CHAPTER FIFTY
It's late. Almost too late to go to an ice cream parlor. Everything will be closing within the next thirty minutes, and I don't want to feel rushed, so I decide that we should stop at a gas station to pick up some ice cream and take it home instead.
“We could have gotten ice cream at Walmart,” Lucian grumbles as I pull into the gas station parking lot.
“I didn't think about it when we were at Walmart.” I find a spot between two cars and kill the engine. “You can wait in the car if you want.”
He wrinkles his nose as if he's thinking, then he unbuckles his seat belt. “No. You might end up getting a flavor I don't like, like mint chocolate chip.”
“Mmm mint chocolate chip.” I get out of the car. Actually, I had planned on getting rocky road, but he doesn't need to know that.
We walk into the store, and I immediately head to the ice cream cooler. Lucian trails behind me less enthusiastically, opens the cooler, grabs a pint of butter pecan and shoves it into my hand before telling me that he's going to take a piss.
“Sexy.” I roll my eyes at him as he walks away.
He doesn't respond, continuing on to the bathroom.
Now that I'm standing in front of the cooler, I'm not so sure I want rocky road anymore. Chocolate chip cookie dough is looking awfully yummy. Then again, so is cookies 'n cream. After several minutes, I settle on a pint of Italian cream cake flavored ice cream.
I look towards the bathroom, but Lucian hasn't come out yet. Briefly, I wonder if he wants anything else. Most likely not. If he had wanted something, he probably would have picked it up at Walmart.
For a few seconds, I think about continuing to wait for him. But then I decide that I'll surprise him by paying for the ice cream. It's not much, but it's something. Usually, he pays for everything that we do, complaining if I offer to pay for anything. This will be a small token of my appreciation.
There's a line at the register, and I file in behind a mother and a little boy around the age of four. They're holding hands, and the little boy is staring up at her. In her free hand is a jug of milk. There's a stuffed dinosaur clutched in his arm. They're an adorable pair. Just looking at them gives me baby fever, and I can't help but wonder if Lucian wants children. It must have been hard losing his son, but hopefully that hasn't scared him away from the idea of trying for a family again some day.
My smile falters, and I gaze down at the red pumps I'm wearing. It's way too early in our relationship for me to be thinking about babies. But the truth is that I'm pretty sure I'm ready for them. I want to get married and have kids and a family. I need to give us time though. We just moved in together, and while things have been perfect, everything prior to that was a lot less than perfect. Wanting a family with Lucian right now is just ludicrous.
I feel something poking at my back, and my smile returns as I realize that Lucian is standing behind me in line. I wonder how he's going to react to the mother and child in front of us, or if he even will react, for that matter. Men aren't wired the same way that women are. He probably won't even take a second glance at them.
That thought goes away when I look over my shoulder and notice that the man standing behind me isn't Lucian. The thing pressing against my back isn't a finger, either.
My mouth falls open and both pints of ice cream slip from my hands the moment I hear the man say, “Everybody freeze. This is a robbery.”
Instantly, my heart goes into my throat. Everything gets brighter, and a sickness takes over me that resonates throughout my entire body.
The man wraps his arm around my neck, pulling me back against him as he edges closer to the register. “You people, on the floor.” He gestures to everyone around us.
I watch as the mother grabs onto her son and pulls him down to the floor while she gets on her knees. He's too young to understand what's going on and starts sobbing loudly. She holds him close and tries to shush him the best she can, tears streaming down her face as her lips move in silent prayer between giving him directions.
I keep my eyes fixed on her, too afraid to look for Lucian. Has he come out of the bathroom? Is he seeing this? Am I going to die like his wife did? That last thought makes me start crying though I try desperately to keep my frightened mewling to a minimum.
The robber hands the cashier a bag and tells her to empty the register into it. He jerks me around as he waves the gun at her, and I finally catch a glimpse of Lucian out of my peripheral vision. He's on the ground like everyone else, his hands over his head, though he's staring up at the robber. I expect him to look at me, but he never does. I can't help but wonder what he's thinking. If I die, my last thoughts will be of him.
Once the cashier has finished filling up the bag and hands it back to the robber, I half-expect him to let me go. The terror isn't over yet though. He drags me over to the mother and son, telling her to give him all of her money. The child screams as his mother lets go of him to do what she was told, and the robber screams back at the kid, instantly shutting him up. The shrillness of his husky voice in my ear makes a cold shiver roll down my spine. It's at that moment I realize that he's either tweaked out on something or batshit insane. Either one isn't good. Either one means he's probably trigger happy.
“Please,” I repeat quietly over and over again though I know there's no point in asking for my release. He's not going to let me go until he's good and ready.
Every chance I get, I glance over at Lucian, but he's never looking at me. Always at the robber. It hurts my heart, but I know that he's traumatized. If he loses me, he'll never recover from it. I'm almost certain of that.
After the man has emptied the woman's billfold, he makes his way around to the handful of other people in the store. Most of them only have a few dollars in their pockets, but he takes it anyway. Then he gets to Lucian.
“Stay on the floor and give me all of your money.” The robber presses the gun to my temple. I let out a short yelp, silently telling Lucian to just do what the guy asks.
Lucian reaches behind himself and tries to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. “It's stuck.”
“Well, it better get unstuck real fucking quick.” The robber waves his gun at Lucian before turning it back to my head.
Lucian starts to stand up, and the robber jumps back, dragging me with him. My breath hitches in fear that he's going to shoot either me or Lucian, but Lucian holds his hands up in surrender.
“Calm down, guy. I just want to get my wallet for you.”
“I'm not fucking playing.” The robber presses the barrel into my flesh so hard that my head throbs. “One funny move and I blow her brains out.”
“Dude, she's my girlfriend. I'm not going to do anything funny, okay.” Very slowly, Lucian reaches back to free his wallet. Then he starts to hand it over to the guy and drops it at my feet. “Shit.” He cringes as if he knows he's just made a big mistake.
I stare at him in disbelief. My life is on the line here, and he's fumbling. What in the hell?
“You did that on purpose.” The robber gestures at him erratically with the gun.
Lucian holds his hands up again. “I didn't. I swear. I'm just fucking terrified is all. Give me a break.”
The robber looks around nervously for a moment, then he loosens his grip on me before nudging me in the back with his hand. “Pick it up.”
He keeps his gun pointed at Lucian while I slowly kneel to retrieve the wallet. Internally, I'm cursing at the situation. Now the robber is mad. He'll probably shoot me when he's done out of spite for Lucian dropping the wallet.
My hands are trembling as they reach for the wallet. Lucian's standing only a foot away from me, and I see his shoes shuffle quickly. Everything happens so fast that I can't even process what's going on. The gun goes off, and then there's the weight of a body rolling off of my back.
I flatten myself on the floor, completely forgetting about the wallet. People are screaming. Someone gets up and runs though I can't tell who it is.
I turn just in time to see Lucian fighting the robber on the floor a few feet away. Fight is an overstatement. Somehow, Lucian has managed to get the guy on his stomach. His knee is between the robber's shoulder blades, and he's trying to pry the gun out of his hands. It goes off a second time, causing me to flinch.
Shit, Lucian. You shouldn't have done that. If he gets the advantage, we're all going to die.
I muster up as much courage as I can to crawl away and hide behind a display. When I glance around the store, I notice that the mother and child have also taken cover. The mother is holding her son in her lap, practically forming a protective cocoon around him, covering his ears with her hands and crying into his hair.
By the time I look back at Lucian, he's gotten the gun away from the robber. The man's arm is twisted behind his back, the other arm flailing on the floor like a fish out of the water. He's screaming obscenities about how Lucian is a bastard and that he's going to kill everyone Lucian knows.
The look in Lucian's eyes is oddly stoic. He's panting for breath, but he doesn't seem the least bit stressed out.
Relief rushes through me as I realize that it's over. We're saved. The police will be here soon, and we can put this whole thing behind us.
But then I watch as Lucian cocks the gun and points it at the back of the robber's head. His words are cold, and they fill me with an overwhelming sense of dread. “Some people don't get a second chance.”
And then he pulls the trigger.