Chapter 137

There are four of them.

My brain registers this with a clinical detachment that lasts approximately two seconds before the fear moves in and makes itself completely at home. They materialize from the edges of the alley the way things do in nightmares, unhurried, spreading out as they come, and even in the dim light I can see enough to understand that these are not boys playing at something. These are men who have done this before and are comfortable with how it goes.

I stop walking. Running is not an option I'm evaluating yet because there are four points of entry and I came from the only clear one and it's already closing behind me. The heels I wore tonight because Jason said we were going somewhere nice are four inches of complete tactical disadvantage on wet pavement.

Think, Lucia. Think right now, think fast, think better than you've ever thought about anything.

"Nice night for a walk," one of them says, and his friends find this funnier than it is.