What Are the Odds
Adark green Mini Cooper sat across from them with the engine still idling. Denise was behind the wheel, fingers outstretched in a cheerful hello. In the passenger seat was Clara, poised like a statue, but her eyes were focused on the man sitting beside Kate.
What a lovesick puppy.
Rows of parking spaces flanked them, and a tiny supermarket with its flashing neon lights sat alone in the middle of the concrete jungle. People moved to and fro with their shopping carts rattling over the uneven ground. A wealth of opportunity.
The silver door handle was cool beneath her sweat-slick hands. But before she could open it, Lucien beat her to it, opening the car door with a gentlemanly flourish of his arm.
“After you, my lady.”
She forced the look of distaste off her face, boots dangling in the air before landing with a thud on the remains of the creaking ice that the snow plow hadn’t quite been able to clear.
Out, run, clamp onto person. Freedom.
Kate pushed past Lucien, ignoring the outstretched hand that he offered her. The same one, scars and all, that had helped her undress seven days ago. She cleared her mind from that thought. One good deed didn’t matter, not when he was the cause for the direction her life had taken.
There. A woman her age, holding onto a kid no older than two, ready to place her smiling child into the shopping cart’s seat.
A broad man by her side, husband maybe. It didn’t matter because help was near.
Her feet angled to the woman, toes inching to go near.
She took a step, left, right. Another one.
Maybe there was a reason the sun was shining brightly today.
Or not. Five fingers clasped around her elbow, gently tugging her back to the car. She shrugged off his grip, turning to face Lucien beside her. He shook his head. Don’t.
Back in the shadow of the car, she saw Denise walk past the front of the Volvo, Clara in tow. The older woman hollered at them. “We’re going to grab a chai latte to battle this cold. Want me to bring you guys some?”
Lucien’s ‘no’ shifted into a charming smile. “No thanks! We’ll be there in a minute though.”
“Leave them to it, Clara, they’re having a moment.” Denise’s voice floated to them on the wind, and they watched as the woman tugged Clara alongside her, heading right for the bright green neon letters.
Kate’s head swiveled to the right, to where she’d last seen the couple with the happy girl. But they were gone. Off to a family shopping spree.
Acid burned in her throat, and she hissed. “What am I supposed to do? Sit here and smile while we go on a dazzling walk. Oh, I know, maybe we should hold hands like actual lovers?”
Lucien’s shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh. He stepped closer, herding her back to the car. She refused to take a step back from him, ending up with him right in front of her. Too close for comfort, and conveniently cutting off her immediate escape with his broad form.
“I’ll scream.”
Good idea. There are actually people around this time.
Her mouth opened again, lungs and vocal cords ready for the concert of her life. No microphone needed.
But he cut her off. “I don’t particularly like threatening damsels in distre—”
“I’m not a damsel in distress.” Liar. She swallowed down her fear, lest the predator in front of her could smell it on the wind.
“Right, how silly of me. Allow me to rephrase.” Lucien’s black jacket filled her entire vision, and she had to lift her chin to meet the intensity in his gaze. “You’re a lion pressed into a corner, better?”
Black and white, wait… Kate stood on her tippy toes, glancing over his shoulder to see…
Jackpot.
A cop car, and a man who looked old enough to be a sheriff stepped out. The man reached for the hat on his head, allowing the sun to glint off the golden, seven-angled star shape on his chest.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lucien’s gaze follow hers, landing on the man that would be her salvation.
“If you go over there, sweetheart… you better be damn sure of what you’re doing.” His tone was calm as always, no threat in it, but the words themselves.
She didn’t even turn to look at him, legs going heavy at the decision in front of her. Was it even a decision? If she screamed now, stepped toward him, she would be free. And better yet, the right pocket of her too big, black jacket went heavy. For inside it was blood Lucien had spilled.
A thought popped into her mind, and before she could stop herself, it spilled over her dry, cracked lips.
“What does it take to get death row in Montana?”
Silence met the rush of blood in her ears.
The shopping carts, engines rumbling, a child screaming, all of it faded as her vision cleared.
The cop leaned against his car with a coffee in hand, blowing on the steam.
“Would you get to that place of honor… sweetheart?” Kate turned, taking in the surprise dancing across Lucien’s face.
The surprise made room for arrogance and he waved a cocky hand around. “I used to count, but at one point, you know, becomes too much to remember. That said, death row would definitely be on the menu.” A shrug. “If it can be proven of course.”
I will escape you. The words she had whispered before watching him shrink back from her lingered now. It hadn’t been said in vain.
“Go on.” His chin jerked to the cop stirring his coffee. “You better hurry. Because you’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t go.”
Wait, what?
She watched as Lucien raised a hand, deepening his voice to holler out across the parking lot. “Richard! Long time no see!”
The blood in her veins froze over when she saw the cop’s head whirl around and land on them. He, Richard, raised his hat in greeting.
Lucien mumbled lowly. “Better find out if I’m bluffing, but… just remember what I told you.”
“What was that?” How she kept her voice even with her limbs shaking, she would never know.
Lucien leaned closer, still wearing that charming smile. A predator wearing the colors of a chameleon, a killer in the midst of a parking lot. And no one passing by knew. Her chest grew hollow, making room for panic.
“Better be sure of what you’re doing. Because if you don’t play nice, Kate, I’ll have no choice but to incorporate some consequences. It’s not something either of us want. Right now that is.”
Threats, threats, and threats.
Meanwhile the right pocket of her jacket was heavy with... evidence. Invisible from the outside but tainted on the inside, a crumb that could lead to death row for the man beside her.
How many people had died under his hands. A hundred? More? When did one stop counting?
Time, she was wasting it. She pushed away from the car, leaving Lucien to stand beside it. Her feet passed the white line that indicated a parking spot, and another one. She stopped when a man hastily carried his groceries to his flaming red Mazda. But her eyes remained on the prize.
When Richard threw his empty coffee cup in the iron waste bin.
She was ready.
***
“Excuse me, sir…” She trailed off, fishing for how to drop the news.
Richard turned on his feet, all wide smiles and courteous charm.
“Yes ma’am.” He tipped his head in greeting.
“What can I do for you on this beautiful day?” Wrinkles were etched onto his skin beside his eyes and his mouth.
A man who liked to laugh, despite the horrors he no doubt had seen in his profession.
Well, where to start? My family was killed by a psychotic madman, who kidnapped me instead of killing me then and there. And it just so happens to be someone you know. Please help.
“I… I was kidnapped.”
Once she blurted it out, she’d expected him to push off the car, straighten up and glance over the gathered crowd. Richard did none of those things.
“I see.”
“Excuse me?” Her mouth fell open, and she could feel Lucien’s eyes drilling into her back. “What kind of response is that? I’m in danger, and I-I n-need help.”
Not him too, not him too.
“I’m sorry, dear. I really am, but Lucien and I, we go way back… he told me about your predicament.” His coffee brown eyes shone with regret. “My hands are tied.”
“Your hands are tied.” Her breathing faltered and she had to bend over, hands on her knees to keep from falling over.
She cackled and before long a loud, bubbly laugh filled the parking lot. The people closest to them, in the midst of unloading their groceries, shot her puzzled looks. And one woman herded her child to the side and away from the mad woman losing it in a parking lot.
“Then why the hell are you wearing that badge? Because from where I stand you are complicit in kidnapping, soon to be murder if you leave it up to Lucien. You will have my blood on your hands.” If her eyes could burn holes, the man in front of her would be like a well-used target at a shooting school.
“How can you even sleep at night?” Her voice rose, but it was dwarfed by the last car shooting away from her.
He warned me.
As soon as the thought hit her, a man came up beside her.
“Richard, good to see you again.” Lucien’s tone… devoid of mirth. Nothing but cool confidence lined his words. “I take it you and Kate got acquainted alright?”
Consequences, he said. What would that be like? Starvation? Would he… bind my hands together again and watch when a panic attack takes over?
“Let’s go.” Lucien’s feet angled back toward the Volvo. Where Clara leaned against the car with one hip cocked and her cup of chai clenched tightly in a bright, purple gloved hand.
“No.”
“Come again?”
She pushed up from her quacking knees. “I’m not going to walk over there and pretend to be a love-sick couple. Not when you’re imagining all the different ways to make me suffer.”
It didn’t matter that she was admitting to the fear. Maybe her plea would pull on what was called a heart, if Richard did indeed own one.
“I’m off for now.” The cop opened the door of his cruiser.
He settled behind the wheel in what should have been her symbol for safety.
“See you around Lucien, and Kate… I’ll keep you in my prayers.
” He touched the tiny, wooden cross that danced below his mirror before shutting the door in her face.
Tires crunched over ice as he wove his way through the lot.
All she could do was stare at the spot his car had been in seconds ago. Looping back in her mind how certain she had been that freedom was waiting on the other side.
“The ladies got you a chai latte as well.” A coffee cup entered her sight with the familiar green outline of… “Starbucks, not my favorite, but it will have to make do, I guess.” Lucien heaved a heavy sigh as if the idea of drinking it was simply repulsive.
“You’ve got to be kidding me right now.” Kate lifted her head to meet his inquiring gaze, and found a raised eyebrow waiting there. No triumph or even an I-told-you-so look.
He only tilted his chin to the car. “Let’s go… now. They’re waiting.”
Still she didn’t move.
“One tip. Don’t make it worse for yourself, Kate. I still have some patience left, but you don’t want me to have to dig any deeper. Save it, for another day.”
He was offering her a way out, and whether it was to keep her from screaming in the middle of a supermarket or to give her peace of mind, it didn’t matter.
Because each time she thought she had a leg up, he was there to sweep it out from beneath her.
Pushing her into the quicksand that kept sucking at her feet.
Kate ripped the coffee out of his hand, clenching the warm brew to the pulsating pain in her chest, and made her way over to the two women.
I will not give up, I will not give up, I will not give up.