AN: It's my goal to update once a week. Technically, on the west coast at least, I totally made that goal. For anybody bugged by how long the first chapter was, I'll always be too verbose for my own good, but most chapters will not be as long as the first one. Thanks so much for reading and replying. I really appreciate those who take the time to leave a word or two about what they enjoyed.
Oh, and for those who asked, I LOVED "Holiday Madness." ;p
Chapter Two
Debbie Wilson had been living in Southern California for over two years now, but she still couldn't get used to the monotonously beautiful weather. Seventy-five degrees and not a cloud in the sky, she slipped out of the driver's seat and handed the valet attendant her keys. Blinking against the sun despite her dark glasses, she made her way to the hostess stand of the elegant café. Only in Beverly Hills would a tiny restaurant with seating for less than forty people have valet service.
"Hi," Debbie greeted the predictably beautiful young blond behind the stand with a smile. "Colleen Sarkosian has a reservation. I'm with her, but I'm not sure if she's here yet."
The hostess ran her finger over the touch responsive screen of a computer system discreetly mounted within the wood podium. Smiling faintly, but with genuine warmth, she gestured. "Follow me."
The blond led the way inside and Debbie immediately removed her sunglasses so she could maneuver through the tightly packed tables without tripping over an errant chair. As her eyes adjusted to the significantly darker atmosphere, she noticed secluded booths lining the walls, invisible from the front entrance and she suspected the street as well. For the first time it occurred to her that her companion might be trying to keep their meeting a secret; an interesting, but unsettling idea.
Debbie Wilson and Colleen Sarkosian had only two things in common: their kids and the latter's husband Jeffery. A few weeks ago, those commonalities had combusted in a showdown of marriage shaking proportions when Debbie had ambushed Jeffery, Colleen, Liam and Annie by exposing the man's propensity toward infidelity. She hadn't heard from Colleen since that night at Mastro's and she hadn't expected to which made the phone call she'd received the night before all the more intriguing.
The hostess came to a halt beside the booth farthest from the sunny entrance and gestured toward the unoccupied seat facing the door. Colleen sat on the opposite side, half her face hidden behind oversized dark sunglasses.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" the blond inquired, placing a sheet of thick cream paper on the table. The menu which obviously changed daily was hand written in a cursive script reminding her of the long hours she spent in grade school perfecting her penmanship.
"Coffee, please," Debbie replied, noting the cup Colleen gripped tightly between both hands. With an ingratiating nod, the hostess took her leave and the two women were alone.
Clearing her throat, Colleen broke the ice before it had time to thicken. "Thank you so much for coming."
"You made it sound very important," Debbie replied formally as she tried to gage the other woman. The brunette mystified her on many levels. While she felt in no position to judge another woman's decisions concerning either marriage or child rearing – especially considering her pending divorce – she could not understand why Colleen stayed with Jeffery Sarkosian. The man not only took her utterly for granted, he had an embarrassingly immature grudge against his stepson. Debbie didn't doubt Liam's knack for challenging authority on a level that surpassed most seventeen year olds, but that in no way explained Jeffery's spiteful vendetta. "What can I help you with?"
"I want…I want to divorce Jeffery," Colleen confessed in a rush that led Debbie to believe she'd been mulling the phrase over for a long time.
"That's…good?" she tried, deciding at the last moment not to make assumptions.
"That's scary," the brunette clarified with a nervous smile. Clutching the coffee cup between both palms, she leaned over the table. "I was hoping you could help me."
Debbie's eyes widened. "Help you with what? I-I mean, what can I do?"
"I'm guessing you know that Liam caught Jeffery with another woman last winter," Colleen began. When Debbie nodded she dropped her gaze and continued. "I made him sign a new prenup with a clause stating in the event of infidelity on his part, I would get half of everything."
"Are you serious?" Debbie demanded, surprise overwhelming her decorum. The fact that Jeffery had so actively pursued her over the summer seemed all the more audacious.
Smiling grimly, Colleen nodded. "I may be a doormat, but I'm not a complete idiot. I thought even if Jeffery couldn't keep his promises to me, at least he'd never want to part with any of his precious fortune."
"That was an astounding bit of foresight," she pointed out. "With what happened at Mastro's, he's screwed."
"No, I underestimated him," she shook her head. "The clause doesn't define infidelity. Short of catching him in the act on video, his high priced attorneys would convince the judge there were no grounds for the case inside of minutes. I need proof."
"Proof?"
"Evidence that shows intent to cheat," she clarified. "If I could gather enough to support what we already know, I might have a case. Which is why I called you. Would you be willing to testify if came to that?"
Debbie didn't even pause to deliberate. "Of course."
"Oh, thank you," Colleen replied with a heavy sigh, relaxing for the first time since Debbie had arrived. "I wasn't sure if you would."
"Are you kidding?" Debbie raised a brow and paused while their waitress delivered her coffee. "Ambushing Jeffery was probably the most fun I've had in ages."
The other woman laughed. "I would never have the guts to do something like that."
"Oh, you'd be surprised," she mused, stirring in cream and sugar before taking a sip. Eyeing the other woman over the brim, she couldn't help indulging her curiosity. "What happens if you can't get proof? Will you divorce him anyway?"
Colleen was silent for a moment. "You think I should, don't you."
"I would," Debbie nodded. "But you're not me. One thing I've learned this summer from all the unsolicited advice I've received from well meaning friends is that no two divorces are alike."
Removing her sunglasses, Colleen stared pensively out the floor to ceiling plate glass windows. Even at ten in the morning heavy traffic negotiated the intersection. "I can divorce Jeffery any time I want…if I can swallow the idea of making it in Beverly Hills completely destitute. Maybe if it were just me, I'd do it. Or maybe I'd stay and just pretend everything was fine. But Liam makes both of those things impossible without ironclad evidence of infidelity."
"Let me guess. Liam sees it black and white," Debbie smiled knowing full well how her daughter's boyfriend felt about his stepfather. "He's young enough to still be idealistic."
"About this anyway," Colleen admitted sadly. "Maybe he's right and it should be that simple. Lord knows he's begged me to do it more than once. He said he could quit school and get a job to take care of me."
Debbie dropped her gaze, her heart twisting painfully. "Liam's a good kid."
The brunette chuckled. "He is to me. I think you're the first person who's ever said that about my son and meant it."
"Well, he took a bullet for my daughter," Debbie shook her head at the memory and despite the anxiety it caused, an incredulous smile curved her lips. "That more or less permanently endeared him to me."
"She's been good for him," she acknowledged. "Annie's…not his usual type. He doesn't talk about it, so he thinks I don't notice, but I do. She balances him out, makes him work a little harder. I feel like I should thank you for letting him see her."
"Consider us even," Debbie assured her, thinking back with disgust to the previous year when Annie had been under Jasper's thrall. "I recognize Annie again and Liam's at least partially responsible."
"I wonder how the hearing is going," Colleen remarked, her icy blue eyes clouding with worry. Debbie felt a pang of guilt herself for not being there. Even if Annie had assured her she needed to do this alone. The brunette checked the time on her blackberry. "It must have started by now. I feel like I should be there even though Liam made me promise not to come. He said there was nothing I could do."
"Annie said the same thing," Debbie admitted dryly, picking up her menu and scanning the items for the first time. "I know she's upset about missing the first day of her senior year."
"School started today?"
Debbie laughed at the other woman's stricken expression. "I take it Liam doesn't think he's missing anything?"
"I'm going to kill him," Colleen shook her head and snatched the menu from the table. "At least I can be fairly confident he's actually going to show up the majority of the time this year."
"Why's that?"
"Annie's there," she replied, lifting a brow and glancing at Debbie over the top of the menu briefly before returning her attention to the limited, but freshly made choices. The assertion sunk in with a mix of pride and a strange apprehension she couldn't really quantify. She tried to be a 'cool' mother, remembering as best she could how it felt to be seventeen, but she couldn't ignore how close Annie and Liam had become in such a short period of time. In her mind, her daughter was far too young to be so serious about a guy. More terrifying still was the fact that in just a few years, Annie would be the same age she was when she married Harry.
Luckily for Debbie's sanity, the waitress arrived at that moment to take their order and she had to focus her energy on making a decision about her meal. She had to get Annie out of high school in one piece long before she needed to worry about a wedding.
In a small room just off the courtroom where Annie was currently delivering her testimony, Liam, Silver and Teddy waited silently. Jasper's attorneys had successfully convinced the judge to keep the courtroom clear of any unnecessary persons, which apparently included the witnesses. One by one, starting with Silver, they had filed into the hall of justice, Annie going last. The bailiffs shuffled them around so fast Liam hadn't been able to do more than catch her hand as they passed each other in the doorway. If the cold, clammy skin and the wide eyes of a deer caught in a headlight were any indication, the wait hadn't done anything to calm her nerves.
For twenty minutes, he'd managed to sit still on the hard wooden bench, half listening to Silver and Teddy's conversation, offering monosyllabic answers when pressed for comment. As time passed, however, and Annie surpassed his record for time spent on the stand, Liam grew more agitated. Having loosened his tie the second he returned to the tiny closet of a room, he now yanked it over his head and shoved it into his jacket pocket. Scowling, he cursed through clenched teeth. "This is bullshit."
"What is?" Teddy asked, both he and Silver regarding him with surprise over his sudden break of silence.
"Annie should be done by now," he said, staring at the door as if he could somehow see through it, across the hallway and through the wall into the unexpectedly small courtroom. "None of us were in there this long."
"She's got a lot to say," Silver pointed out. "We only had the Pier. She had what…nine months with the guy?"
"Yeah, don't remind me," Liam muttered, sliding his icy gaze toward the girl.
"I just mean that they have a lot more ground to cover with her. Which is good, right? I mean, the more she can show everybody what a psychopath Jasper is, the longer he gets sent away," Silver looked to both boys for confirmation.
"Makes sense to me," Teddy replied with a nod, but Liam scoffed and rose angrily to his feet.
"What makes sense and what is are two totally different things," he declared darkly.
Up to then, Silver had been patient with Liam. They were all stressed and on edge, but her patience was wearing thin. "Meaning?"
"A guy like Jasper doesn't make it to seventeen with no record unless he knows a few tricks," he explained. "Annie knew that. It's why she…why she let him blackmail her instead of turning him in. If there's a way for him to get out of this, he'll use it."
"But he confessed-."
"I know," he ground out through clenched teeth. Hours ago he'd offered Annie the same pathetic logic knowing full well it was a crock, but what else could he do? When she looked at him with those wide brown eyes, utterly lost and desperate, he wanted to promise her anything to make it better. Although she'd tried to hide it, he knew she was terrified of testifying against Jasper even before she admitted it to him. The fear didn't stem solely from the notion of being in the same room with the bastard for the first time since he'd nearly killed her either. Revealing everything Jasper had done meant opening up the door to memories Annie had spent the past few months working hard to forget. Memories that brought her back to a time and a person of which she wasn't proud, a person she never wanted to be again. While Liam rarely wasted time with regrets, he'd made enough mistakes to have a few even his remarkable capabilities of repression couldn't overcome. He hated that Annie was in that courtroom right now, forced to confess who knew what and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.
Suddenly, the walls of the already tiny room seemed to constrict and he knew he couldn't sit in there one moment longer without punching something or someone.
"Where are you going?" Silver cried, when Liam wrenched the door open.
"For a walk. I need some air."
"But…you can't. We're supposed to wait in here."
"For what, Silver?" he asked incredulously. "We gave our testimony. No one will even notice I'm gone."
"But-."
"And if they do," he reached into his pocket and produced his cell. "Text me."
With those parting words, he strode out into the hallway. The door closed on Silver's unintelligible but clearly angry objections to his departure, but Liam didn't care. Already he felt better. Still annoyingly helpless, but a definite step up from completely useless.
Liam retraced the path they'd traveled to the witness room and emerged in the bustling hall that connected the courtrooms. Almost another waiting room, wooden benches lined the walls, blending in with the floor to ceiling wood paneling. Doors to other courtrooms were interspersed throughout. At the far end of the hall, the exit to the main lobby was securely closed. A bored guard sat uncomfortably on a stool next to the metal detector framing the only way in or out.
"So much for that walk," Liam sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and wandering toward the edge of the hall, claiming a space next to one of the benches where he had the best view. As much as he wanted to be anywhere else, exiting the security checkpoint seemed a little too extreme. He promised Annie she wouldn't have to face Jasper alone and he planned to keep it as best he could.
The lobby door opened with a metallic clang that disturbed the library like hush. Several lawyer types proceeded through the scanner, breaking off into groups of two or three as they progressed to their respective courtrooms. Next a few who were clearly witnesses or spectators judging by the way they gaped at the metal detector and the imposing architecture stumbled in with far less confidence. They scampered after their attorneys and smoothed seldom worn suits and skirts uncomfortably. Liam sympathized. Avoiding ties was almost motivation on its own to stay on the straight and narrow.
Thinking the procession over, he reached for his cell phone for something to do when the door opened one more time. A first cursory glance became a wary double take when he recognized the kid being escorted through in handcuffs. Frowning, he searched his memory only mildly surprised when he made the connection. Lucas Garrity, a street racer he'd beat a handful of times when he first arrived in California a year and a half ago. Not a friend, but not someone he'd pissed off or picked a fight with either, which was a rather short list.
The guard escorted Lucas past Liam to a wall bench just a few feet away. With a curt nod he ordered. "Sit."
"Yessir," Lucas rolled his eyes and slouched into the seat, the ill-fitting dark grey suit contrasting harshly with his multi-hued blond hair.
Liam studied him silently, debating whether or not to strike up a conversation. He hadn't seen anybody connected to that part of his past in over a year and small talk was definitely not his style. The guard stepped across the hall to confer with a coworker and Lucas cursed him under his breath and shifted, trying to get comfortable with his hands secured tightly behind his back. When he looked Liam's way, he noticed him for the first time and gaped. "Son of a bitch. Liam Court, right? Man, I always knew you'd end up in a place like this."
Liam smirked as the other boy took the decision out of his hands and dragged him into conversation. "Yeah, but I'm not the one in cuffs this time, Lucas. I'd ask how it's going but, uh…what'd you do?"
"Come on, now," he tilted his head and grinned. "You know with me, the better question is what didn't I do?"
"Yeah, yeah, you're hardcore," Liam rolled his eyes. "Seriously, man. What?"
"Oh, a little reckless endangerment, speeding…The usual."
"And they've got you in cuffs for that?" he scoffed.
"Did I mention it's my third strike and I had an open bottle in the front seat of a stolen car?" Lucas asked, the grin never leaving his face.
Liam closed his eyes and shook his head. There was risk taking and then there was just plain stupidity. "You're an idiot."
"Yeah, but it was a sweet car," Lucas replied, leaning his head back against the wall and staring dreamily at the ceiling. "1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Black, badass and perfect. Classic American muscle."
Liam opened his mouth to retort, but shook his head and expelled a heavy sigh. Lucas was one of the few racers with an appreciation for muscle over foreign. For a '67 Cutlass in prime condition, he might contemplate theft…and a whole lot of other things he'd supposedly given up long ago. "I hope that keeps you warm at night when they throw your ass in juvie."
"Oh, no my friend," Lucas shook his head and craned his neck toward Liam. The sarcastic grin still lingered on his lips, but there was fear behind his eyes. "I turned eighteen last summer. I'm getting myself a one way ticket to Chino, man."
For the second time in five minutes, Liam was stunned. Plenty of adults had thrown the word jail in his face, but as a minor he'd never thought of it as more than an idle threat. "Wow. Dude, I'm…I'm sorry."
"Yeah, me too. The piece of shit attorney my dad hired might grow a brain and get me a country club stint and rehab, but I'm not holding my breath. Dear old dad is in the mood to teach his fuck up son a lesson," Lucas sighed. Silence prevailed for a moment before the handcuffed boy abruptly inquired. "What'd they get you for?"
"Nothing," he replied with a smirk. "I'm on their side today."
"No shit!" Lucas outright laughed. "Liam Court on the right side of the law. I'd heard the rumors, but I would have sworn it wasn't true. What happened?"
"Ah…my girlfriend's ex is a little insane," he said, choosing his words carefully. "And trigger happy. He tried to kill her. And me. He got pretty close. I testified at his sentencing today."
"Trigger happy?" Lucas's eyes widened and Liam caught an unmistakable flash of excitement. "You mean he shot you?"
"Yeah. Not something I'd recommend," Liam quipped, remembering vividly the searing pain that had ripped through his side that night under the Pier. He'd been in countless fights, received plethora of cuts and bruises, and broken bones, but none of that even came close to what it felt like being shot at close range.
Lucas was staring at him with unexpected admiration that made Liam uncomfortable. Whistling low, he shook his head.
"What?" Liam asked warily.
"Gunned down by your girlfriend's crazy ex," he marveled and then laughed loudly, earning him a few glares from those around them. "I am oddly not surprised. The way you burned through the girls at the races I guess it's no shock you pissed off a boyfriend or two."
"Ex-boyfriend," Liam reminded him, emphasizing the 'ex' part. "And…whatever, man. You were hardly Mr. Monogamous."
"Dude, I had nothing on you," Lucas insisted, still grinning. "You know, Vanessa still talks about you."
"Vanessa?" he repeated with heavy disgust, so surprised to hear the girl's name. "I haven't thought about her since…"
"The morning after?" Lucas suggested, raising his brows suggestively.
The other boy had a point, but before Liam could fire back a retort, Lucas's errant guard returned and snapped his fingers. "You're up, Garrity."
"Time to face the executioner," Lucas sighed, rising with some difficulty to his feet given his hands still trapped behind his back. He lifted his chin in Liam's direction. "Nice to see you, man."
"Good luck," he nodded, watching the pair disappear into the courtroom next to Jasper's hearing. The surreal moment lingered long after. Memories of his street racing days that hadn't surfaced in almost a year came to the forefront of his mind. Considering what Lucas was facing, Liam had a rare instance of being grateful that Jeffery shipped him off to the wilderness. The thought made him a little nauseous.
During his musings, he'd wandered down the hall, coming to a stop in front of the solid doors behind which Jasper's hearing was presumably still in session. Talking to Lucas had distracted him, but now his impatience returned with a vengeance. Liam wanted to be out of the courthouse and put as much mileage between Annie and Jasper as possible. He didn't care where, so long as it made her forget what she'd had to face today.
He was just about to return to the witness room, when he heard movement from the other side of the door. Standing aside, he held his breath as a bailiff opened the double doors. Jasper and his attorneys were the first to exit. The boy who only weeks ago had tried to kill him barely gave him a parting glance as he was led away. Liam tried to gage how Annie's testimony had gone, but the defense attorney's faces were masks. The prosecutors followed closely thereafter their expressions decidedly hopeful.
But Liam only had eyes for the slight figure bringing up the rear. Annie's head was bowed, her hands clasped before her. He felt a flash of dread as he reached for her, saying a silent prayer that she was okay. "Annie."
She jumped a bit at his touch, but when her head lifted, the smile that greeted him was bright. "Hey," she melted into him without hesitation and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The tension and nervous energy that had been radiating from her in palpable waves before the hearing was gone and finally something in Liam's chest loosened as he held her.
"How'd it go?" he asked immediately when she pulled away.
"Great," she asserted without hesitation, eyes aglow with satisfaction and relief. "Awesome, actually. So much better than I'd hoped. What are you doing out here? I thought you were waiting with Teddy and Silver in the witness room."
"I got bored," he shrugged. "And Silver wouldn't shut up."
"What a jerk," Annie scowled in mock reproach. Liam brought a hand to her face, tipping her chin so she had no choice but to look him in the eye. He spent a few moments studying her for any sign of lingering stress.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked, the pad of his thumb skirting the corner of her mouth. Annie already considered this her personal burden to bear, but he couldn't let her carry it alone. "Jasper didn't try anything, did he?"
"Liam, there were armed guards," she reminded him. Leaning into his touch, her lashes briefly fluttered shut before she lifted her gaze to his again. "But yes. I'm sure. The judge listened and…Jasper couldn't look at me. I think that was the best part. I don't know if he was ashamed or angry or what, but I know I got to him. I won. Now I can finally put it all behind me, put it behind us."
Liam puzzled over the way Annie always linked their relationship to Jasper, the way she seemed to think that until her ex was completely out of the picture they'd be stuck in some kind of limbo. But since he'd had enough of Jasper Herman to last him a lifetime all rolled into one day, he changed the subject. "What about the sentence? What did the judge say?"
"Nothing. He's going to deliberate over lunch," she explained a little petulantly. "The hearing will resume in a couple hours."
Liam managed to stifle a groan and instead tried not to sound completely transparent when he asked. "Are…we staying?
"You're off the hook. We've all been excused," Annie answered with a knowing grin. "The prosecutors promised they'd let me know as soon as the sentence is handed down."
Liam breathed a sigh of relief and took her hand. "Then let's get the hell out of here."
"Gladly," Annie's bright smile returned, but she stopped him short when he moved toward the exit. "Why don't you make sure Teddy and Silver know they can come out? I'm just going to go to the ladies room."
Liam sighed automatically at the thought of all the questions Silver would assault him with the second he opened the door. "Sure, why not? I haven't been interrogated enough today," he said dryly, starting down the small hallway to the witness room.
"Liam, wait," Annie followed him through the threshold into the empty space. Rising on her toes to frame his face, she pressed her lips to his. Eyes widening briefly with surprise, he happily returned the kiss.
"What was that for?" he asked a breathless moment later.
Annie shrugged as she backed away, discreetly licking her lips. Brown eyes flashing with mischief, she grinned. "To thank you for being amazing. And because I can."
Turning on her heel, she disappeared before he could form a response. An idiotic grin curved his lips and he made his way down the hallway slowly. Silver would pounce on him and never let him hear the end of it if she saw him so happy. But he was, actually, for the first time in a long time. His mother had kicked Jeffery out and while she hadn't filed for divorce there was talk of it this time. A huge step up from the last time his stepfather had been caught cheating. Annie was finally getting the closure she needed with her ex and he'd soon be out of their lives. Last, but certainly not least, he actually wasn't in trouble with anybody, for anything.
The realization made him pause and if he hadn't been in such a good mood he might have allowed a small niggle of doubt to ruin the day. Instead, he brushed aside the vague feeling of foreboding and refused to consider what new catastrophe was lurking on the horizon.
The Beverly Hills Court House wasn't the type of place one expected to get lost, but much to Annie's chagrin that's exactly what she was. A harried looking court reporter had rattled off directions to the nearest restroom and apparently she hadn't paid close enough attention. Although she thought she'd followed made each turn exactly, the hallway she faced was lined on both sides with identical, nondescript wooden doors. No signs or plaques set any one of them apart as her destination. She pulled her lip between her teeth and debated retracing her steps.
As she stood there, alone in the eerily silent hallway, curiosity slowly got the better of her. The doors lining either side were actually identical and evenly spaced along the shiny marble floor. Too small to be more courtrooms, Annie wondered if they were offices or conference rooms. Maybe someone within could point her in the right direction. She had to be close. There was no way she'd mistaken the court reporters directions so completely.
The first door she tried was locked. The second opened into a small, cramped room. The walls were lined with floor to ceiling shelves and every inch of space was crammed with thick legal volumes. The third and fourth rooms yielding similar results.
On a whim, she crossed to the opposite side of the hallway and tried the door without a second thought. The handle stuck for a moment, but turned easily enough, although it took all her strength to wrench the heavy door open far enough to peer within. The rooms on this side of the hallway were deeper and two of the built in shelves stopped at the base of tiny barred windows. The thick iron bars gave her pause and she took a step further into the room as she studied them. Weak sunlight filtered through the thick leaded glass, highlighting the dust motes that danced through the air. The shelves in this room were bare and as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she noted the scars and scratches in the wood. The room reeked of disuse and neglect. No one had been in there for a long time and something warned her she shouldn't be either.
"Have you come to gloat?"
Annie jumped at the unexpected query and the heavy door slipped from her grasp, closing with a solid thud. An instant later, recognition dawned and all the panic and fear that she'd triumphed over in the courtroom took her breath away in a swift one-two punch to the gut. She wanted to run. Every nerve screamed at her to lunge for the door and escape. Instead, she stood helpless as her gaze traveled slowly to the end of the room and met that of her ex-boyfriend. Her throat was too dry to swallow. "Jasper."
The room grew maddeningly quiet as he stared at her and Annie silently screamed at her disobedient body to run. The mental walls she'd built before the hearing were crumbling, weakened by the euphoria of stepping down from the witness box after the last question had been asked and answered. She wasn't prepared for this confrontation. She'd never win.
When he finally spoke, Annie was almost relieved for the distraction from her internal panic. Tipping his head toward her, he said. "You shouldn't have let that close."
Blinking, she frowned. "What?"
"The door," he clarified as if speaking to a small child. The wary expression morphed into amusement. "It's locked from the outside. Now you're just as trapped as I am."
The words shook her from the grips of paralysis. Panic, no longer just a vague concept, took hold and she lunged for the door. Uselessly, she twisted the handle and tugged, but of course it wouldn't so much as tremble in the frame. A disembodied thought nearly made her laugh. Only she could get herself locked in a room with the homicidal ex-boyfriend she'd just testified against.
Then, just as she decided unequivocally that her situation couldn't get any worse, the floor, the walls, the room, the entire building began to shake.