Keepers: A Timeless Novella by Laura Kreitzer Page A

and my stomach roiled. I wanted to punch her. Yes, many would
say hitting a woman was not something a man should ever do, but how
many of them had met Sara? She wasn’t a woman—she was a
monster.
    “ Joey,” Sara breathed,
relieved. She had no right to use that nickname. It had bothered me
before, but now I wanted to rip her tongue out so she could never
say it again.
    “ What are you doing, Sara?
This is madness.” I let my hands fall limply to my sides to show I
was no threat.
    “ They-they’re here to
arrest me, Joey, for burning down your house. You have to tell them
I didn’t do it. I’d never do anything that like,” she
whined.
    Trying to stay calm, I took
in a much-needed breath, exhaling it slowly. “Sara, I don’t know if
that’s true. There’s an eyewitness.”
    “ I didn’t burn your house
down,” she swore. When I didn’t respond, she became angry and
tightened her grip on the poor teenage girl. The hostage was blonde
and skinny, and her makeup ran in wet trails down her cheeks. “I
didn’t burn your house down!” Sara repeated, a growl entering her
voice. Was she possessed or something? Would her head start
spinning around while she vomited green stuff? Nothing would
surprise me at this point.
    I decided to give her an
inch to see if she’d cool down a bit. “Okay, you didn’t burn my
house down,” I agreed. Even I was impressed that I could say that
with a straight face. “But look around you. You’ve got this girl
held hostage for no reason.”
    Sara stared at me in
disbelief, as if she couldn’t comprehend why I didn’t understand
her motives. “They were going to take me in. I couldn’t have that,”
she confessed. “You’d think badly of me, Joey.”
    My fury simmered just below
the surface, and I was barely able to contain it. “And did you
think I would look highly on your for taking an innocent girl
hostage?” I wanted to shake her until all the nuts and bolts that’d
come loose tumbled out of her.
    Sara’s mouth hung open as
she grasped my logic. “I-I don’t know,” she admitted.
    “ Please, let the girl go.
She’s never done anything to you. You can come with me, and I’ll go
with you down to the FBI building so we can work this all out. I’m
sure you’ll be back home in no time,” I coaxed. “You know I love
you—I’d never lie about something this important.” I wanted to tear
my vocal chords out for telling Sara I loved her. “Come
on.”
    Before I could say another
word, Sara jerked her hostage back a few steps and steadied the
gun. I’d only ever seen someone highly trained hold a gun the way
she did—unwavering and so steady she might as well have propped it
up on an invisible barrier.
    “ No!” Sara shouted. “You’re
just trying to trick me. You’re just . . . you’re just . . . you’re
just trying to trick me. I just know it.” She repeated this over
and over and over, as if chanting it would calm her nerves. It
frayed mine.
    I knew trying to talk her
down this way wasn’t going to work, so I had to try an approach
that would make me sick to my stomach. But if it worked, Sara would
be locked up, and this poor girl could go home to her family and
friends. “Listen, Sara, sweetie”—I wanted to pull out my
tongue—“all of these officers are going to let you go,” I said
calmly.
    The pet name threw her off,
and she wavered for just a second before her resolve returned. “No
they aren’t! Do you think I’m an idiot?”
    Well, now that you mention
it, I’ve had my suspicions , I thought
dryly. Instead, I said, “Of course you’re not an idiot,
sweetie,”—gag—“but remember that I have an in with these people. If
I ask them to, you know, look the other way, we could get out of
here real quick.”
    She hesitated again, right
on the edge of deciding if I was full of it or not. “Really?” she
asked. “Where would we go?”
    Was she buying it? I made
my voice confident and sure. “I don’t know. We could go