too dark and she was sitting at the other end of the bar, too far away for Paden to describe her in any more detail.
As he listened to Paden’s brief description of the woman, something in the back of his mind was bothering him but he couldn’t figure out what it was. All he knew was that something wasn’t right and he didn’t like the feeling one damn bit.
***
When Paden arrived at the radio station Monday morning, she was feeling rested and happy from being with CJ that weekend. The sex between them had been fantastic and she could still feel a little sting on her bottom from her spankings. She could hardly wait to be with him again. Although she loved the physical intimacy that they shared, she also truly adored the man himself. He was kind, honest, funny and he treated her with the utmost care and respect. She felt confident that he felt the same way about her, too. After finishing up her shift, Paden left the station, stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner, and got home feeling good about how well her day had gone. When she walked up to the front porch, she saw a wrapped box waiting for her on the doormat. She instantly thought of CJ and wondered what he had left for her. Smiling broadly, she unlocked the door, picked up the box, and walked into the kitchen, dumping everything on the counter. She was so excited to open the box she didn’t even take time to put her groceries in the refrigerator. Carefully undoing the wrapping paper, Paden reached for the lid of the cardboard box and yanked it off, curious about what was inside. If anyone had been outside of her house at that moment, they would have heard a death curdling scream.
What Paden saw when the top came off the box was a dead black rat lying inside with a folded piece of paper. She instantly dropped the box and just stood there , screaming and shaking. Unable to be in the same room with the vile, disgusting rat, she ran into the living room and immediately called CJ.
Hearing her hysterical crying, CJ didn’t even bother to ask her what was wrong. Instead, he instructed her not to move and that he would be right over. Jumping into his truck, CJ couldn’t imagine what was going on. He didn’t know if she was hurt or just petrified of something. He was incredibly worried and concerned and he couldn’t get to her house fast enough. Fortunately, they only lived ten minutes from each other.
Pulling into her driveway , he saw her shaking on the front porch. As he got out of his truck, she ran across the yard and threw herself into his arms.
“What’s happened , Paden?” CJ asked with fear and concern in his voice. “Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?”
Paden was so upset he couldn’t make out her words. Taking her hand, he pulled her into the house and watched as she pointed to the kitchen. CJ couldn’t even imagine what had upset her so much, but following her non-verbal request, he went into the room with his radar up. At first, everything looked fine and he couldn’t fathom what she was so upset about. Everything looked neat and orderly with only a couple of plastic grocery bags unopened on the counter.
As he walked further in to the room, looking along the countertop for what had her so agitated, he kicked something on the floor. When he looked down, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
***
After a minute or so of silence, Paden heard CJ say, “What the hell?” Another moment later, CJ walked back into the living room holding and reading a piece of paper. Paden had been so distraught seeing the dead rodent that she had forgotten all about the piece of paper that had been in the box.
Seeing a grim look on CJ’s face she became even more frightened. Their eyes held for a moment and then he silently handed her the paper. Paden knew deep down that whatever was written on that paper wasn’t going to be good. Eyeing it cautiously, she read, Stay away from my man, bitch. Or this could happen to you.
Eric Van Lustbader
Emily Stone
J. M. Erickson
P.G. Forte
L. A. Graf
Dave Duncan
Gertrude Chandler Warner
Stuart Mclean
Lei Xu
S.K. Derban