Chapter 2 - The Look on Wyatt’s FaceThat sentence hit me harder than the counter had.
We’re finished.
Not I’m finished.
Not this is bad.
We’re.
Wyatt heard it too. I could tell by the way his eyes changed. He didn’t lunge, didn’t puff up, didn’t do any movie crap. He just got still in a way that made David look smaller.
The cashier had already picked up the phone.
“Call 911,” Wyatt said, still looking at David. “And security. Now.”
The young cashier nodded so fast her ponytail slapped her shoulder.
David turned his back halfway to all of us and kept whispering into the phone. “No, listen to me. She’s here. She made me buy things. People saw. No, shut up and listen. If police get involved, they can start asking questions.”
My ears were ringing, but not enough to miss that.
Questions.
About what.
I tried to sit up and a hot, slicing pain cut across my belly. I folded over it. The old woman who’d been standing by the gum display finally moved. She crouched beside me with more effort than grace, purse sliding off her arm.
“Honey, don’t move too much,” she said. “Ambulance is coming.”
I knew her type. Church-lady perfume. Big earrings. The sort of woman who probably called everybody baby. Right then she felt like the only solid thing in the room.
“My baby,” I said, and my own voice sounded far away, like it belonged to somebody under water.
“He’s moving?” she asked.
I nodded once.
Wyatt looked down at me. “Ma’am, can you tell me your name?”
“Rachel.”
“Rachel, EMS is on the way. Stay with me.”
David spun around. “This is insane. She tripped.”
A couple people actually made noises at that. Not words. Just the little disgust noise human beings make when a lie is too stupid to respect.
Wyatt said, “There are six cameras on this front end alone.”
David’s face went blank for half a second.
Then he smiled.
May you like
And that scared me worse than when he yelled.
Because I knew that smile. It meant he’d found a story he thought he could sell.
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