Born To Protect

“Keep your boca shut,” a voice laced with an accent she couldn’t quite place whispered against her ear. But she remembered enough from high school Spanish class to know he’d mixed a Spanish word in with his English.

A scream welled up in her throat despite his warnings. Before she could let it out, a large hand covered her mouth.

The owner of the hand pulled her back against him like the intruder had done in all the nightmares she’d had. “We’re going to take a little drive together, princesa.”

Becca’s heart raced, nearly exploding in her chest, and she glanced around. There wasn’t a single person around to help. But if she could get to the second level and the bridge, there might be.

The man holding her took a step back. Immediately, Becca dropped her body into almost a squat like she’d been instructed in her women’s self-defense class. Supposedly the position made it harder for an attacker to move you around. She prayed it helped now, because she was on her own.

“Don’t make this hard and you won’t get hurt.” The creep tried to jerk her back upright.

Yeah right, buddy. Before he tried pulling her along with him again, she sank her teeth into his palm. When he jerked his hand away, she reached her free arm behind her and grabbed. Becca squeezed for all she was worth and slammed her heel into his shin.

“You bitch,” the creep snarled, gasping in pain.

For a brief moment, the arm around her body loosened and Becca bolted.

She didn’t look to see if anyone was following her. She didn’t have to. She could hear the creep’s heavy breathing and footsteps behind her.

Somehow she made it to the stairwell door without getting caught. Pushing it open, she ran down the metal steps, expecting that at any moment an arm would yank her off her feet and carry her back up.

Please don’t let me break anything. She jumped down the last three steps. Stumbling a little, she shoved her body against the door and half fell onto the other side.

Becca ignored the stares as she sprinted across the glass bridge connecting the garage to the hospital and hopefully to safety.

“Security.” Barely able to breathe, she leaned into the hospital’s reception desk. “I need,” she paused and tried to take in a decent breath, “security.” She gasped out the word again. “Someone attacked me.”

“You were attacked?” The hospital employee gave her a skeptical look, but she reached for the phone.

Taking a deep breath, Becca nodded. “In the garage. Please. I need security.” She looked over her shoulder. She hadn’t seen who grabbed her, but no one around her jumped out as the likely culprit.