Page 103 of Loverboy
“Maybe you should go back to bed,” I counter. “Your mom could come home any minute and find you up. She’ll yell at both of us.”
“She won’t yell,” Aaron argues. “Notthatmuch.” He starts up a Lego game.
And I let him. Because I’m a softie, and we are in the middle of a power outage.
A minute later, though, I hear a noise on the stairs. “Ginny?” I call, nudging Aaron playfully. “We’re up here. Both of us.”
But no voice calls out in greeting. I hear heavy footsteps on the stairs. And the hair stands up on the back of my neck. “Ginny?”
The heavy footsteps approach slowly. I grab the phone out of Aaron’s hands and fumble for the flashlight setting, then I shine it toward the stairway. A bald man appears there. Astranger. Fear freezes me in place. Because he’s pointing a gun at us.
“Put down that light,” the man says icily. “Do it now.”
I drop the phone onto the couch. Then I reach out and shove Aaron to the floor between the coffee table and the sofa. “G-get down.”
“Don’t move,” the man says. And we both freeze. “I won’t hurt you if you do exactly as I say.” He’s arrived at the top of the stairs. And my heart almost fails when I see there’s a second man behind him. They both advance slowly. “Whose laptop is that?” the bald man asks. “Your boyfriend’s?”
“Y-yes,” I stammer. “Take it.”
The second man slides forward and grabs it in gloved hands, tucking it into his jacket. He also grabs my phone off the sofa and pockets that.
“You have a land line?” the bald man asks.
“No.” I shake my head vigorously.
“Any other phones in the house? The kid have one?”
“No,” Aaron says from the floor. I put a hand on his small back, and I notice that we’re both shaking.
“Smart watch? Cellular tablet?”
“No. Nothing,” gasp.
“Good. Now stand up.” I pop up like a jack-in-the-box and do as he asks.
“Good work. Turn around. Hands behind your back. I need to restrain you.”
Panic sizzles through me. The idea of my hands tied up makes me want to vomit. But I will hold myself together for Aaron. Slowly, I move my arms. And then I remember the sound of Gunnar’s voice telling me what to do.Brace your fists end to end.
Quaking, I do it.
The other man advances, and I feel something like a plastic loop tighten around my wrists.
“Sit.” I’m maneuvered back onto the sofa. “Now, I want the kid on your lap.”
“Come here, sweetie,” I say to Aaron, and he wiggles immediately into place, huddling against me.
“Hold still,” says the man with the gun, while his silent friend approaches us with a roll of duct tape. “Hands together in front, kid.”
Please don’t put that on my mouth, I inwardly beg. I’m so afraid right now. I don’t know why that’s the one thing I don’t think I can bear. But somehow it is.
The man stretches out a long length of tape and then wraps it around Aaron’s skinny wrists. Then he tapes the two of us together, the tape circling us so many times—around our waists, and then our legs.
It’s probably been less than three minutes since they entered the apartment, but it feels like an eternity. I can smell his sweat and his breath and I have never been so scared.
I don’t say a word, though. I press my cheek against the back of Aaron’s head, and I silently ask for his patience.I’ll get us out of this buddy. I don’t know how, but I will.
Then it happens. The man takes another piece of tape and slaps it over my mouth, ear to ear.
