“Can you wait here?” I pay the cabbie when he pulls to a stop. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
“No can do,” he grumbles. “This was my last fare.”
I release a frustrated sigh when I check my pockets, but I only have a few more dollars on me. It’s not enough to tempt him to stay, and I’ll just have to figure something else out when I leave. With a muttered thanks, I slam the door behind me and run to my condo, snatching the spare key from beneath the potted plant. I’m acting on muscle memory as I unlock the door and dart inside without a second thought, only to come to a dead stop when my sandals crunch over broken glass. That’s when I realize with painstaking slowness that my condo has been trashed.
“What the—?” My words falter when a masked man steps out from the shadows and stalks toward me.
My first instinct is to scream, and as I pivot, he snatches me by the fabric of my dress, yanking me back against his body. He’s large and strong, and a combination of terror and weakness is making me too slow to react. To think. But still, I try to fight him as he hauls me toward the back door. I slam my foot down on his, and he grunts, his grip on me tightening as he whispers one sentence with such finality it sends a shiver down my spine.
“Stop fighting before you really get hurt.”