Prologue
NIKKI
TWENTY YEARS AGO…
“Hey. Hey, little girl, I have a puppy with your name on it,” a man says from a brown car as I’m riding my bike on the side of the street. I’m just a few doors down from my house.
“No, thank you.” We just got a puppy, so why would we want another one? I don’t look at the man. I focus on my house. That’s where my mom and sister are, and my mom will make this man go away.
“But your mom and dad asked me to get you this puppy,” he insists, and I get a funny feeling about him.
“No, thank you.” I peddle faster, getting to my driveway as quickly as I can.
The car stops, I hear a door open, and I’m grabbed.
I fight, biting the hand that covers my mouth so hard my teeth hurt and I can taste blood.
Suddenly, his hand is gone and my loose tooth falls out, dropping to the ground.
“You bitch!” he growls, putting his hand under my jaw, forcing my mouth closed, and lifts me higher before spinning around and rushing to his car.
I’m kicking, grunting, swinging my fists, anything I can do to free myself.
I’m not a passive victim. I’m a wiggle worm he can’t control.
I don’t know who he is, but I know I can’t go with him.
I’m thrown into the back seat. “Keep fighting me, and I will make sure to kill your whole family.” That does it. I still, afraid of what this man can do.
“I don’t think you want to do that,” another man with a thick hispanic accent says.
Looking around my would-be kidnapper, I see a gun against his head.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?” the new man asks.
I nod, and my hero drags the guy away from the door.
“Alejandro, why don’t you come help your abuelito with this man,” he says loudly.
I’m a little surprised no one is outside. Where is everyone? It is like the street has been deserted.
“You can come out,” a boy says from the other side of the car. I hadn’t even noticed it open. Is this Alejandro?
Scooting out of the seat, I avoid touching anyone and run toward my house. The moment my feet touch the grass of my yard, I stop and turn around. “He’s a bad man.”
“I know. I will make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone again,” the new man says.
“Good.” I don’t know what will happen to the bad man, but as soon as I am inside the safe haven of my house, I run to my mother and tell her what happened.
“What?” She rushes outside, but everyone is gone. No brown car. No men. No little boy. It is like they were never here.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
Dragging me back inside, she calls the police, and a nice police lady comes to ask me a lot of questions.
They don’t tell me, but three days later, the bad man is found in a ditch. I saw it on the news. I’m not sad. He was bad and had to be punished. That’s what happens when you’re bad.