Free Bite Me by Lana Amore

 
    It
was yet another late night at work, a day of miserable frustrations
with her clients only to be topped off with a coffee spill on her
skirt and Mariah Wiles was exhausted. It was almost ten o’clock in
the evening when she found herself staring in the bathroom mirror
blowing away a stray lock of light auburn hair, no longer
well-combed and professionally polished. Her meticulously applied
eyeliner had smudged sometime over the past twelve hours leaving
her blue eyes circled with grayish, uneven rings underneath.
    I’m certainly a sight to
behold, Mariah thought wryly. Grabbing her purse, she headed out to
the lobby, waving goodbye to the few stalwart co-workers left,
running into Greg Harrison in front of the elevator bank.
    Greg was their premiere IT
guy, smart and really cute, with shaggy brown hair, bright green
eyes and a geeky smile that made Mariah warm inside every time she
saw it. They’d flirted on and off since Day One, but nothing ever
came of it as their schedules refused to coincide. He never could
make it to the department’s end-of-month celebration parties and
she was too busy the other ninety percent of the time to make room
for regular dates.
    It was too bad, but Mariah
supposed it was never meant to be and left it at that.
    Still, Greg showed no signs
of giving up. “Hey,” he said, trying hard to look like he hadn’t
been waiting by the elevators just to say goodnight to her. “You’re
leaving kind of late tonight.”
    She shrugged. “I wanted to
go at five but the Anderson account said otherwise. What are you
still doing here?”
    He seemed a little taken
aback by her question and Mariah had to hide a smile. He’d been
hanging around just for her and didn’t want to admit it. “Oh, you
know, um, servers and wires and stuff. By the way, do you want a
walk through the parking lot to your car? It’s kinda dark and scary
and I’ll be glad to head out there with you. If you want me to that
is.”
    “ That’s
really nice of you, Greg, but I’m fine.” The elevator doors slid
open and Mariah stepped inside, waving goodbye to him. “I’ll see
you tomorrow, okay?”
    Greg’s face fell, showing
his disappointment plainly. “Okay. See you.”
    The doors rolled shut and
Mariah felt a pang of regret. But she looked a mess, not to mention
was falling asleep on her aching feet, so she would have to chalk
up this latest near miss to yet another sign that she and Greg were
Not Meant To Be.
    Still thinking about Greg,
Mariah left the building and entered the parking lot, distracted.
She should have been looking around more carefully but she was
tired, wanting nothing more than to get into her car and go home to
crawl into bed, maybe to never come out again. She didn't see the
two men approaching her until they were blocking the driver's side
door.
    If she thought her day was
bad before, it was about to get a whole lot worse.
    Shit, she thought, fumbling
with numb fingers for her keys which had a small canister of pepper
spray attached, the one her mother insisted she carry but didn’t
even know how to use. Not that it mattered, Mariah never got that
far as one of the goons smacked the purse out of her hand and sent
it flying to the ground, its contents scattering.
    "Take it! You can have the
money," she cried, backing away, pointing frantically at the purse.
"Just take it and go!"
    One of the men showed her
an ugly smile, a combination of yellowing and missing teeth. "We
don't want your money, bitch. Come here, we want to 'talk' to
you."
    Mariah knew she should have
run at that moment but fear rooted her to the spot, paralysing her.
She felt one of the men bump up behind her, his fingers already
wandering over her breasts, pushing their way inside her blouse.
She screamed before his filthy hand covered her mouth, silencing
her. Struggling, she could feel herself being lifted and dragged
away, toward the bushes that lined the parking lot.
    I'm going to die, she
thought, panicking. They are