Trust In Time

Chapter 7: Sweetheart

I peek my head out so I can get a better look of what's happening. I see a big trailer truck full of crates with a bunch of men unloading the crates into a building. I focus in on the men who I heard arguing. The man yelling looks to be in his forties with dark slicked back hair and has prominent facial hair. He looks to be in good shape and is towering over the other man.

The man he's yelling at looks younger with sandy brown hair and he's wearing a Metallica band t-shirt. He looks embarrassed and frightened.

"I asked you a question!" the older man screams into his face, "Where the hell is the rest of the shipment, Trevor?"

"I-I just drove the truck. I wasn't in charge of what's inside." the younger man, Trevor I assume, says quietly.

The older man lets out a maniacal laugh that sends chills down my spine. He reaches into his waistband to pull out a gun and points it at Trevor.

"You really are a stupid son of a bitch, huh?" He spits out.

I'm frozen in place. Should I call for help? Should I try to get out of here? A million thoughts are crossing through my mind, but I decide to try and get out of here first. As I take a few steps back, I trip over a garbage can. It makes a big crashing sound, and I know they heard it.

"Rick, go see what that was now!" I hear the man yell.

I frantically try to get up and start to run, but someone roughly grabs my arm and pulls me backwards. As I'm about to scream, they put their hand over my mouth. I try to kick and fight my way out of their grasp, but they're a lot bigger than I am. Before I know it, I'm standing in front of the big man.

"Well well well what have we here?" He says as he looks me up and down, "what's your name, sweetheart?"

I glare at him as I still try to fight my way out of his man's grasp. The name sweetheart coming out of his mouth makes me want to throw up. He looks entertained by all of this.

"Oh how rude of me! I'll tell Rick here to move his hand so you can talk, but if you try to pull anything, I'll have to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you, you seem sweet, so let's be smart about this."

He nods at Rick to remove his hand from my mouth, and he does.

"Now, what's your name?" He asks me again.

"Fuck you." My words come out like venom. I wasn't going to be scared of him.

He looks taken aback, but chuckles with a devilish smirk in place. "Well damn we got a feisty one. Alright I respect that. Rick check her pockets for a wallet."

I try to move, but Rick has his arm wrapped around my neck and only grips harder when I squirm. He reaches into my jacket pocket where my phone and wallet is, pulls them out, and hands them to the man. As he grabs them I see that he has a big scar on his right hand extending up his arm. He pulls out my ID.

"Eleanora Louise Parker. Pretty name for a pretty girl. Only nineteen years old? Hmm I would've guessed older. Your phone here says you have 3 missed calls from Gray. Who's that a boyfriend? Friend? Brother?" He asks attempting to sound playful.

The sound of Gray's name makes my blood go cold. I continue to glare at him and refuse to speak. He still has his gun pulled out. I'm waiting for him to put it away before I try anything. I look over to the side where Trevor is and he hasn't stopped looking at the ground this whole time.

"You see, Eleanora, I'm in a bit of a predicament here. I could let you go, but you've seen and heard too much," the man continues, "The last thing I need is for you to go running your pretty little mouth to the cops and screw up my whole operation I've got going."

He looks at me with a conflicted look on his face and thinks for a few seconds. He puts his gun back into his waistband and finally speaks.

"Alright we're going to into the building here so we can properly chat," he turns around and starts to head in the building. As he heads through the door he says, "Bring her in, Rick."

Everyone else is still busy unloading the mysterious crates. This is my chance.

I quickly bite down on Rick's arm that was wrapped about my neck, making him loosen his grip.

"Ow! What the-" he howls in pain.

Before he could even finish his sentence, I kick him where the sun doesn't shine. He lets go of me and doubles over, so I take the opportunity to turn around and punch him in the throat for good measure. His eyes go wide and he stumbles to the side gasping for air.

I make a run for it before anyone notices what just happened. I keep running until I make it to the subway. I figure I could blend in with the crowd in case anyone was chasing after me. I can hear blood rushing in my ears. I'm out of breath and my heart feels like it's going to beat out of my chest. I'm so full of adrenaline, I can't even think straight.

I can't call for help because those assholes have my phone. I just need to get away from here. I decide to get on the subway and get home to safety.

As my adrenaline dwindles down I feel a sharp pain in my knee. I look down and there's a hole in my jeans with blood and dirt stained on the edges. There's a big scrape on my knee that I must have gotten when I tripped over that damn garbage can.

I finally get home and walk through the door. I feel like I've just got hit by truck and exhaustion is quickly taking over. Grayson startles from the couch with a worried look on his face.

"Nora, where the hell have you been?"

I want to answer him, but Gray's voice becomes a faint echo and I can't speak. Suddenly, the world around me fades to black.