The Cupid Touch

The Cupid Touch Chapter 28 - A Dangerous Man

It's strange how slowly I started being able to think again. I mean, I'm not actually stupid, despite a lot of my behaviour. I'm supposed to be pretty smart. And yet I don't think anything that could be classified a thought crossed my mind for minutes.

I think it was Lucas's fear that changed things. It altered the situation from them all being simply Bad Guys to there being one Bad Guy I really had to worry about. And then things started whirring and clicking, and I realised that they were taking me with the single purpose of getting at Joe. This had nothing to do with me except that he cared about me. It was why they'd come after me, thanks to Rita's willingness to believe them.

And I was in a crowded airport. They weren't going to stab me here, in front of hundreds of people. Not with CCTV and security guards scattered around the place.

So I stopped in front of Lucas and said, "No."

His expression didn't change, it just froze in place for several seconds while I tried to go on thinking.

"You don't have any choice, dearest."

The bald guy made the point a little clearer by digging the knife into me until I knew it had pierced my sweater and shirt and cut into my skin. I tried to flinch away but he was holding onto me too tightly.

Come on. Think. Think.

What do they want? What can you do?

"What is wrong with you?" I asked, rounding on him. "I'm so sick of all this bullshit! I don't want anything to do with you or him. He's a cheating asshole and good riddance to him."

When I turned back to him, I saw a flicker of something on Lucas's face. It was an uptick in the fear. I tried not to look anything but upset and angry as he watched me, trying to work out if I was telling the truth; if I really didn't mean all that much to Joe-Moe.

My phone buzzed, and his eyes narrowed, consideringly.

Shit. Please just let it be Mom.

My hand went to my pocket, but the bald guy had my phone in his hand already. I didn't even have a proper lock-screen, so he swiped it open, and then held it out to me, expressionlessly.

It was the kind of text that would have brought a warm, squishy kind of feeling to my insides and made me smile in an annoying way in any other circumstances.

I think you forgot to text and tell me you miss me already. I mean, just commenting and all.x

"Doesn't sound like a cheating asshole to me."

I looked up at him, out of ideas, and then beyond him, to where a pair of Massachusetts State Troopers were wandering through the airport.

"Help-"

Was what I wanted to say as I lunged forward, but the bald guy grabbed me so hard towards him that my nose slammed into his shoulder. I couldn't see anything, but I could smell him. A horrible, slightly sour smell as if he hadn't washed his clothes quite enough or had sweated in them too much. And then suddenly there was something else in my face, something whitish, and I thought they were trying to choke me with it. I fought, but my vision and my balance started going and I was falling somewhere, shouting Joe-Moe's name for all I was worth.

I can't have been out for that long. I was hazy when I woke up, but with a memory of where I'd been, and what had been happening, and I tried to scrabble from what felt like half-lying to standing.

It didn't work. My arms and legs weren't quite under my control and my head thumped into something before I fell sideways. Which was when I realised I was in a car, before my eyes had really booted back up again.