chapter four

I had parked on the side of his store where he had his small parking lot. It felt secluded, which made me feel fractionally safer but also more exposed. I unhatched the back and placed the box as far back as possible in my trunk, pushing over all the junk I had yet to empty from my car.

Even though I organized my business items, kept my lab in impeccable condition, and ensured my appearance was flawless, I couldn’t remember the last time my car wasn’t a disaster. I couldn’t recall the last time I cleaned it out. What did it matter much to me? Nobody rode in it, and I was only in it for a few minutes at a time, not even daily. Also, it had that kind of “out of sight, out of mind” mentality where I only remembered how bad it was when I desperately needed to go somewhere.

As my body was bending over in the trunk of my car, I felt a body press hard against my ass and hands around the back of my neck. Instantly, memories of the night a week ago when I was forced down in a similar position flooded my mind. This time, instead of freezing like I did that night, my fight kicked in hard.

I tried to push my way backward to give myself more space, but the body behind me pushed forward just as hard, and the addition of a sharp blade appeared on the side of my neck.

“Be a good little bitch and stay fucking forward.” A gruff voice came from behind as his hand pressed harder against my neck to keep me as flush against the trunk floor as I could be. “I know you know what this is. Just stay calm, and this will all be over in minutes. It won’t last long with an ass like yours.”

What. The. Fuck.

Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

Notagainnotagain.

I could feel myself hyperventilating, and I could do nothing to stop it as I desperately tried to push away from the car as the knife pressed harder into the skin of my throat. What was with me being fucking catnip to these assholes? Did I offend some deity in some past life? Was I just on the wrong side of town? I was wearing jeans, for fuck’s sake. You couldn’t even blame my outfit, even though that was not even a fucking excuse.

His hardness pressed against my ass as he ground himself against me, and I couldn’t stop the fearful whimper that escaped me. I was just as overpowered as last week and felt blood trickling down from my neck, where the knife was still embedded, making me feel like this man would really do something that the other man probably wouldn’t.

I couldn’t die here. Maybe if I screamed, would Saul come and help? But I knew better. He would never hear me scream and be able to come and help me in time, especially if he was still in the freezer in the back of the store. I should’ve just fucking waited for him.

“I will fucking kill you right here. Stay. Fucking. Still,” he said, resting the rest of his body weight on my back, dragging the blade slightly forward to widen the knick in my skin, causing another whimper, but this time pain escaped me. With the influx of pain, I fell still and started dissociating as he ground his hardness into me slowly. “That’s a good girl. Now stay.”

The hand on the back of my neck left me, but neither the weight on my back nor the knife let up their pressure. The hand that was holding me down jammed itself between my body and the car to go under the button and zipper of my jeans. He got them loose and quickly pushed my jeans and underwear down past my hips to fall to my ankles. I could feel him shuffle behind me slightly to get his cock out, and I could feel it. Feel its bulbous head against my lips.

When he shuffled again to get in position, I could feel I didn’t have the distraction I needed to disassociate further, but also, the pressure of the knife relaxed just slightly, alerting me to the fact it was looser in his grip.

With a burst of energy I didn’t even realize I still had inside of me, I shot my arm out from underneath me, using my shoulder to push away the hand that held his knife. Using my body weight, I managed to push him off of me just enough to twist myself around.

“You fucking bitch!” he shouted as he resumed his body weight on top of me, but my knees were closed, so he had to push my legs apart, and as he wasted energy to do so, I was able to grab the hand with the knife and sink my teeth in hard, making him let go of the knife.

He let out a scream and backhanded me with his other hand as he cradled his injured hand to his chest, giving it a look to see the damage. With the knife let go, this was my only chance, and I took it. Turning it in my hand, I propelled forward to slam the blade into his chest just as he was about to continue his assault.

The first thing that registered after the ringing in my ears subsided from the backhand was the taste of blood in my mouth from my bite. My cheek stung next, followed by his gurgling as he stared at the knife embedded in his chest. While he was still stunned, I used the side of my arm to forcefully push him to his belly while using my other hand to push at his shoulder, allowing momentum to force him on his back as he fell to the ground.

Not wasting a single second, I rushed at him, taking the knife out of his chest, which was much harder than the movies had you believe, to sink it again and again into his body. The sobbing scream that resulted came out of my depths.

“Fuck you!” I felt my throat burn as tears made their way down my face while I plunged the knife again inside his chest while he helplessly grunted. “How dare you! How fucking dare you! You fucking asshole!”

I didn’t even notice that his body had stopped moving as blood spilled everywhere. But I registered the hand on my shoulder telling me he was dead, and that was enough.

Gentle hands held my hands in place to prevent me from pulling the knife back out of the fresh corpse.

“Nora, that’s enough. You got them ’em.” Saul’s deep voice vibrated against my back, and I realized how close he was. I let my head rest against him and crumpled into his embrace, letting go of the knife.

“That’s it, hun. I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it.”