Come Get Me (10 page)

"It's ok, calm down," he said reassuring her.
"Like I said, I probably did look a little funny just standing
there and don’t worry about all the questions. This is your place.
If somebody was standing in my store staring off into space I think
I’d ask a few questions too. The way you acted was about the same
thing I probably would’ve done. Actually I probably would’ve done
worse."

"Well, be that as it may,” she said, the look
of concern returning to her face, “I'm still real sorry about your
friends’ death. I’m guessing it was Tommy you were talking about by
the way. It shouldn’t surprise me though that I see people I don’t
know. Tommy sure did seem to know a lot of people. It is all kinda
strange though. Nobody’s ever died like that around here from what
I’ve heard. Everybody’s real shook up about it. It’s sad how you
can be here one day and then gone the next."

"Yeah it really caught me off guard too. My
mom called and woke me up from this weird dream I was having. As
soon as I heard what she said I was right back out.” Seeing her
puzzled look, he continued. “I passed out right there in my room.
When I woke up I came right home as quick as I could. It was almost
like I was trying to get here so I didn’t miss my chance to say
goodbye to him or something. I hadn’t seen him in a long time. Now
I won’t ever again.” He was almost talking to himself towards the
end. Looking up he saw that Jill looked like she wanted to do more
than just stand there listening but wasn’t sure if she should. “I
guess it was about time for me to come back I just wish it hadn't
been for something like this," he finished with a bitter smile.

They stood quietly for a moment before Jim
spoke again and changed the subject. Trying to get on a happier
note he asked her a little bit about herself. Standing there
listening he couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. The way
the light shone on her hair, the way she moved her hands when she
spoke. Everything about her made him want to get to know her more
and more. He was so wrapped up in what she was doing that he almost
missed what she was saying. From what she told him she’d been there
for about two and a half to three years. She wasn’t sure since when
she’d got there, she mostly been running away from a bad marriage.
Her grandmother offered her a place to stay while she got things
sorted out. Lucky for Jim, she had eventually divorced and her
grandmother asked her to stay and help run the store. A few months
later Grandma announced she was retiring and letting Jill have the
place. Ever since then Jill had been here. She finished her story
and closed her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she had told him so
much.

Before she had a chance to think too much
about it and just before Jim opened his mouth to say something else
the front door slam open and a shout rang out that sent spike of
terror through his body and mad him break out in an instant
sweat.

"Put your hands in the air and don’t move!"
the yeller ordered.

Jill’s face looked as if it had turned to
ice. Her features were frozen in disbelief. Jim was similarly
frozen. Of all his luck to be in the store with the woman of his
dreams in a small town and have the damn place get robbed. He had
luck all right; too bad it was all bad.

Jim heard the door slam shut and listened to
the floor boards moaning as the intruder stomped his way towards
them. Looking to Jill for some sign of what to expect he saw that
she was still frozen by terror. Well if nothing else they would
both be robbed for the first time together. Not an ideal first
date. Hopefully he made it out alive so he could at least ask her
out on a real one. It surprised him he was still clear headed
enough to think about things like asking her out. Unfortunately
that seemed to be the only thing he could think about. He stood
there waiting to find out what would happen next. Surely the person
wouldn’t just shoot them; he must have demands of some sort. Heart
pounding in his chest, he felt someone move up and come to a stop
behind his back a lot closer than he would’ve liked. His stomach
tightening into a knot of dread he wanted nothing more than to spin
around and turn the tables on the would be robber but knew that if
he even tried he or Jill would probably be killed. He wished the
person would at least say something. His mind was raced through all
the possible scenarios he could think of that would get them out of
this situation. Unfortunately everything he came up with ended with
them both dead.

The person was still behind him. Jim took a
deep breath and tried to calm himself. He had to take stock of the
situation they were in. Trying to put everything else out of his
mind he thought about everything as calmly as he could. First, he’d
just met who he considered the girl of his dream. Next, just as
they were getting to know each other somebody decided they
absolutely had to rob the store they were in and unfortunately
there was nothing he could think of to do about it. Then the last
and maybe most important thing, he was pretty sure they were both
about to die. All in all he figured his day had gone from great to
shit in about five seconds. That was probably a new record for
him.

He was startled from his panicked thoughts
and almost pissed himself when he felt something poke him between
the shoulder blades. He wasn’t an expert about how thing that poke
you in the back feel but he was pretty sure the thing poking his
back was a gun. What else could it be? Nobody was going to rob the
place with a banana were they? As sure as he was he was, equally
sure he was just about to die. At least he hadn’t pissed himself a
few minutes ago and embarrassed himself in front of Jill. He didn’t
want her last thoughts of him to be his inability to control his
bladder. The assailant started breathing heavily in his ear causing
the hair to stand up on the back of his neck. Jim unfortunately
still had no idea of what to do.

"Put your hands on the counter," grated a
voice in his ear. Well, if nothing else he knew what to do. And he
quickly did it. Surprisingly the gun was immediately removed from
where it had been poking him. But what happened next was worse than
the gun had ever been. Hands began running up and down the sides of
his body. They weren’t gentle either. After a few seconds of being
searched they came to a rest on his hips. Visions of horny robbers
raping him in front of Jill ran rampant through his head. He
couldn’t allow that to happen! But the guy had a gun. If Jim tried
to stop him he would just pull it out and shoot him. Indecision
kept him immobile.

The robber seemed to be taking his time
exploring Jim’s waist. Hands moved from one side to the other as if
searching for a way in. Eventually they stumbled across the buckle
on Jim’s belt and started to work on that. Jim wanted to turn
around and scream in the guy’s face and ask him what his problem
was but the guy would most likely flip out if he did something like
that. Jim was tempted to do it anyways. Anything had to be better
than what was most likely going to happen if he did nothing at all.
Then a new thought entered his head. What if there were two of
them. True he’d only thought he’d heard one person enter but what
if the other guy was covering them while the first guy did his
thing? Then after he’d had his way with Jim they would switch. Jill
would have to watch the whole thing! Jim’s life was over. The gun
wasn’t in his back anymore but he actually wished it was. At least
then he wouldn’t be getting ready to be raped.

The one time he was present when a store got
robbed and the robber turned out to have a hard on for him. This
was really just not his day. The breathing near his ear was getting
faster. The freak must be getting excited. He heard the rapist
licking his lips with a wet slimy sound that made Jim’s skin crawl.
The hands were still wrestling with the belt but not for long. He
was surprised it hadn’t opened yet. It wasn’t like it was a safe or
something. Maybe the guy just wasn’t good with these types of
things. Good at robbing people, bad about opening other people’s
pants. It could happen. An intake of breath behind him signaled
that the assailant was about to say something. Jim expected to hear
a demand for him to take the belt off himself or for him to do
something much more vulgar but instead he heard a snicker. Not
understanding what he’d heard the next thing the thief said left no
doubt in his mind as to what was going on.

"Gotcha buddy boy!" laughed the voice behind
him. The person seemed to be having a hard time keeping himself
from laughing. After a few seconds with Jim only just now realizing
what had happened, a loud braying burst of laughter burst out
behind him. Jim couldn’t believe it. He looked at Jill to see her
reaction and found, instead of a look of horror like he’d expected,
a smile. The thought was now really sinking in that something
wasn’t quite right about this whole situation. Whoever it was
behind him obviously found this extremely funny since the laughter
continued and actually got a little louder.

Slowly turning around, half expecting to be
shot, he was surprised to see somebody dressed up as a police
officer bent over laughing so hard he was almost choking. The man
slowly started recovering, trying hard to repress new bouts of
laughter, and stood up. As he did Jim came face to face with the
last person he expected to see. Standing not three feet away with a
red, tear streaked face was his childhood friend Rob.

"Oh, you should have seen your face!" Rob
said still trying to hold in the laughter that was bubbling out of
him.

Jim wanted to be angry but he couldn’t do it.
He was too happy to see Rob for it to work. Instead he said the
only thing that came to mind. “Ha, ha real funny dickhead. Is this
the only reason you became a cop? So you could scare the shit out
of us little people?”

“Hell no!” he replied before the words were
even done coming out of Jim’s mouth, “That’s only a fringe benefit.
I also get free food at some of the restaurants once in a while. Oh
yeah and some of the tourists come up with some interesting thing
to get out of tickets if you know what I mean. If you only knew
some of the things I’ve seen,” he finished with a wink and a wicked
grin. Jim just looked at him for a minute not quite sure how
serious he was. Seeing his look just made Rob smile all the wider.
He wiggled his eyebrows to make Jim wonder a little more but all
that did was make him laugh. Shaking his head Jim turned his
attention back to Jill who seemed to have found something that just
absolutely had to be done right now behind the counter. Instead of
seeing her beautiful face he got quite an eyeful of her butt. And a
nice one it was if someone were to ask him. She was bending over
looking at something on the floor underneath the shelves of candy.
Jim was about to say something when Rob loudly cleared his throat.
Sensing something wasn’t quite right and not hearing any talking
Jill quickly spun around and caught Jim staring at the area where
her previously exposed backside had been. Having no other choice
but to admit he’d been caught Jim just smiled at her with red
cheeks.

“Like what you see?” she asked slyly.

“You could say that,” he fired right back
taking up the silent challenge.

That seemed to catch her off guard. He was
getting good at saying things that threw her off. It was her turn
to have red cheeks. Something else important must’ve needed her
attention since she quickly ducked back down behind the counter.
Sounds of things being moved around could be heard from the general
area.

“So I guess you came back cause of Tommy,
huh?” Rob said snagging Jim’s attention once Jill wasn’t in sight
to distract him.

“Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” Jim
sighed, “but, ya know, there’s a few other things I’m starting to
find interesting around here. The scenery wasn’t as nice around
here when I left. I was planning on leaving right after Tommy was
buried but I might end up sticking around a little longer just for
the view.” He knew he was acting like a high school kid but he
still hoped Jill was listening. He was pretty sure she was. It felt
a little awkward flirting with somebody when he was supposed to be
mourning but he didn’t think Tommy would mind. Hell, he would
probably have been encouraging him if he were there. Jim was pretty
sure Jill was at least a little interested but he wasn’t as
positive as he usually liked to be before asking someone out so he
figured dropping a few hints every now and then couldn’t hurt
anything. Jill stood up and gave him a queer look before her cheeks
started turning red again. She quickly turned and began looking
like she was taking an inventory of the candy on the shelves.

“Yeah,” Rob said picking up his line of
thought, “there sure are some pretty nice sights to see around
here. You gotta be careful of them though,” he continued with a
wink in Jim’s direction, “they can be pretty dangerous sometimes.
There’s all kinds of curves you gotta watch out for. Some of them
are sharp but some of them are smooth too. They can also be a
little snoopy too sometimes if you know what I mean. Didn’t used to
be a lot of stuff like that in this town, but just recently in the
last couple of years the scenery finally took a turn. I mean, not
that I’ve had a chance to appreciate it too much.”

“Yeah, when I left it pretty much sucked
around here,” Jim said starting up right where Rob left off, “but
from what I’ve seen since I’ve been back it’s changed quite a bit.
For the better if you ask me.”