Hell Fire (Wild Fire: 2) (FINISHED)

21 - All I see is red

"Can I stay in the car, please?" Ember questioned as Max opened her door, staring down at her through his sunglasses as they waited outside the grocery store.

"No," he stated boldly, voice dark. "You're coming inside. Come on. Get out of the car, missy."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't like grocery stores... and the hardware store. I don't like the environment."

"Does it look like I care?" Max questioned; lips pressed into a straight line. "Get out of the car before I pull you out."

Ember sighed in annoyance, sliding off her car seat and glaring at Max as he shut her door, and she then numbly followed him as he grabbed a cart from one of those places you leave them, rolling it to the front of the store.

She gazed around the store as Max started to the produce section and started checking some mangos and apples, tossing them in the cart, and then going to bananas. Afterwards, he went to the snack section and got some chips, also some crackers, and they continued forward.

Wow... just yesterday they bombed a firework warehouse, and now they were living like normal humans and buying groceries.

She stuck her tongue out at him when his back was to her.

Lame.

She didn't like the environment of the grocery store because she honestly found it... boring. Same with the hardware store, although those she just hated the smell of the lumber section.

Her dad used to go there a lot for their deck building at their old house.

She felt a small smile curve her lips at the memory.

Ember remembered how one of the first steps was to dig six-foot holes in the ground and fill them with cement for the posts of the deck, and before her father filled them, she jumped into one and laughed her ass off while he was trying to get her out.

Also, her dad decided to take a break for the night, and there was a rainstorm, filling all the holes with water.

She remembered him cursing and kicking the porch on the house in anger.

As she drained back into the moment, Ember looked up to find Max gone, and she was still standing in the cracker section, leaning against a wall.

Oh... where did he go?

She suspected he didn't want her to wait in the car because it was hot today... but... why would he just leave her?

He probably thought she was following.

But right as she started walking, something cold pressed to her back, and she stiffened while freezing.

It was iced metal, shaped like a pole...

Her breath caught when she heard a click!

A gun.

They just turned off the safety.

"Follow me," a man hissed into her ear, his breath burning her skin like acid, "to the alley, or you die along with everyone in this store."

She nodded numbly, swallowing down nausea as he wrapped an arm around her waist and kept the gun to the small of her back, pretending to give her a backwards hug as she stepped carefully to the front of the store.

"Stop looking so scared," he whispered, voice rough. "They're getting suspicious. Do you want everyone to die?"

She forced a smile, walking over to the front doors. "No, please don't."

"Good," he responded coldly. "Continue walking calmly."

God... this was another assassin, wasn't it?

How many times in a week would she almost die?