She reached up and clawed at the arm squeezing around her neck.

"No, no, don't," he said, waving the gun. "You'll get hurt."

A sweat broke out, dampening her forehead, stinging her underarms. Her stomach churned, the coffee and donut she'd eaten earlier threatening to come back up. What on earth did he think he was going to do to her? Frantic thoughts ran through her mind. There was no way out except the front door. They had to go back into the store. There were other people there. They'd see them. He couldn't do anything in plain sight of other people.

Yes, he could, her nearly hysterical inner voice said.

Calm down, calm down, she chanted in her mind, her gaze bouncing wildly around.

Apparently, Sheldon had come to the same conclusion she had. Either he was going to drag her into the bathroom and rape and murder her, or he was going to have to go out through the store somehow. And Trey was out there.

Please, please, please, Trey, she silently begged him. Save my life...one more time.

Maybe he heard her.

There he was. She could just see him walking up to the counter, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket to pay for the gas. The attendant said something to him.

Sheldon saw him, too, and he turned and shoved her in front of him, back down the dingy hall. He pushed her into the men's room, and she almost stumbled and fell on the grimy floor. She put a hand out and it flattened on the tile wall, cool and smooth.

She turned, shaking, lungs taking in shallow breaths.

Sheldon slammed the door shut and locked it, then turned to her with the gun in his hand. It gleamed dully in the flickering fluorescent light.

Her body tight, she stared at him and blinked.

"What are you doing here, bitch?" he inquired conversationally. "Don't tell me you're looking for me." He grinned, and she almost vomited at the evil she saw. "Got you that hot for me, huh?"

He took two steps across the small room, and Marli moved, the porcelain of the urinal cold against her arm. She cringed.

Sheldon grabbed a handful of her hair and tugged. "You pissed me off that night, you know?"

She shook her head, closed her eyes. She could smell him...a mixture of stale body odor and mint chewing gum. She swallowed, her throat constricted. What had she done to piss him off?

"Yeah. You did. You laughed at me." He yanked on her hair and her head jerked back and cracked against the tile wall. She whimpered.

Then she sucked in a long breath, opened her eyes and glared at him. "Let go of me, asshole."

He laughed. "Oooh, scary. I knew you were a real ball-breaker."

"What do you think you're going to do now, Sheldon?" She fought to keep her voice steady. "You're trapped in here. Trey will come looking for me. He'll call the police." Please, Trey, please.

What if she never saw Trey again? She loved him, the big, stupid jerk. What if she never got to tell him what a special man he was...never got the chance to say goodbye? What if her last words to him were "I have to go to the bathroom"?

He turned his head away from her and nodded. "Yeah." He thought for a moment. "We have to get out of here. Come on."

He unlocked the door, poked his head into the hallway, then reached back and fastened his fingers around her wrist.

He pulled her out into the hall. Her gaze flew to the front of the store, where Trey was sliding his wallet into his back pocket. She tried again to scream and this time a louder noise came out. She kicked out and managed to hit Sheldon in the shin with her booted foot, causing him to curse loudly.

"Shit! You bitch!"

Trey looked up and the way his face changed so quickly to a look of shock and horror amazed Marli in some deep recess of her mind. She tried again to wrestle Sheldon's arm away from her, figuring if she was going to die anyway, she might as well go out fighting.

"Stop!" Sheldon commanded her harshly. He put the barrel of the gun against her temple and dragged her down the hall toward Trey. "Back off!" he shouted to Trey.

She'd seen Trey instinctively reach for his own gun, but he stopped himself, seeing the gun at Marli's head. He'd lost all color in his face and his eyes glittered darkly, his mouth pressed into a straight, grim line.

"Let her go," he told Sheldon. "You're done, Sheldon."

"Who the hell are you?" Sheldon asked. "You've been in my way for days now. I said, back off."

"I'm a cop," Trey said softly. "Don't shoot me, Sheldon. You'll be in even bigger trouble than you already are."

"I don't care anymore. You're right--I'm done."

Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit, was all Marli could think. She stopped struggling, the hard gun against her temple more terrifying than anything she'd ever experienced.

Chapter 19

Shit, shit, shit.

Marli's huge, terrified eyes pleaded with Trey, an arm wrapped around her throat, and a gun held to her head. It had to be Barnes, but he did look different. Wait. Suddenly, it clicked into place. Shit. What a fucking idiot he was.

After stopping completely when he first saw Marli, Trey's heart was now about to pound its way out of his mouth, galvanizing tension gripping him. He was acutely aware of everything around him--the frightened eyes of the young kid, the little grey-haired lady standing there holding a quart of milk, the cool draft from the fan in the ceiling above him. He heard the thin, scratchy music playing on the radio behind the counter. Then reflexes kicked in. His heart rate slowed. His senses, eyes and brain began to work in synchronicity as he called on every bit of training and every professional skill he'd ever learned.

A guy who didn't care if he lived or died was not going to negotiate. Sheldon had nothing to lose by killing.

Trey glanced at the kid behind the counter, who also looked wide-eyed and terrified. "Get down," Trey ordered him.

The kid dropped to the floor. One other customer stood in the small store.

"Sheldon, I'm telling this lady up here to leave. She doesn't need to be here. Okay?"

"No!" he shouted. "Nobody leaves!"

"Okay," Trey said calmly. "She's just going to go behind the counter here." He grabbed the small lady with grey hair and pushed her down with the kid. "Now let go of Marli, and you and I can talk."

"Fuck off! There's nothing to talk about."

"Sure there is." Trey kept his voice low and calm. "You don't want to die, do you?"

He watched Sheldon's face as he struggled to think, decide what to do.

"You just found your sons, Sheldon," Trey reminded him softly, taking his eyes off Sheldon only long enough to glance at Marli. She was shaking like a poplar in a windstorm, but she was holding herself together. "You don't want to die now. Just tell me what you want. I'm a cop. I can help you."

"Yeah, right. You're not going to help me."

"I can help get you what you want," Trey said patiently. "Just tell me what you want."

Sheldon said nothing, his breathing shallow and noisy.

"Do you want to run?"

"I'm done running."

"Yeah," Trey said. "I guess you're tired of running."

Again, Sheldon said nothing, but Trey knew he was listening, thinking. He'd planted the possibility of escape in Sheldon's mind and taken his mind off killing Marli.

"Let her go," Trey said. "And I'll let you walk out of here."

"I said, I'm tired of running!"

"But you have two boys to live for," Trey reminded him. "Don't you want to see your sons?"

"They don't even know me," Sheldon said. His hand with the gun in it was shaking a bit, making Trey nervous, but feeling like he was making progress. A trickle of sweat ran down his back. It would be okay. It had to be okay. If he fucked this up... God.

"That's hard, eh?" Trey said sympathetically. "But they'll be out of school in a few hours and you can finally see them. I bet you'll be proud of them."

"That whore Teresa should've told me she was pregnant," Sheldon snarled.

"Yeah, she should've." Trey paused. "I talked to your mom earlier. She's worried about you."

"I saw her on TV last night, telling me to turn myself in."

Trey was surprised. Maybe his visit had had some impact. "Are you thinking about doing that? It's what your mom wants."

Sheldon was silent, obviously struggling with his thoughts.

Confidence seeped into Trey. He could do this. Sheldon was losing his focus, and Trey just needed the opportunity and a distraction. He glanced around the store, then found Marli's eyes.

The sight of the terror there undid him, but she lifted her chin, firmed her lips, met his gaze. She was so fucking brave.

Then Trey saw something out of the corner of his eye. Through the window. A cop car had just pulled up outside. Did they know Sheldon was in here? Trey sucked in a breath, hoping they weren't going to fuck things up.

He focused on Sheldon, trying to watch the cops with his peripheral vision.

"She doesn't care about me," Sheldon said bitterly. "She never cared about me."

"Why do you say that?" Trey kept a wary eye on the cop car outside the building. No one was coming in, and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"She tried to kill me," he said. "So many times."

It looked like he had loosened his grip on Marli a little. She still looked terrified, but was taking everything in, staying calm. Trey moved a little closer to Sheldon.