Finders Keepers (3 page)

“Why Pinstripe?” he asked.

Her curtain only blocked her view of her annoying neighbor.
 
From where she sat she could see the nurse’s station in front of her.
 
Ignoring the creep, she checked out the boy who’d just sauntered up to the desk.
 
He leaned way over the counter, showing off lean muscles under a tight black t-shirt and snug jeans.
 
The first nurse laughed and pretended to shoo him away.
 
Under the fluorescent lights the boy’s skin looked slightly green.
 
He didn’t appear to be a patient but if he had the flu…Ellie backed up further against the bed.
 
She was busting out of here as soon as her mother showed back up.
 
If not sooner.

A cough next to her reminded her of her neighbor’s tiresome questions.
 
His name is Pinstripe because he has a white patch of feathers that starts from just above his right eye and ends at his neck.
 
Kinda
makes him look like he’s wearing a racing helmet
.
 

Ellie said, “He looks good in Armani.”

 
The boy flirted with the nurses, which was sort of disgusting considering one was at least three times his age, but successfully earned himself an invite into the inside of their station.
 
Ellie really didn’t care to be caught watching him like a stalker, but he’d captivated the nurses’ attention to such a degree, that she didn’t think she had to worry about him looking over at her.
 
And he was the best looking thing she’d seen all day.
 
It felt fabulous to be distracted without chewing on thoughts of average velocity.
 
And it’d be something fun to text Taylor.
 

Crap.
 
Her cell phone.
 
It was lost somewhere on Main.
 
And knowing my luck, the
firetruck
probably ran over it.

 
“That boy looks kind of odd, doesn’t he?”
 
Her neighbor broke into her thoughts.
 
“His color is off.
 
And the hot pink
iphone
he’s carrying around demolishes all manliness.
 
See him?
 
He’s over by the desk.”

The knuckles on Ellie’s hand turned white, and a fresh, wet stain spread through the gauze on her other arm.
 
That’s how hard she was digging her fingers into her own skin.
 
The boy looked up showing off blue eyes which were as close to turquoise as a robin’s egg.
 
They caught the light and flashed.
 

It must have shown in her face because immediately his cool control which had been so skillful in flirt mode vanished.
 
He jumped onto the lower portion of the nurse’s desk and then leaped over the upper partition.
 
Ellie didn’t think.
 
She threw herself over the rail of the bed bringing the blood pressure machine crashing down on top of her.

A gloved hand reached out for her from under the curtain and she took it.
 
The hand pulled and she slid across the floor and bumped into another bed.
 
He reached down, hauled her to her feet, and they ran hand in hand for the exit.
 

“Ellie!” the boy yelled after her.

The urgency and the fear, and what else…his voice?
 
It was so familiar she hesitated.
 
But the force on her arm whipped her head back around and she continued her headlong sprint toward the emergency exit.
 
Bouldering his shoulder her neighbor didn’t even slow down when they got to the door.
 
He exploded through it and yanked Ellie along after.

They dashed through the puddles.
 
By the time they reached the parking lot her jeans were soaked up to her knees as was what was left of the hem of her dress.
 
Her companion slowed and then stopped.
 
Ellie slapped her hands on her knees and dropped her head.
 
Her throat burned.
 
The muscles in her legs wobbled like
jell-O
.
 
That same arm that rescued her earlier steadied her now.
 

“Come on.
 
He’s right behind us.”

“What about my mom?”

“He’s not after your mom.
 
Hurry up or I’ll leave you out here.
 
I’m not waiting around for a sociopath.”

Now she realized why he’d stopped at all.
 
He stood next to a shiny, red and black demon.
 

Noticing her stare he said, “It’s a Suzuki
Hayabusa
.”
 
He swung his leg over the street bike and then picked up a matching helmet.
 
“You coming?”

Ellie crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her bare shoulders.
 
The rock in her throat was back and it seemed to have returned with a friend, which now sat solidly at the bottom of her stomach.
 
“My father would kill me.”

He lowered the helmet and scowled at her.
 
Had she ever really gotten a good look at him?
 
In the light of the hospital lampposts, wicked shadows danced across the boy’s features.
 
He had all the makings of an incredibly gorgeous piece of eye-candy, but when he glared at her, the play of light and dark made him appear to be half-demon himself.
 
Especially since she couldn’t see his eyes under his silver shades.
 
An icy chill, like a wet paintbrush stroked Ellie’s exposed back and she almost turned around.
 
Almost.
 

The engine snarled to life.
 
Without trying to imagine the look on her dad’s face when he found out, she grabbed the helmet and shoved it onto her head.
 
The boy helped her up behind him, pulling her hands tightly around his waist.

He didn’t have to tell her to hang on.

***

           
The playground equipment was barely visible in the midst of all the large oak trees and under a clouded, moonless sky.
 
It took Ellie a full minute before she recognized that they were at a secluded city park northeast of town.
 
After sliding rather ungracefully off the bike and removing her helmet, she wobbled on unsteady legs.
 
A thousand bees buzzed inside of her calves and thighs.
 

           
“I need to get home.”
 
A slimy, oozing sensation puddled inside of her stomach.
 
The park was completely abandoned.

           
“I’ll take you home.
 
Let’s just make sure he’s not following us first.”

           
Ellie eyed the boy in his black leather pants and jacket.
 
He was still wearing his sunglasses…in the dark.
 
She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
 
“What about calling the police?
 
Or my mom?
 
I should let her know I am all right.”

           
He opened his gloved hands to reveal they held nothing.
 
“No phone.
 
Don’t you have one?”

           
Her phone.
 
What was it about her phone that pricked at the back of her subconscious?
 
He said the boy at the hospital had a hot pink
iphone
.
 
Not that they even made
iphones
hot pink.
 
It had to have been a bumper.
 
And her bumper just happened to be pink.
 
She’d watched the boy as closely as a stalker.
 
There was nothing else to do!
 
But not once did she see him with a phone.
 
No sign of a phone at all, not even poking out of his pocket.
 
It was the perfectly placed comment which had forced her into trusting her neighbor.
 
And now she was alone with him in a secluded park in the middle of the night.
 

           
She looked down at her wet, grimy clothes.
 
Her high tops which were once lime green were now soggy and gray.
 
“Do you know my name?”

           
“Eliza.”
 

Hello,
Eliiiza
.
 
The voice was the same.
 

Too late he realized his mistake.
 
He lunged for her.
 
The dull throbbing in her head swelled.
 
She put her hands in front of her, then thought better of it, turned, and fled.

           
The wet canvas tore into Ellie’s ankles.
 
She managed only two or three long strides before the blow hit the back of her knees and she collapsed into a heap like a
jointless
rag doll.
 
Digging her fingers into the wet earth, she pulled herself to her knees and ripped open the air with a scream.
 
Surprisingly, staying up late watching old horror flicks with her dad might actually have had some practical use.

           
He tackled her and she was thrust back down to the ground.
 

Or not.
 

Her face collided with the mud.
 
The wet grass filled her nostrils with the smell of fresh dirt.
 
Her head felt so heavy she barely managed to turn her face enough to where she could still breathe.
 
Gloved hands rolled her onto her back and pinned her arms to her sides.
 
She bucked and kicked but he straddled her stomach keeping her arms immobile between his knees.

           
Leaning over until his face nearly touched hers, he peered down at her—a smile playing at the corner of his lips.
 
The darkness was so thick she could barely make out his features.
 
His sharp teeth, though, seemed to need no light.
 
They sparkled silvery white all on their own.
 

           
“Now tell me the truth.
 
How long have you had the bird and what were you planning to do with him?”

           
The same feeling which prompted her to lie before, returned even stronger.
 
“What bird?”
 
She snapped her head up and cracked her skull into his face.
 
He yelped and pulled back.
 
Her head slammed back into the marshy ground producing an explosion of stars in front of her.
 

           
She screamed again.
 
Instant pressure around her neck cut the scream off.
 
Gurgling, Ellie struggled against the boy’s hard body.

           
“What the…” he said.

           
The pressure released on one side and she grasped at the small channel of air.

           
The leather-clad boy waved a hand wildly around his head and face against a flying black something that was dive-bombing his head.
 
A large black bird.
 
Its claws were out.
 
The third time it came around it went directly for his face.
 
The other hand slipped away from her neck and Ellie coughed and gasped.