so how could he have this one?
It must be his own, I thought.
This whole story was getting creepier and creepier.
These guys are insane!
No amount of hotness is worth this!
The officer crouching over me immediately snapped to attention.
One moment, his hands were empty, the next, his pistol was aimed at Kayal’s chest.
“Freeze! Put down the weapon! Put down the weapon now!”
I shut my eyes and prayed he would listen.
Put down the gun.
You don’t need to die.
Just put down the gun.
Kayal was eerily calm.
Most of his attention was taken with something I couldn’t see down the road.
His not-twin?
I couldn’t understand this situation.
Too much of it was unknown.
It was like I’d dropped into a movie halfway through and had to piece it together using just a handful of scenes.
Kayal didn’t freeze.
He didn’t put his pistol down.
Instead, he aimed it at the officer standing over me.
He didn’t get to pull the trigger.
The officers opened fire, blasting holes into Kayal’s chest, arms, and legs.
He danced like a puppet with its strings cut.
I had no idea how many bullets struck the man but when they finally stopped shooting, Kayal’s body slumped into a heap on the ground.
The officer standing over me spoke into his radio and called for backup and an ambulance.
He tucked his weapon away and bent down to help me up.
“It’s all right. You’re okay now.”
I broke down into tears and fell into the officer’s arms.
I’d spent the entire morning holding them back, but who could be courageous in a situation like this?
Who wanted to be courageous in a situation like this?
All thought of Jason and the sadness he evoked dissipated like a puddle beneath the midday sun.
Right now, all I cared about was getting away from there and finding a place of safety.
Most of all, I promised myself never to listen to Isabella and her idiotic advice ever again.
Isabella!
I hoped she was okay.
I hoped she managed to keep out of the way.
A second officer approached Kayal’s slumped form.
I peered back at him and his open-eyed expression, staring at the cloudy sky overhead.
The officer bent down and pressed her fingers to his throat.
She paused a moment.
“No… That’s impossible…”
She bolted to her feet but didn’t move fast enough.
Kayal’s legs swung around, sweeping her feet out from under her.
He pressed his pistol to her neck and brought her up onto her feet.
Caught with their pants down, the officers were slow to react.
They retrained their weapons on Kayal, blinking in shock he could still be alive.
None were more surprised than me.
I had a front-row seat and I’d seen the bullets strike him.
He couldn’t still be alive, I thought.
Unless he was wearing a bullet-proof jacket.
But no.
Too many bullets had struck his arms and legs.
Even I knew jackets didn’t cover that much of the body.
Unless he wore some kind of full-body suit?
I was woefully uneducated on the subject.
But there he was, standing with the female cop held tight in his powerful hands.
“Drop your weapons or I’ll shoot,” Kayal said.
After a beat, the officer standing beside me turned his head to one side.
“Lower them.”
I whimpered as
