“You know who I am.”
Yeah, I have a pretty damn good idea it’s Laurie Sharp pointing a gun at me.
She took another step toward me and the smell of fetid body odor combined with sickly sweet perfume filtered up my nostrils.
“I want what’s mine back,” she said through gritted teeth. “He was just starting to realize what a fool he’d been to let me go, he was on the verge of calling me, begging me to get back with him and then you…” She paused and scanned my body, her nose wrinkling, her eyes narrowing. “Then you waltz into his life in your slutty skirts and your long curly hair and made him forget all about me…again.”
“I’m sure he hasn’t…forgotten all about you.” My voice was so shaky it vibrated through my mouth, chattering my teeth. She was mad, crazed. I could see it in the wild flashing of her eyes. They were glacial blue but the whites were shot with blood and broken capillaries. She wore too much black eyeliner and it had seeped into small lines beneath her lids and into her crow’s feet. I would never forget her eyes, they were the last thing I was going to see before I died.
I don’t want to die. Life has just gotten so damn good!
“What…what do you want me to do?” I asked, gasping as she stepped so close the gun was less than an arm’s length away from me.
“I want you to go away, disappear. I don’t want you to ever be able to come into his life again.” She leaned forward and bared her teeth. Her lips were as cracked as peeling paint. “And I want you never to be able to touch him again. He’s mine, you’ve been trespassing, you’re a thief, nothing but a common whore and a thief and I want you removed from this world, from the universe. You will be punished.”
The restroom door swung open.
“I already spoke to Dana. Yes, they were going there anyway… I know, it will be great, I’m just going to powder my nose and I’ll meet you at—” Carly appeared, cell at her ear.
She stopped in her tracks. Her gaze fixed on Laurie aiming a gun at my chest.
Her eyes widened, her face paled. She dropped the hand holding her phone to her hip but she didn’t click it shut. “What the hell is going on?” she said in a loud voice. “Why has that woman got a gun pointed at you, Dana?”
Laurie lunged at me. Clasped her arm around my neck and spun me to face Carly. Cold, hard metal rammed into my temple. I was only seconds away from death.
I tried to scream but the noise never materialized. I wanted to fight her, get away, but what could I do? She had a gun pressed into my head. There was a live bullet with my name on it only inches away. My whole body buzzed with terror, blood raged through my veins. How could this be happening?
Carly stepped forward, palms up in a gesture of surrender, still holding her cell. “Hold on,” she said in a slow, steady voice. “Keep calm, nobody is going to get hurt in the ladies’ restroom.”
I kept my arms at my sides. I wanted to try to pull Laurie off me but it wasn’t worth the risk. Moving wasn’t worth the risk. I hardly dared breathe. Breathing wasn’t worth the risk.
“I’m going to kill this bitch,” Laurie snarled by my ear. “I’m going to splatter her brains all over the place, it’s what she deserves.”
“No one deserves that. No one,” Carly said. “Why don’t we talk about it without the gun? Put the gun away.”
“No.” Laurie jabbed it harder into my head and my neck wrenched to the side. “There’s nothing to talk about. I warned her to stay away from Ramrod but she didn’t listen, so now it’s time for her to pay the price. She’s going to get what she deserves.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Prayed it would be quick. Quick and painless. I hated to think how it would be for Carly to see me murdered so brutally and for Rick to think it was all his fault. A sob gurgled up from my chest, a tear spilled from my eye.
“What the fuck is going on?” Rick’s voice suddenly echoed around the restroom.
I flicked open my eyes. He stood in the doorway, hair dripping and wearing only jeans which were not quite done up. Behind him was Brick holding his cell. Though he was dressed he was barefoot. Both men were breathing hard.
I lifted my hand up, reaching out to Rick. But my arm was shaking so much I had no real control over it. My body no longer felt like mine.
“Laurie, what the hell are you playing at?” Rick stepped forward, putting himself between Laurie and me and Carly.
“I’m doing it all for you, for us,” Laurie said in a sickening, simpering voice.
He shook his head. “What you’re doing is not for me. What you’re doing is a terrible, manipulative thing.”