CHAPTER ONE
Jessica flipped the sign over to the “closed” side and groaned, banging her head softly on the door. It had been a brutally long day due to the fact that it had been surprisingly busy. She worked part time at “Flicks & Fun.” Of course, part time was thirty-six hours, because the penny pinching owners refused to offer her health insurance. She was only twenty-one and healthy enough to thwart the law and live dangerously without the insurance she couldn’t begin to afford.
“Flicks & Fun” was a small mom and pop shop sporting several racks of DVDs, a few arcade games, and a depressingly small array of snack foods. She was the only employee on duty, although the owners dropped in whenever they felt like it to spy on her.
Having recently moved from the big bad city, living in rural southern nowhere was certainly a change of pace, one she was having a hard time adapting to. But she was sick to death of trying to make ends meet on a minimum wage salary. Her new apartment may be ugly, but it was twice the size of the one she’d had in the city and she didn’t have to worry about being shot on her walk home from work anymore.
She’d been raised in the modern world where cable TV and Redbox rentals reigned supreme, so she still couldn’t believe that such an archaic business model had survived. It wasn’t exactly her dream job, but they’d had a “We’re Hiring” sign in the window when she’d first pulled into town and that had been enough for her.
“Anything is better than flipping burgers!” she reminded herself vehemently.
Jessica flipped the deadbolt to the side and dimmed the lights in the store. Her thick long blonde hair weighed a ton, especially since she was dripping sweat by this point. She pulled a hair tie from her pocket and wrapped it up high in a messy bun. Her neck felt instantly cooler even if the rest of her didn’t.
She could still feel rivulets of sweat dripping down her back and she grimaced in distaste, pulling the uncomfortable polyester garment away from her trim little body. The owners were cheap and had a timer programmed so that the air shut off a full hour before close each night. This meant that by the time Jessica finished closing out her register and cleaning up she was soaked with perspiration.
“Gotta love the summer heat of the deep south,” Jessica muttered. She briefly contemplated stripping down to her lacy black bra and thong, but with her luck the owners would show up for a surprise visit. And then she wouldn’t be able to afford to keep her crappy window air conditioner running in her apartment.
She walked back to her register, hips swaying saucily like the runway models on her favorite reality show. Too bad she was far too short to ever be a model. High heels can only help so much when you’re only five foot two inches tall. The old model cash register dinged as she opened it. Her employers were so cheap that she’d been forced to bring her own pen and paper. She wasn’t supposed to have her phone out when she was working, but she pulled it out now to use the calculator.
When she’d finished closing out her register she sealed up the money bag with her receipt inside. Not for the first time she grumbled about how little they were paying her. “One day I’ll own my own store,” she promised herself.
The door rattled and she looked up startled. She figured it was probably just her boss coming to make sure she’d scrubbed the toilet just so, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness. She was a city girl, so her first instinct was to run and hide, but that’s the type of thing that will get you laughed at in the country so she stayed put. Seconds later when the rock came crashing through the glass doors she wished she’d adhered to her city girl impulses. They might have kept her alive.
She turned to bolt, but she was too late. They’d already seen her. Of course it would have to be the Schmidt boys. The three brothers ranged from early to late thirties. They were all tall and had fought to retain the muscled bodies of their football glory days. She could tell they were drunk even before she smelled the beer fumes rolling off of them.
It wasn’t that she really cared about her employers getting stiffed, but something made her tuck her hand behind her back. Her fingers gripped the money bag nervously, hoping they wouldn’t notice, wondering why she’d even bothered. From what she’d seen in life, standing up for oneself was ill advised. Heroics got people killed.
“OOOOOOH EYYYY! What have we here?” Ethan Schmidt hollered drunkenly.
His drunken leer made her wonder what aspects of her body he could possibly be appreciating given the unflattering polo shirt and khaki pants she was wearing. She’d never been more grateful for the unbecoming dress code than she was in that moment. She began slowly shuffling backwards towards the rear exit, hoping they wouldn’t notice, trying not to make any obvious movements.
“I don’t want any trouble,” she said softly with her head down, inching another foot back.
“I don’t want any trouble!” Leroy Schmidt mocked in a high pitched falsetto impression.
She knew better than to talk back. These boys were looking for a fight. She only wished they’d gone somewhere else to find it. There were only two police officers in the small rural town, and they weren’t exactly keeping themselves in prime physical condition. She wasn’t going to hold her breath that they’d miraculously patrol by, guns blazing, and save her. From what she’d seen they didn’t leave the office unless someone called them to get a cat out of a tree.
Nathan was the oldest Schmidt boy and he still hadn’t spoken yet, but he was the one that made her the most uneasy. When she’d first met him she’d instantly sensed there was something wrong with him… as if he liked to torture small animals in the woods and belonged on the set of Criminal Minds or something. He gave her the major creeps and obviously her radar hadn’t been wrong.
“Where you goin’ Goldilocks?” Leroy taunted. He strode forward, closing the gap between them.
“Listen, my shift is over. So why don’t I just go and you guys have fun with the store?” she offered helpfully. Riling these boys up further was the last thing she wanted to do.
“But who we gonna play with if you leave?” Leroy asked.
“Pretty Bird,” Ethan chimed in as he moved to block her way to the rear exit.
Jessica started shaking when Nathan slipped behind the counter and opened the register. He wasn’t impressed by the fifty bucks in small bills she’d left behind in order to make change when she opened in the morning.
Nathan didn’t speak, just dumped the measly pile of bills on the counter. Then he savagely ripped the plug from the wall and hurled the register angrily at the popcorn display to her right. Jessica screamed hysterically as she dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding being clocked by the heavy machine.
Leroy guffawed loudly, clapping his hands and stamping his feet like the rodeo was in town. It didn’t matter that there was literally sweat dripping down her back, Jessica instantly felt cold deep in the marrow of her being. Had she really left the crime-filled city to die in the realm of supposedly safer small town living?
Her hand reached for the pocket she kept her cell phone in, but it was empty. Her heart thudded erratically in her chest. She’d left her phone on the counter. There would be no calling for help, and odds were she was about to be murdered, or worse.
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