Kason
u 2
I reached for my handbag from under the counter, then grabbed my coat. One of my mittens fell to the floor, so I reached down for it.
I heard a loud thud from the storage room.
I jolted up. “Shay?” I called, wondering if she’d stopped by. But there was no reply. “Shay?” I tried again, but there was only silence.
I walked through the store toward the storage room door, unsure what could’ve caused the noise. I stopped when I heard heavy footsteps. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
A large figure in a black ski mask and dark clothes stepped out of the storage room. Fear grabbed hold of my body, immediate and overpowering.
“Get down on the floor,” he demanded.
I was frozen, physically unable to move.
He lifted a gun I hadn’t seen in his hand and pointed it at me. “I said, ‘Get down on the fucking floor!’” He released the safety with an ominous click.
I dropped to my knees, hitting the ground hard. Tears welled in my eyes as my body trembled. I stared at the ground, praying he didn’t shoot me.
He rushed toward me, and I flinched away as he grabbed something off a nearby rack. My heartbeat drummed in my ears as he tucked his gun into the back of his pants, then grabbed my wrists with black-gloved hands. It was then I noticed what he’d taken off the rack—a woven rope belt. He swiftly wrapped it around my wrists, binding them tightly together so I couldn’t get free.
“Why are you doing this?” I said, my voice quivering.
“You don’t know what I’m doing,” he said, knotting the belt so the coarse fibers cut into my wrists. He grabbed the gun and stood up.
Terrified to look at him, I kept my eyes down, fixating on a small smudge of gray paint splashed across the tip of his black boot.
“Where’s the money?” he demanded.
“In the register,” I said, praying he would take it and leave.
He rushed over to the counter.
I chanced a peek out the window, praying someone would walk by and see me on the ground. My eyes slowly lifted to the camera in the corner of the store. No one may have been monitoring the feed, but the cops could use the footage to ID him later. If there was a later.
The bell on the register chimed as the drawer opened. I peeked over as he grabbed all the bills and shoved them into a dark bag.
“Where’s the safe?” he asked, coming back from behind the counter.
“Safe?” I asked.
He lifted the gun and aimed it at me again. “Where’s the fucking safe?”
My eyes cast down as my body trembled. “In the back.”
He stalked toward me and grabbed my arm. I winced as he heaved me to my feet and dragged me into the small office in the back. The safe was beside the desk, and he stopped in front of it. “What’s the code?”
“Four two one two,” I said, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as he punched in the code.
Out in the store, my phone rang.
I looked to the doorway, knowing the call would go unanswered. Tears blurred my vision. Was it Kason calling me again? Maybe Shay? Could it be Thayer calling to put me in my place? There were so many things I never said to him that I should have said.
The safe beeped as it opened, and I turned my attention away from my ringing phone. The man reached inside and grabbed the stacks of cash. Gino advised me not to put everything in the bank, so most of the boutique’s revenue was in the safe. He said a safe was the safest place to keep money. Ironic.
The man shoved the money into the bag he’d filled with the money from the register. He had everything now.