Chapter 10

Sara saw David get out of the car and she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't felt this panicked and helpless in a long time, she didn't know what to do or how to get herself out of this mess.

She took the opportunity to check on Gil. He was bleeding from his temple, but it seemed to be shallow enough, although he was still unconscious. It had been a long time, so Sara undid her seat belt and climbed into the back to see if he was still breathing.

As she climbed into the backseat she caught sight of another car parked in the distance. It was quite a distance behind them and it had been parked under a tree so it was out of view, but she was sure that it looked like one of the CSI Tahoes.

She tried to get a better view when she was pulled roughly back by the leg.

"What the Hell are you doing?" David shouted at her.

"I was just checking if Gil was ok," she said more defiantly than she had expected.

"I told you your boyfriend is fine, and I don't remember giving you permission to move from the front seat", he said vehemently.

"I don't remember asking for permission", she replied scathingly, looking him square in the eyes.

David slapped her full force across the face with the back of his hand splitting her lip in the process.

"Jesus Sara, why do you continue to make everything so damn hard for yourself?" he said almost to himself in a quite psychotic whisper.

He stroked her face lovingly and wiped the blood from her lip saying "do you think I like this? Do you think I wanted our first date to be like this? I hate hurting you Sara, but you are just so damn obstinate, and you need to be shown who is in control."

Sara tried her best to fight back the tears that were burning her eyes. She couldn't believe that he had hit her, she hadn't seen that coming, and it frightened her that she had lost control of the situation.

"Are you going to be good from here on in Sara?" David asked her still stroking her face in an almost paternal way.

She nodded fervently.

"I hate that this bastard thinks he has control over me, but I better not piss off the psycho" she thought to herself forlornly.

"David," she began tentatively. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Well I have a few ideas up my sleeve, but firstly I will have to get rid of the competition", he said with a maniacal grin on his face.

He put her seat belt back on and said to her "don't get any ideas about moving" and then got out of the car.

Sara could feel the panic rising from the pit of her stomach, she had no idea what he was capable of, and didn't know what his next plan was. It didn't take long for her to find out.

She heard the back door opening and Gil falling out of the car on to the road. She tried to look behind her but she couldn't see with the seat belt, and decided that the best idea would be to stay where David told her and not to remove the belt a second time.

She prayed that David would leave Gil at the side of the road and return to the Tahoe without harming him further. That way when he eventually came to he would be able to get help. She pulled down the window and tried to crane her neck out to see what was going on. She saw David standing over Gil kicking him repeatedly in the ribs. Sara's panic turned to fury, and decided that she didn't care what happened she couldn't leave Gil be beaten up. As she undid her seat belt and opened the door she heard the gunshot.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo", Sara screamed.

David's head snapped around to see Sara getting out of the car. He grabbed her and pushed her into the car.

"I thought I told you to stay where you were", he shouted at her. "Can you not understand plain fucking English?" he roared.

"Why did you have to kill him?" she shouted back.

Her emotions had been brimming to the surface all evening, and when she saw Gil being shot, she knew she could no longer control them.

"You sick bastard", she screamed hysterically. "You didn't have to do that, you could have left him on the road, you have me, you have what you want, so why, why". She stopped mid sentence no longer to continue as the reality that she would never see Gil again hit her full force. She started to sob uncontrollably.

David looked at a spot on the windshield where a fly had been mashed to the window. He knew he would have to let her have her freak out if he was to achieve what he wanted the most.

He thought for a bit longer and then put his hand on her leg trying to console her.

"It's ok Sara, there, there, let it all out. It is best to get all your emotions out. You will need your strength and energy for later", he said soothingly.

Sara flinched when he touched her leg. She tried to relax and not look so disgusted as she thought this would probably enhance the craziness of the psycho sitting next to her.

"I'm better now", she lied unconvincingly. "I just got a shock that's all".

"That's expected", David said still stroking her thigh lovingly like a teenager at a disco.

After a few minutes of silence he said "I I didn't mean to shoot him you know." It was the first time his composure had slipped all evening. "I just get so damn angry and jealous sometimes, especially when I saw the way you were around him, the way you look at him. You would never look at me like that Sara, not when I worked in the lab, not when we went on cases together. Your face lit up when he was around. I wanted that so badly. Do you understand Sara?"

"No, I don't understand any of this fucking madness, and if you think I didn't look at you before you have even less chance now you freak", Sara thought viciously.

Instead she just nodded and forced a smile to her lips.

Her smile instantly gratified him and he leaned over and brushed the tears from her face.

"Maybe you will understand after all", he said trying to convince himself. "Oh Sara, now that he is out of the way I have you all to myself. It will be perfect. Now we can start our date properly", he said in a breezy manner.

"Please God make him kill me next", Sara thought sadly.